do memory cards last forever?

[baerbel]

Assuming proper use - do memory cards last forever? If not, do they just stop

working all of the sudden, or are there tale telling signs, that they are going

bad? Just wondering, because I am getting a lot of wrong error messages lately.

Thank you for your time and help.

[warrenlewis]

In theory, solid state circuity will not wear out. In practical application, they do. Everything has a half life.

[daverhaas]

Errors apparently at random may be an indication that your memory card is close to failure, or if the errors are occurring on several cards of various age, then it could be a sign that the camera itself is failing.

 

Try reformatting the cards in camera and see if that helps. Also, try a new card. If that fails, then take / send the camera to a reputable repair shop.

 

Dave

[kerron_joseph]

I agree with you David, but you could also clean the terminals of the

card/cam they sometimes get dirty over time

[curritch]

All electronic devices have a failure rate and expected life. I don't have a number but the expected life of a memory card, PROPERLY USED, is probably many times the expected life of the mechanical parts of the camera.

 

In practice the probability of a memory failure is more a function of abuse than anything else. Damaged contacts and static electrical discharges probably cause far more failures than the inherent failure rate of the device.

 

Memory cards are really inexpensive now. If you are getting weird results swap cards and see if the weirdness goes away or stays with the camera. Hopefully it will go away. That's by far your most desirable outcome.

[baerbel]

Thank you, great advice and much appreciated. Warm regards, Barb :)

[keith_b1]

It's possible the card needs to be re-formatted as others have said. There is also a "full

reformatting" possible direct from a PC computer, but you'd have to find out what software

makes that go. FYI: Friend recently was at cocktail party in Nor Cal, and VP of Engineering at

Sandisk was there. VP sez no one knows how long data will last on CF cards, but he thinks

about 20 years. MY observation: If you use and reuse them, I'd expect that the little gold

plated contacts, or the physical encasement will start to have problems before that.

[stevenfettig]

Everyone here is correct, but I have 2c to add:

All storage devices, systems, hardware is at least rated with a MTBF (mean time between failure). Most new CF cards I have bought have MTBF numbers in the millions of hours. This number is ridiculous, frankly, and is not nearly as important as the write cycle limits of a card. Write cycle limits are basically the amount of times one can write data to the card and these hard numbers are getting very hard to find on vendor websites. The last card I bought where that number was given directly was a 512mb Kensington ('el cheapo) card I used for a mini solid-state router and it was rated for 500,000 write cycles and has been running for over a year on a home network. That doesn't mean 500,000 pictures, but is the number of times data is written to the card via shots being taken, read on the computer/printer, formats being performed, etc.

That being said, you are more likely to physically damage the card and/or contacts before the memory will (statistically) fail. Doing a clean format on your camera (i.e. using the camera's format utility) is a good idea. If you know your way around computers, there are ways of doing low-level formats of flaky cards to see if that will stop the issues you are seeing. Frankly, though, if doing an on camera format doesn't clear up the problems, I throw away the card. They are too cheap these days and that *one* important pic, too valuable, for me to want to take the chance.

That's me, though.

[graham_marsden]

Whatever else SD cards are, they are pretty rugged. Intending to work on the pictures I inadvertently left one from my granddaughters compact in my top shirt pocket. It went through the entire washing-machine cycle and tumble-dry. When I retrieved it I apprehensively put it in my PC and, lo and behold, there were all the files apparently unscathed. Phew !!

[walterh]

Graham some people even use the washing cycles to reduce noise from their images. One can also remove "dirty pictures" before showing the last shooting to the family :-P

 

Seriously: A high quality brand will be more resistant to climate and mechanical stress to the card, at least I hope so because I spend a little more money on reputable producer products (sandisc).

[baerbel]

Wow! PN does not only have fabulous photographers, but also experts in the related technology. I am truly impressed! Many thanks to all of you. Barb :)

[kelly_flanigan1]

The MTBF figure is the failure rate during the "usefull" life of a few years; of the population under usage or warranty period. its NOT the average life one will get from a unit; usually the number can be decades; if one wrongly assumes what MTBF means. MTBF drops as a population ages; just like older folks tend to die off more than 30 year olds. MTBF is a failure rate over an interval; sometimes not mentioned in the BS world of marketing; or its the best case high number to fool the layman.<BR><BR> Thus a 1,000,000 hour MTBF means if 10000 units are run 1000 hours and 10 fails; the MTBF is 1,000,000 hours <b> DURING THE SHORT TEST PERIOD</B>.<BR><BR> The lay public takes the number to mean their gizmo will last 1 million hours. As the population ages; the MTBF shortens for the population. 2nd and 3rd order mechanisms for wearout kick in; stuff in the noise during the first few years of usage. <BR><BR>Imagine a simple cheapie skill saw where the brushes are not replaced; or the unit is sealed/glued. At first there is a high MTBF as the duds are returned to the seller that sqeaked by quality control. <b>Then the MTBF settles into a high number for many years. </b> Later on years later; The MTBF drops as the cords break; the brushes wear out; as the on/off switch breaks; the item is then often chucked; thrown out. After the initial infant mortality is weeded out; the MTBF say between years 1 and 3 to 5 years <b>can have fantastically high numbers.</b> Don't confuse these high numbers with how long a single unit will last. <BR><BR><BR><BR>Here I have a USB Fob from Lexar that cost over 100 bucks; that was bought before XP came out. Its been reformated a few times; been thru the washing machine twice; been lost in the yard once, it went thru Katrina under salt water and was flushed over and over with fresh water. Its only a 64meg unit. Its still works; but its mtbf is probably abit lower now.:)<BR><BR>The oldest flash cards I still have are 2,4,16,32 meg cards for my trio of ancient Olympus D360L 1.3 megapixel cameras I use to document repairs; the cards are name brand smart media cards; none has failed yet.<BR><BR>With the no name brand SD cards and even name brand SD cards; none have failed; some have required reformating.<BR><BR>If one looks at mortality of humans from the ages 25 to 30; and uses it to project how long we should live; one would get 1000 year olds; which is nonsense. MTBF is a rate calculated and measured over the reasonable usage; often the warranty period.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Defining what a "failure" is varies alot too. <BR><BR>For some folks it might be just when the card is corrupted because they pulled it out when its still being written too.<BR><BR>For another person a failure might be considered when the cards dont work ok after a reformating event that one purposely does.<BR><BR>Yet another failure might be when ones card gets reformated when the card is placed in another camera or device; and images/files are lost/corputed/hidden from view.

