suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

I have had very little problem with cards but when recording video on a new camera with old cards I noticed that the video would just stop recording so I replaced the cards and that stopped that. If you aren't careful about disconnecting the card from the computer it can cause read/write problems. And sometimes I'm not careful.

Tjohn Loc: Inverness, FL formerly Arivaca, AZ

I have a few 20 year old chips working just as if new. Newer ones are just faster.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Interesting, my CF cards I got with my new 10D (2003=15 Years) are still going strong, 100% no problems ever from them failing or bent pins ect.

ssiretire Loc: Warsaw, KY

I bought a bunch of mini SD cards with adapters. I have organized my pictures and am loading each SD card with pictures for each of my children (3) and spouses, grandchildren and spouses, (7) for Christmas presents. Each card has only has pictures that are relevant to recipient.

ronpier Loc: Poland Ohio

I rotate 3 cards in each of my 3 cameras: 16gb in my d3400, 4or 8gb in my s9600 Coolpix and 2 gb in my D50 (max for that old camera), always format IN CAMERA, each camera has its own specific cards, never shared between them. Use Sandisk cards only, no exceptions. Never had a card failure in 13 years of digital usage.

Charlie C Loc: North Liberty, IA

Taking care of SD cards is of utmost importance in reducing problems. Granted, there is always the exception of a flaw in manufacturing. Religiously, always turn the camera off prior to inserting or removing from camera. Always delete photos while in the camera, not another device. Don't use cards as a storage system but rather unload the photos and reformat the card after each session. Always keep cards in a protective case or in the camera-never in your pocket. These are the basics as I'm sure others can offer more insight. I really love the two card slots on Nikons 7100 and 7200's creating two copies of everything you photograph. Hope this helps, especially for new-bees.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I can't recall a memory card of any type ever failing for me. I just keep using them. I like the fact that my D750 has two card slots, so if one fails, the other will save the images. I would never throw away a card just because it's old.

Ron Dial Loc: Cuenca, Ecuador

Question: have you never had the iron oxide on a tape fail after 15 to 20 years? A major client of mine used tapes (premium brands in environmentally controlled vaults) and suffered major data loss after 20 years, that and their tape readers failed. They determined that hard drives, recycled every ten years was the safest. Also consider that technology changes and software for reading data also changes. I strongly recommend evaluating backups every ten years.

sv3noKin51E

cmcaroffino, Here are a few thoughts, FWIW. We haven't had a card fail for a long time. If you're monitoring your output and something doesn't look as it should, replace the card and see if you have the results you think you should. After 100K shots, if a card has been working fine, that's a good lifespan; I'd lean toward retiring the card as cost is no longer much of an issue if you stock up when the cards are on sale (like now). We've stuck with Samsung and SanDisk Extreme Pro brands (with a couple of PNY Elites that have worked great for 3 years). A good indicator that a card may have a problem can be when it takes longer than it should to read/write, or if a double image shows up on your monitor that wasn't meant to be a double exposure; that should alert you to pull that card out of service immediately to save your images and test the card. That scenario happened to us last summer, as soon as a ghost image came up, the card was replaced at once. There were no further problems.The card replaced that day was only about a month old, had just been reformatted. When flash memory dies, it gives you a sign or just fails outright. If a card gets too full it will not be able to transfer images to free areas fast enough; the buffer gets backed up. Then the activity light stays on too long and the card can fail. We off-load cards when they're half-full or at the end of the day. Every flash card has a finite number of read/write cycles. Our rule, we buy the best cards, always format it after the images are offloaded/saved, and the cards should give you good service (as long as their life span allows). Hope this is helpful; happy shooting and good luck. sv

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I haven't played a cassette in 20+ years. Now I'll have to dig out some old cassettes to see how they sound.
(I DO know to store them vertically so the tape doesn't migrate, same with VCR tapes.) Had some old ones want to stick on the spool a bit years ago. Best thing to fix that is to fast forward then rewind before playing.

I don't have any computer backups from ten years ago.
I just keep father, son, and grandfather backups at home on an external (every month or two), with Carbonite in the cloud.
So I suppose my oldest backup is maybe six months ago.
I have files that are probably 20 years old, but if I kept them, they are on the current backup.

cyclespeed Loc: Calgary, Alberta Canada

Once again let me direct you to SD Formatter. This site is the product of SD manufacturers. Use it to reformat in your computer. It takes out any failed sectors allowing writing to the card faster. Then reformat in the camera to be used. Put images onto your computer. Repeat. This system has never failed me, members of the two camera clubs I belong to and 5 professional photographers.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Today's tape is much more advanced and reliable - sure tape from 20 years ago was "primitive" compared to today's LTO tape which is certified for 30+ years in controlled environments. It's not simply iron oxide on a mylar substrate like older audio/video/data tapes - newer formulations use strong binding agents and magnetic material (Fuji holds a patent which IBM licenses for their high TB tapes) to ensure not only longevity but also toughness to withstand the stresses of tape running over the heads at tremendous speeds (tension and friction wear). Bit error rates for LTO tape beat other media significantly - hard drives, SSD/flash, optical.

Hard drives can fail after just 5 years especially if inactive - "stored on the shelf" ... however using "generational media" is a good idea anyway whatever media is used. SSDs can have high BERs over time.

A new LTO tape version is regularly introduced every 18-24 months (currently LTO-8) and drives made for a certain LTO version can read tapes back at least two generations (e.g., LTO-7 drives can read back to LTO-5 at least). So what many in this industry do is skip a generation and migrate data to the new LTO generation every 4-6 years, so the 30 year limit will be rarely tested in practice - well it hasn't been around that long anyway...this is mainly for mid size to larger organizations who can afford an LTO archive system...

Yes, for mere mortals who can't afford LTO, generational data storage is the way to go - back up your data in at least 2 places (RAID drives) and rotate the storage every several years....very practical.

I wonder how our descendants 10,000 years from now will be able to access our vast libraries - hopefully some drives are left behind with pictorial instructions.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

The cave paintings that are now 10,000 years old and more will long outlast our data storage of today.

orchidalan Loc: Arroyo Grande, CA

I just got off of an Antarctica photography cruise and there was a professional guest speaker that said she spend more for a faster card since they last a long time. She uses them for a day or two shoots and downloads them to her computer and reformat them in the camera that they will be used in on future shoots. The reformatting makes them like new and makes them last longer. I learned a lot from her. Hope this helps.

Bill P

I look at it this way: How many images am I willing to lose, gone forever? The answer is, until downloading and a quick review with Bridge, NONE. When I went from film to digital, I looked at things in comparison to rolls of film, since by then I had been shooting professionally for 25 or so years that's how I thought of things, how many rolls a I willing to lose? Here's where things get dicey, I think where we are with memory cards today is where we were a few years with the megapixel race. So, I have a fairly large collection of 2, 4 and 8 Gig cards that I rotate, and when these start getting too used to use, don't know what I will do. Only had one SD card fail out of at least 50, one that had only been used a few times, and ironically it was a sandisk.

Here's a laugh, Autocorrect wants to make Sandisk to Sandinista. Guess our computers are political.