SD Card Reliability?

[Quattro Pete]

Realize this is a long shot, but are there any tests out there that focus on SD card reliability, maybe based on number of write times before failure, or some other criteria that measures durability/longevity?

Most comparisons just focus on read/write speed, which is not what I'm looking for.

Or is this not even relevant in this day and age? Do all name brand SD cards last longer than a typical user cares? Are there some brands that are more reliable than others? You'll see once in a while some review on Amazon or other site where someone mentions how their card failed. But it's kind of all over the place and hard to judge if maybe it was a result of user error.

Thanks!

 

[dblshock]

most go obsolete before they wear-out.

 

[gomes512]

I was just thinking about this myself since my wife and I both have dashcams in each of our vehicles. Her dashcam has seen capacity upgrades so the cards are no older than a year.

My dashcam has been using the same PNY 64GB (UHS-1 class) full size card for about two years (card and camera went online Feb 6th 2014). My vehicle gets driven almost every day as my wife and I carpool to work and it's the preferred weekend/trip vehicle.

Windows 7 reports the card's capacity as 59.6GB, this has not changed after two years. The dashcam writes, on average, 3-3.5GB's worth of data to the card in a typical workday commute (2-2.5 hours driving). Our weekend trips on both Saturdays and Sundays are, on average, longer than 3 hours per day. That and the summer of 2015 had me commuting back and forth from Cincinnati on the weekends (10-11 hours).

Doing some rough, very conservative, calculations the card has seen about 2.5TB's worth of writes. As I mentioned previously, no apparent loss in capacity so far.

I don't think I'll be able to wear this card out before upgrading to a larger capacity one.

On a side note I always use the SD Association SD card formatter utility to wipe the card every 5-6 months or so. I have never used Windows 7's format option.

 

[PandaBear]

Back in around 2004, there was a huge shortage of flash memories and some no name producer would put newer memories that need better wear leveling on older controllers with insufficient wear algorithm to make a quick buck. Those cards don't last long.

Today this shouldn't be a problem anymore, and with bigger size people don't really increase the amount of write cycles, and reducing the average wear and tear of each cell as a result.

You are much more likely going to lose the SD cards because of other issues than wearing it out.

 

[RTexasF]

In the past ten years I have had only one SD card conk out. Unfortunately it had photos on it that I was transferring to another computer....lost them all.

 

[tgrudzin]

I know your asking about SD and probably SDHC as SD stop at 4 gigs. Anyway, professional photographer is my trade. My experience is mostly ScanDisk, and almost all CF cards. Just the other day, a 2gig card started to give me trouble. Had it since the Nikon D2x was the king. Always re-format my cards on every use. That a lot of formatting. One day it started to show signs of trouble, needed error checking, had to be read from the camera and such. Took it apart for fun. Cards just last. Then your in the computer store and you just pick up new ones again. More memory for a cheaper price. I have only used Lexar and Scandisk. 4-816 gig cards. Format them on the PC, on the MAC, always in the camera.

 

[JHZR2]

Knock on wood, the only failures I've had have been USB sticks and mechanical HDDs. I only use the highest speed CF and SD cards, fwiw, usually Sandisk. That said, of the USB sticks that have failed, two have been sandisk, one Kingston.

 

[Zeus33]

I think it's just luck of the draw.

I have used MANY Sandisk (mostly Extreme) cards over the years (Go Pros, cell phones, DSLRs, etc.) and never had a failure. However, a friend of mine used one and it failed on him. He was using it in a no-name dash cam, so it may be the device's fault more than the card.

I have since switched to the Samsung Pro cards and again, no problems and they are really fast cards that actually meet their specs. I also use Samsung SSDs (20+) and have never had any issue with them failing either.

I had a Kingston 64gb UHS-1 card that failed recently in a Samsung Note 4.

 

[dparm]

The memory itself is very reliable. What I see, more than anything else, is the plastic housing or "fins" on the contact points crack or break off.

If you're taking the card in and out of a device repeatedly, your chances of failure go way up. If the card spends most of its time in a device, then I'd say it's fairly safe.

 

[Kawiguy454]

Capacity is not the full capacity within the device. There is some Slack memory cells that should map in to replace bad cells as they are detected. Errors and corruption can occur if you unplug the device during file access. Always make sure the device is not being accessed before yanking it out.

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: gomes512
I was just thinking about this myself since my wife and I both have dashcams in each of our vehicles. Her dashcam has seen capacity upgrades so the cards are no older than a year.

My dashcam has been using the same PNY 64GB (UHS-1 class) full size card for about two years (card and camera went online Feb 6th 2014). My vehicle gets driven almost every day as my wife and I carpool to work and it's the preferred weekend/trip vehicle.

Windows 7 reports the card's capacity as 59.6GB, this has not changed after two years. The dashcam writes, on average, 3-3.5GB's worth of data to the card in a typical workday commute (2-2.5 hours driving). Our weekend trips on both Saturdays and Sundays are, on average, longer than 3 hours per day. That and the summer of 2015 had me commuting back and forth from Cincinnati on the weekends (10-11 hours).

Doing some rough, very conservative, calculations the card has seen about 2.5TB's worth of writes. As I mentioned previously, no apparent loss in capacity so far.

I don't think I'll be able to wear this card out before upgrading to a larger capacity one.

On a side note I always use the SD Association SD card formatter utility to wipe the card every 5-6 months or so. I have never used Windows 7's format option.


Can you share your dash am model and experience?

 

[dblshock]

didn't I hear Seagate or Western Digital just buy Sandisk?...anyway, ya, my trail cams beat up the plastic fins by the contacts, I worry about it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: dparm
The memory itself is very reliable. What I see, more than anything else, is the plastic housing or "fins" on the contact points crack or break off.

So, do some manufacturers make more robust housings and contacts, or is it all pretty much the same?

I suppose it would be difficult to make a more beefed up housing yet still maintain the required dimensions...

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: dblshock
didn't I hear Seagate or Western Digital just buy Sandisk?

Yes, WD acquired SanDisk last year.

SanDisk is what I typically go with for my digital cameras, but I wouldn't have a problem with Lexar or Samsung either. I do have some Transcend cards for less critical stuff, too.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: dparm
The memory itself is very reliable. What I see, more than anything else, is the plastic housing or "fins" on the contact points crack or break off.

So, do some manufacturers make more robust housings and contacts, or is it all pretty much the same?

I suppose it would be difficult to make a more beefed up housing yet still maintain the required dimensions...



In my experience they're all pretty much the same.

 

[PandaBear]

I too have a few SD card died in no name dash cam.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Thanks all. Ended up ordering Lexar this time around, just to mix things up a bit.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: tgrudzin
Format them on the PC,

What's the advantage of doing this?

If the card's primary use is going to be camera, then I normally let the camera do the formatting.