[walterh]

Kelly I always thought MTBF values are dreamed up in the sauna or in the pub after a few drinks in the happy hour? I personally prefer a lower number from a respectable producer than a rather high number from somone I do not trust. For me the numbers are primarily useful if I compare similar products from the same company, assuming they have a better feeling for a particular product than another. For example if I see two computer hard disk drives offered from one company and one is rated at a significantly higher MTBF than the other I rather get this one if I need to rely on good sleep at night.

[frankie_frank1]

Like us, flash memory cards start to forgetting things as they age.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Walter; I use to calculate and also measure MTBF at several disc drive companies. Sometimes the same OEM unit would have different MTBF's after the after crafty marketers added their fluff; or the hda's were processed thru a more demanding infant mortality shakeout period; ie a longer burn-in period where duds and marginal ones are culled out; OR sent to a lower tier buyer! In a quality OEM purchase ; MTBF of disc drives is often written into the purchase spec; where say IBM would specify what the test period was; with real data from the field; not ginned up estimates. One usuall has to supply spares; eat the warranty work with the duds. None of the head media interface; spindle motor ball or fluid bearings; flex cables are really covered in traditional old MIL MTBF handbooks. Thus testing is done for the better vendors; or fibbbing by marketing chaps. OFTEN the MTBF of Acme's disc drives spec sheets are made to match Kilroy disc drive spec sheets for a trade show; even changed the day of the show to match the other fibber.; thus MTBF can be BS in many cases.<BR><BR> With a disc drive the number of start stop cycles radically effects the flying height and stabilty of sliders; when the drive gets some usage and the head/sliders collect crap that makes them fly lower. The rpm at which they actually "fly" tends to increase as a disc drive ages. When the hda is running the chances are failure with a crash are lower than with a start or stop.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Many products just die due to abuse; another chap is careless with your tools; or is not aware of the subtle ways a cameras media card drawer/hinge works. <BR><BR>In cameras often a P&S film or digital is just dropped; the circuit board gets flakey. Solder has a terrible short fatigue life; electrical solder joints that see movement; or a cars radiator are often limited in life by movement cycles or thermal cycles.<BR><BR> With a refrigerator a super mature product; they may last many decades if left in one place; but get jazzed up after several apartment moves by a duffus; where the compressor gets bumped around; the doors racked. A marginal soldr joint on a freon line can fail with the added movement in Bubbas truck<BR><BR> A zoom lens that gets used in a dusty location may just get massive internal dust.<BR><BR> A old Kodak Retina IIIc might last forever with a person who doesnt wind too quickly; or last only a roll when an abuser cocks the camera like a Nikon F at a sports event. <BR><BR>Often the real failure modes later on in a products life are of things that may not be known yet. A bad batch of plastic with too much moisture in the raw pellets can cause the plastic to shrink; grow brittle; with even the spare unused parts failing at the camera maker! With electronic chips there is this weird long term failure with submicron sized hairs growing inside that shorts out the chip. or one can have a contaminated batch of solutions in the chip or head slider process that slowly ruins them. <BR><BR>Once in disc drives we had a zillion drives out in the field; that passed all tests; but after months we had a massive buyback due to the time bomb of slider pole tips that were contaminated with a micro tad of chlorine; so the read write properties got worse with time. <BR><BR>Or the failure might be forced/faked; where an item is de-Miled. Here a military or school teacher purposely open ths cover; snips a few wire and the item is surplused. This is done so one can by the latest gizmo; its now OK since the existing unit has failed. At one TRW swap meet vendor; most all their surplus items are de-miled; usually from military bases and sometimes schools. Thus a HP distortion analyzer I got just had its analog meters input lead cleanly cut; a schools P4 computer with 2 gigs of ram with a wire cut to the one off switch; with a repair label on the back mentioning the new ATX supply didnt fix it.

[dave_weber1]

I don't know about forever, but I they are very rugged. Last weekend, a Lexar 4gb CF memory card (80X with Wa) of mine (with images on it) was accidently run through the washing machine AND dryer. My wife heard it banging around inside the dryer and pulled it out. I thought it was a goner, but when I checked it out I found that it worked perfectly!

[Ed_Ingold]

Like above, I've had two CF cards go through the wash and work just fine afterwards.

 

In short, cards last long enough. I have several 8MB through 32MB from my early digital days that still function. However, I can't use them because my RAW file size exceeds 20MB. I could use them to keep tables from rocking ;-)

[frank_skomial]

Samsung flash drives estmates are 1,000,000 re-write cycles.

 

There are research results proving their controversial theories how acurate they are in predicting end of life for flash type memory under certain accelerated usage test conditions. So there is no such a thing as "will never wear out", perhaps ?

 

Semiconductor non-volatile memory drives are usable for backup, but not for CPU operations where a million of write cycles can be performed in a second.

 

For DSLR application this will last life time.