SD Cards Don't Last Forever

john_dennis wrote on 6/4/2018, 4:04 PM

A few months ago, my camera failed to recognize the SD card that I had just copied the last shoot from. In this case the card had delaminated and I immediately cut it in half and lowered it over the side for a respectful burial. Yesterday, while transferring data from the card from my wife's camera, I noticed the plastic insulators that separate the contacts on the SD card had broken free on one end. Now that I've cleaned up the fragments, they're mostly missing.

Admittedly, the last card was ~ five years old, but the card that delaminated was a major brand name and was ~ 1 year old. I plan to retire all of my aged card readers on the chance that one of them is causing damage to the cards. I can't do the same for the three cameras that we currently use.

Comments

fr0sty wrote on 6/4/2018, 8:13 PM

If you have the Sandisk cards, send them back to them and you will get a new one in the mail. We've even sent in old cards they don't make anymore and got newer, upgraded cards back.

john_dennis wrote on 6/4/2018, 8:36 PM

The delaminated card was a Sandisk. I didn’t even think about a warranty. I just wanted it out of my sight.

fifonik wrote on 6/4/2018, 9:17 PM

I do not think that Sandisk will replace the card with such damage. For me it looks like it is the reader's issue. I have never seen anything like on your photo with cards I use.

As a workaround you can use microSD card + adapter that would be easy to replace if damaged.

fr0sty wrote on 6/4/2018, 9:42 PM

We've done it.

NickHope wrote on 6/5/2018, 4:54 AM

Definitely looks to me like a reader or camera has chewed that up. Have you got any smaller/older cards that you can sacrifice in some testing, like the standard ones that come with devices before you buy a sensibly-sized one? I would have thought you'd be able to feel extra resistance when you insert or remove the card into the device doing the damage, and I expect there would also be tell-tale scratches on the card (viewed through a magnifier) ahead of full failure of the plastic. Might save you having to chuck good card readers away.

john_dennis wrote on 6/5/2018, 10:12 AM

Of course, the reader that I use the most is suspect. Maybe I’ll do some destructive testing before I chuck it.

Former user wrote on 6/5/2018, 10:15 AM

Heat can kill.

john_dennis wrote on 6/6/2018, 1:44 PM

"As a workaround you can use microSD card + adapter that would be easy to replace if damaged."

I actually bought a micro SD card to replace the one that delaminated. The price was right and I needed two cards before I left the house. When the old card came apart, I found that the active electronics area was only about 1/3 the size of the full size SD card. So, Sandisk was already using an adapter to match the circuit card to full SD card size though the form factor of the internal electronics was not micro SD.

"Heat can kill."

True. So far, physical damage has been my biggest problem.

Yesterday, I ordered one of these UHS-II card readers. My camera is not UHS-II capable, but I'm hoping to get the maximum throughput from the flash possible on the UHS-I interface when I offload my files with a reader capable of faster transfers. We'll see how that works out.

My destructive testing, though destructive, has not identified any visible evidence of the root cause of the physical damage to the cards. This reader was the sloppiest when inserting and removing cards and I started there first.

john_dennis wrote on 6/10/2018, 11:45 AM

Received the new UHS-II card reader:

It produced the throughput shown below with the Samsung micro SD card above which was not UHS-II.