marty wild Loc: England

Get the sandisk pro! There's is a 30 years warranty. RTB with image of serial number and image of the receipt just return a pro 64 gig after 4 years. for a new one in 14 days. There's 26 years left to go. On the warranty, think it 's world wide check out there web page for USA 😄😄😄😄😄😄

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

I always reformat in the computer. It can fix problems the camera can't when reformatting. You can also reformat and fix the "fake" 128Gb cards to their real 16Gb by partitioning in the computer.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

Actually what you're doing is the same as I do and is recommended to keep the card working properly. I suppose it's possible to "wear out" the inside electronics but I've not seen that happen. These cards do like to fail from time to time and I've had that happen twice. Some who haven't had that experience will argue but I know what happened to me. Good luck.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

I've done it twice but the card was pulled out with a tweezer both times. That was ny wife's iMac. We also have a 5k iMac and there is no cd slot anymore and it isn't on the side anymore.

Silverman Loc: Michigan

I keep my card in my camera a.m.a.p. and when it is out of camera, it is stored in a armored shell memory card case, with my other cards, Someone hear mentioned rotating your cards, you should have 4-5 or more Quality cards to have just in case an issue arises, so then rotate them.

Bill Emmett Loc: Bow, New Hampshire

I wonder why photographers use card readers in the first place. Since I still use my 50D, which is old by standards, I've found the weak link in loading photos into my computers has always been the "card reader". Using SD cards there is little chance of damaging the SD card, but those tiny pins on a CF card is a much different story. Removing a CF card and placing it into a card reader places one more chance of bending one or more of those tiny pins, and loosing a entire days shoot, or more. Canon provides a fine USB cable with every new camera purchase, on the older cameras 6D and earlier, a USB 2.0 is provided, and the 7D Mark II, and newer, a USB 3.0 cable is provided. This cable eliminates the possible ware and tear on memory cards being inserted, and removed. As far as "wearing out" a memory card, it is possible, since there are memory cells on every card, and some are manufactured to lower, and higher standards. Some of the lower standard cards, are more sensitive to stray electronic currents, and the cells burn out. So, I suggest using the better quality cards, in both CF and SD format. Personally, I use the highest sized card, and best quality card available. Memory is cheap, quality is not. Don't remove cards from your camera, unless there is a real reason. The danger to a memory card is just in insertion, and removal.

bickfor903

SD cards do wear out. Every addition and deletion moves information around. Eventually the itty bitty circuits wear down and don't communicate with each other as well. Kind of like synapses in our deteriorating brains.
I've had a couple of cards for nine or more years and they'
ve been fine, but a few have simply ceased to function - devices no longer recognize them. They're definitely cheap enough now that they're easily replaceable.
An expert can better explain how they decay, but, alas, they don't last forever.

frog Loc: Carrollton, Texas

Hi Linda,

I use the usb cord that came with the camera and download from camera to PC, hard-drive, and never take the card out of camera. I have a 6d and have a 16 gb sandisk card installed for over three yrs. Works great. Good luck.

JamesCurran Loc: Trenton ,NJ

OK, a bit about transfer speeds.

SD cards come with a "class" rated, giving their speed. The class is their transfer rate in megabytes per second. i.e., Class 10 means 10 megabytes per second.

USBs comes in 4 versions which specify their max speed.

1.0 = 1.5Mb/s (that's megaBITs per second, so divided by 8 to get megabytes)
1.1 = 12Mb/s (about 1.5MB/second)
2.0 = 480 Mb/s (60 MB/s)
3.0 = 5 Gb/s (625 MB/s)

USB will use the version which all parts can agree on, which means the camera or card reader and the port on your computer. So, if any part is using USB 1.0 or 1.1, than that will be slowing you down. With USB 2.0 or 3.0, the bottleneck becomes the speed of the card itself.

So, Bill, I think the problem you're seeing is that you were using a USB 1.1 card reader.

IF you have a card reader directly in the PC, that should bypass USB and run at the speed of the memory card.

rdfarr Loc: Floridian living in AL

Regardless of cards going bad or not, always backup your work just in case.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

You missed one: dropping it on concrete and then stepping on it. Reduces the life span quite a bit.

JP Pixburgh Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I have never formatted any of my SD cards and some I've had for 9 years. I just either cut or copy the pics off of them and paste them in my computer. Cut if I'm just putting them on my notebook or copy when I'm giving them to my wife for her edits or enjoymemt. They're formatted at the factory so why bother doing it again and again and again. The only time I would format one is if I have a problem with it and so far I haven't.
I've been in the computer business for 24 years and have heard plenty of those old wive's tales. Believe me, just cut your data when copying it to a machine or delete them if they stay on the card. Reformatting them is just waste of time unless you have problems with it.

14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

I have sent 2 into the washing machine and then through the dryer. Both still work fine. Water and heat did not hurt them. Shot over 10k pictures in groups of 25 to 100 over several years with NO Problems.

CEAA

Good to read your reply as I do the same as you! One does not reformat the hard drive every time you delete a file.

JP Pixburgh Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Exactly! Those little suckers are a lot tougher than most people think.