Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Is SanDisk sd cards becoming corrupt common? What kinds of things will cause it even when used regularly? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Is SanDisk sd cards becoming corrupt common? What kinds of things will cause it even when used regularly?

Had years of pictures deleted today even though it didn't touch water or it was never dropped and all it did was stay in the camera now it says card unusable until formatted

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

SD cards are ephemeral. All SD cards. SanDisk SD cards are popular, so that may bias your perception.

There are some SD cards that are better than others. The best cost much more and are often slower. They usually have the word "Endurance" in the model name. Like "Max Endurance" or "Pro Endurance".

There is a very strong correlation between low price and poor endurance. And a slightly weaker correlation between high price and good endurance.

Saving stuff to a SD card is what especially cause it to wear out. Reading stuff is not quite as bad. Heat makes a SD card fail extra fast.

It is good practice to offload photos to a PC, or the cloud, as soon as possible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is good practice to offload photos to a PC, or the cloud, as soon as possible.

Yes, I don't get it when people keep "years of pictures" on cameras, certainly there's even a market for it as I've seen the manufacturers adding more and more mind boggling features in camera, although the navigation is cramped, even if there is a touch screen it's REALLY bad, generally the screens look like they're coming not from this decade or even the previous one, but from the 2000s.

Also it isn't only the storage that's unreliable but cameras get stolen or lost all the time, and then it cuts both ways, not only the data is lost but it's also readily available to anyone who wants to look (and likely it might be a person that doesn't have the best intentions).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There are many factors at play.

First - SD cards can't be trusted - they're an disposable transfer media. Depending on the quality you're buying, they can be absolut trash. Its basically the (cheap) MMC module with convenient connectors. Good quality modules can last a long time with regular use.

One often overlook problem is with file systems. Cameras (and my other things) use the FAT Filesystem. Which has no resilience what so ever built in and tend to corrupt the Filesystem over time with use (regular formatting should mitigate that - for digital cameras, always format with the camera).

Don't long term store data on them. Always have Backups of your Data.

As long as you treat them for what they are - an untrusted transfer medium - you won't have unexpected problems and data loss.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I have pny,scan disk,odd name card, No fails for years now. But I read the listing in total.

Ssd, SD have different tiers of sku. Speed,endurance, iops etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Regardless of the storage medium, if you have one copy of your data, you have zero copies. SD cards are especially flakey, but all storage can fail.

You may be able to recover it with software (dont format the sd card, put it in a computer and try software like ddrescue), or paying a data recovery service.

Either way, you learnt a lesson today. If its important, have multiple copies. Burning your photos to DVDs or blurays and make sure there are duplicates (if not triplicates). Sorry for your loss.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I got my dashcams, which is the hardest duty for SD card. Constant writing and massive temperature swings. I used 32gb cheap cards, they failed within a month. I replaced them with name brand cards, again, all 3 cameras failed within another 2 months. I've also had SD cards fails multiple times with my RPi. The only solution was to buy the High Endurance SANDisk cards. I'm 8 months in and they are still going. But I expect them to fail soon enough. SD cards shouldn't be used for reliable storage, period.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The cameras failed as well, not just the cards?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Wait, you mean you had years of photos, the only copy of which was on a MicroSD card, the least durable storage media known?

...Geez.

The secret is just don't do that. Never trust a MicroSD card as the only copy of anything.