how reliable are SD cards?

[Kaido]

I recently picked up a 256mb Kingston SecureDigital memory card. Right now I'd like to use it as a data storage and transportation device. Exactly how reliable are these little memory cards? Mostly it will hold Microsoft Word document files as backup. Are these reliable enough to be used as backup? How often do they fail or corrupt data? I love the size, both physically and in megs, and it's the perfect device for this task, but I'm worried about reliability.

 

[Kaido]

bump

 

[vegetation]

Don't know about SD, but I've never had data failure with compact flash cards over the 5 years I've been using them. Many awful experiences with smartmedia though.

 

[buttwhacker]

SD is a very stable media, but all depends on what controller they use, never had any problems with a Toshiba controller.

You need to check the Kingston website what brand controller they use for SD cards or maybe e-mail them.

Simpletech SD cards use Toshiba controller, or at least they did a year back.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

I second the CompactFlash reliability. Been using a 128MB CF with a cheap Apacer CF USB reader with zero problem for over two years now.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I have to agree with vegetation and ming2020 on the CF issue, I've had my 256 MB CF card (SanDisk) for about 2 years now, first was my primary storage for my Axim X5, then when the Axim broke (which i also used a 128 MB Sandisk SD Card in day-2-day, very reliable) it became my backup/transfer storage, take it and a little USB adapter, and in PC class you can laugh at all the inferiors using 3.5"s, bwahahaha.

 

[Christobevii3]

Kingston is made by toshiba.

 

[Elcs]

Been using MMC which is similar to SD. No problems here and I believe that SD is the more advanced tech.

 

[boran]

as long as you dont use it extremely frequently (flash memory is only about 100.000 times rewritable) it's the most secure data storage there is, i'd even say that it beats CDR's in that department. just dont flex it (put it in yer trousers or wallet or something like that. flash memory will survive damn near anything.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: sheik124
I have to agree with vegetation and ming2020 on the CF issue, I've had my 256 MB CF card (SanDisk) for about 2 years now, first was my primary storage for my Axim X5, then when the Axim broke (which i also used a 128 MB Sandisk SD Card in day-2-day, very reliable) it became my backup/transfer storage, take it and a little USB adapter, and in PC class you can laugh at all the inferiors using 3.5"s, bwahahaha.

love my x5 I originally bought the SD card for use with my x5 since the CF slot was being used by a GPS receiver. I just love how small the SD card is. which usb adapter did you get? I currently have a 12-in-1, which is small, but I've also been looking at one from Lexmark I think, which is SD-card specific.

 

[imported_Nacelle]

was that 100.000 or 100,000?

 

[boran]

ehm, whichever one of the two is one hundred thousand where you live

 

[McCarthy]

Having lost a Smartmedia card worth of pictures (but then the card reformatting and working fine after) I'm leery of all flash now. Is it just that Smartmedia is flakey, the rest are ok? If so, why?

 

[Spikesoldier]

i remember a while back someone put their CF in their pocket, forgot to take it out, and put it in the wash.

it was fine afterward.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: McCarthy
Having lost a Smartmedia card worth of pictures (but then the card reformatting and working fine after) I'm leery of all flash now. Is it just that Smartmedia is flakey, the rest are ok? If so, why?

Don't know the technicalities of smartmedia but it could be because of the exposed contact plates that are possibly easy to short out due to static or something while handling it. I hear smartmedia is fine as long as you don't take it out and handle it, put into a memory card reader on the PC, and such. I too lost a lot of priceless photos (on different media brand cards) because of smartmedia corruption issues, with no hope of recovery. However, like I mentioned in my earlier post, not a single problem with CF, even though some CF cards I have have been 'used and abused' so much that the outer labeling is nearly falling off from my fingers having handled it over the years.

 

[Feep]

I had a sandisk sd card die on me. In my pda,, working for music one minute, dead the next. They were pretty nice about the RMA though, and i didnt lose anything i needed.

 

[AndyHui]

Smartmedia is particularly vulnerable due to its exposed contacts and lack of reinforcement of the card itself.

All of the modern flash types: CF, SD, MMC, MS, XD are all fairly robust.

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: McCarthy
Having lost a Smartmedia card worth of pictures (but then the card reformatting and working fine after) I'm leery of all flash now. Is it just that Smartmedia is flakey, the rest are ok? If so, why?

This is the problem people run into when they think stable media is a good excuse to not create backups. My personal take, is that SD, CF, and any other solid/strong form factor are very reliable, but it could be etched in stone and I'd still make a damn backup...

 

[Abhi]

No problems with CF Cards here..

 

[Christobevii3]

I've actually had one sd card die on me and got rma'ed really easily. It died after like 3 months no reason.

 

[McCarthy]

So it's just the form factor, not any difference in the type of memory or how it's interface works that makes Smartmedia flakey? I'd taken it out of the camera, put it in the reader and it came up as unformatted. Didn't touch the contacts or put any more stress to it than was necessary to eject the card from the camera - that it works fine again after reformatting suggests it wasn't from flexing it and causing damage, but the contacts. It's so bad that you can't even move it from a camera to a reader? Which is what I was doing, buleyb, moving it to backup my photos Hadn't had trouble with moving the card before, just flaked completely that one time.

Mainly though wondering about the stability of other media. Since then I've been telling friends to stay away from 1gig CF cards, get a bunch of 32 meg ones so they won't lose so much at a time when a card flakes, but if it's just Smartmedia...

BTW, recovery tools which have done miraculous things with HDs couldn't do anything with this. Reformated so I could even access the card as a drive or in the camera - then try Format Recovery, Raw Recovery...though a FAT32 file system only one file would show up, a JPG (forget name, generic) taking the whole media size. Seems nobody's had trouble with others, though if anyone has and have tried HD recovery utils, any success or did it produce odd results like I found with Smartmedia?