jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I was playing around with an old smartphone, and it said there was no SD card installed. I thought I had probably removed it to use in something else. When I looked inside, I was surprised to see the card in place. I used an adapter to insert it into my computer. When I clicked on the drive, it told me to insert a card. Trying another adapter and another PC slot, gave me the same results. Then I tried a different micro SD card, and that worked fine. So, my conclusion is that the little card has given up the ghost. Memory cards do not last forever

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Time to hit it with a sledge hammer and move on.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I'm not a fan of micro cards + adapters as a substitute for a real SD card.

While on a trip in Mexico I needed an extra SD card for my camera Pentax Optio 555, but the only place I could find a card was a phone shop. I ended up with a 4 GB "micro + SD adapter" (room for about 250 photos). Once I got home I retired that combo as extra memory for my Garmin car GPS. During cold weather I suspect differential contraction of the various components led to very erratic behaviour. My maps were often low resolution with strange offsets. One time while driving in DC my GPS flickered a few times and then showed me driving in South America!!!

Using the SD adapter is perhaps OK for doing a micro card download, such as when getting GoPro data onto a computer, because if you have transfer errors you can keep trying to download until you are successful. But I would never rely on a card + adapter combo for recording data reliably.

rrkazman

SD cards are nothing more than flash memory. This is layers of biased silicone which can be induced by a low electrical current to open and close location much like gates. This is all controlled by a permanently formatted space called the FAT (File Allocation Table. This space is hard coded into the electronics. While today's SD cards are quit robust there are a few things that can scramble them. When connected to a device the FAT is accessed buy the interface controller. This is a electronic space that transfers files from the device to the card. If you notice that when removing a card from a reader you should go through the eject sequence, that is because files are in a sort of limbo between the device and the card. If at that point the power in interrupted, the FAT can be scrambled. Mostly nothing bad happens, but some times one or two files are affected. In the worst case that card is rendered unusable. I have seen this in cards used in voice recorders as the memory cells are worked over and over. Most manufactures of SD cards publish a mean time between failure. I recommend to divide that by 4 and replace your SD cards accordingly.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Digital storage devices just don't last forever. I think over the next few years we will be experiencing (and hearing about) more and more memory card failures, as so many cards in use right now are reaching the age of impending failure.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You can always try card recovery software like PhotoRescue, but my experience with that is that the card that won't mount is the one that can't be recovered at all.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

:thumbup:

KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

Good description of SD card operation. Some additional points that might be interesting:

If I recall correctly, SD cards work similarly to older CF cards, in that they employ NAND memory logic. In order to mitigate errors, the CF cards used "wear leveling" algorithms to essentially "move the data around" (rather then re-writing the same area over and over), and use all storage evenly. And of course, bad areas are effectively mapped out. I'm guessing SD cards work similarly?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I haven't been able to find a cell phone that will take a CF card. :D

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I bought the combo some time ago because it gave me the option of easily moving images from my camera to a tablet while traveling. I can't say I've had any trouble with it at all. The only reason I can think of that it might be more unreliable than the traditional SD card is that there is an additional set of contacts to get dirty.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've had micro SDs in cell phones and dash cameras, and this is the only failure - not complaining.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

That's exactly my point. On download you get the opportunity to retry if something goes wrong (assuming the card data is OK), but when writing image files to the card in the camera you run the risk of not getting all the info recorded.

If the device writing to the card needs a micro card it should be fine because you use it directly. If the device wants an SD card, I suggest NOT using a micro card with adapter; get an SD card.

rmm0605 Loc: Atlanta GA

Things like that happen in DC! May not have been the card!!!

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

A good argument, but only if the failure rate with a micro-card with adapter is higher than with an SD micro-card. But it is also an argument that ignores my point that the micro-card with adapter is more versatile than the traditional SD card. Like most choices we make, there are trade-offs to consider.

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I don't like to gamble... so I only bet on the more sure things... :roll: :?: :D