Bad SD cards (Page 2): I do not know anything about a % but it has happened twice to me and that is too many times. Actually once is too much. So, lesson learned, I shoot in Florida...

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

I do not know anything about a % but it has happened twice to me and that is too many times. Actually once is too much.
So, lesson learned, I shoot in Florida Wildlife Sites every day for 6 months. I follow this routine, each day after I shoot I go through all my shots taken that day, IF I have a keeper (I do this fast so it has to really catch my eye) I place it on a flash drive. I also delete any obvious bad ones. Once a week, usually Sunday afternoon, I go through the weeks shots in more detail, saving any standouts and deleting bad ones.
If, your SD card crashes, most good camera stores can save your photo's, their are many sites on line that offer this service but I found a local camera store in Delray Beach that did it for 15% of the online cost and put them all on a flash drive for me.
I can't pin point a cause for a SD failure suffice to say that best defense is a good offense of regularly going over recent shots and saving the absolute ones you can not afford to loose.

bikerguy

We have had two Trancsend 32 GB cards go bad, could not backup nor could the computer read the file. Also, had one card where the write protect tab fell off and effectively write protected the files and there fore could not shoot with it.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

Reuse many times, never had one go bad. I have used probably a dozen over the years for various devices.

aphelps Loc: Central Ohio

billnikon wrote:

I do not know anything about a % but it has happen... (show quote)

SD cards are flash memory or flash drives. What do you mean by "flash drive"?

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

It's very rare. I've even put a couple in the washing machine and they came out ok. They usually become obsolete before they die. I've got a lot of 32 and 64 Megabyte cards laying around. Yes, I said "megabyte". Not "gigabyte"!

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

I have used, and still use Sandisk and PNY memory cards since 2003 and never had one go bad. Did have to replace 1 and 2 gb cards with larger capacity, so now have 8, 16, and 32 gb cards and have over 40k keeper shots from these cards. I always reformat in camera after putting the shots on the computer.
Bud

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

aphelps wrote:

SD cards are flash memory or flash drives. What do you mean by "flash drive"?

flash drives https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=flash+drives

aphelps Loc: Central Ohio

billnikon wrote:

flash drives https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=flash+drives

These all use flash (non volatile) memory. Just trying to clarify which you referred to. Those thumb drives or usb drives are obviously different from sd cards but they all are flash memory drives.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

steve49 wrote:

The plot thickens I guess.
Why do you not like using the camera to download images directly?

Paranoid, I suppose. I have had several computers get "wonky" on me and I'd rather not connect my D850 to something that may have some sort of virus. Overly cautious?

Wmetcalf Loc: Rogersville, Mo

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

I’ve never had a card go bad

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

cameraf4 wrote:

Paranoid, I suppose. I have had several computers get "wonky" on me and I'd rather not connect my D850 to something that may have some sort of virus. Overly cautious?

Yes ... you are being overly cautious, f4 ...

There is NO WAY - a virus can enter a camera, from the computer ...

The path is only one way ... you are downloading your photos to the PC!!!!

Use an AVU regularly, anyway ... set it to start and restart, as soon as it finishes a cycle ... and upgrade all your Windows files, as soon as prompted!

df61743 Loc: Corpus Christi, TX

cameraf4 wrote:

Paranoid, I suppose. I have had several computers get "wonky" on me and I'd rather not connect my D850 to something that may have some sort of virus. Overly cautious?

Yes. Definately over cautious. A "wonky" or virus infected computer cannot adversely affect your D850.
Your computer merely sees a USB connected camera as an external drive, just like a thumb drive.
And I've never had a MicroSD, SD. or Compact Flash card go bad. Just make sure you buy only brand name cards from reputable dealers to avoid counterfeit cards, sometimes sold on places like Ebay.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

What do you mean you do no reuse cards, you just use them once and then toss them?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

I have thus far never had a SD Card go bad. I use all SanDisk SD cards. I've had one Thumb Drive go bad due to pulling it out too fast from a Mac. It got corrupted and I could not reuse or reformat it on a PC or Mac after this. I returned it to the store for a replacement.

drklrd Loc: Cincinnati Ohio

steve49 wrote:

How often does this happen?
I have never had one go south on me.
I dont reuse cards but save them for back up because they are so cheap.

Anyone have a guess as what % of cards become problematic?
What is the primary cause of the problem?

Bought one at a Walgreens once back when I first started digital. That was the one that quit. Since then I spend a few bucks extra and order them from B&H. I use them constantly and at least weekly all 7 of the 16 gig ones are reformatted in camera at least once a week. I have 2- 32 gig ones in both D7200's as back up only. I would hate to loose another card that contains money making shots. When the one that went bad went bad I used the backup card to get my pics. I was frustrated because the cheap one quit but using the 2nd chip slot in the D7200 for back data pays off. I upload to computer several times a week and sometimes I do not have time to use only one card especially since instead of changing lenses I change cameras during a sport shoot, much faster option in my book. Both cameras set to the same standards in their menus. Both cameras have a 16 gig in slot 1 and a 32 gig chip in slot 2 set to backup slot 1. I have been using these chips a three years now so I expect maybe one will fail here and there eventually.