How long to memory cards last

[dawnwithacamera]

Hi All:

I am sure this has been covered before, but I thought I would ask again. How long can you keep using a memory card? I have been using my HD SC 4GB card since I got my XSi a year ago. After I delete my images I reformat the card, and keep on shooting. I do have 2 other cards, just in case. Should I be swapping them out occassionaly?



Dawn P in Michigan

Flickr: dawnwithacamera
Canon EOS Rebel XSi

[Murtasma]

It depends on many factors.

1. How often do you read / write
2. Duration of Writing
3. Operating Temperature
4. Manufacturing defect


I haven't really been able to find trusted information on how long a good memory card should last but I know they should last a very long time. Odds are with a properly used, manufactured, stored and operated card you will likely bend the pins of the card or upgrade to a faster card before it stops working. I have cards that are 5 - 6 years old and still working like the day I bought them. I have probably read/written to some of these cards over 40,000 times. The older ones I have are also knock off brands.

It's always a good idea however to keep extra cards on hand because they can randomly corrupt on you but I've never had this happen to me yet. As for swapping between them this really shouldn't matter much. I tend to buy smaller cards in case one becomes corrupted I only loose 2 gigs of images. I feel this is the smartest thing you can do. Use smaller cards 2 - 4 gigs to spread your risk out between many different cards. It only takes a few seconds to stick another memory card in once it gets full.

If your shooting sports or video you may want to use a larger card so you don't miss shots. I subscribe to the idea of not putting all your eggs in a single basket.

It's just smart.

[OsmosisStudios]

Ive had a 512mb card since 2002. It still works perfectly, and I ABUSE my cards. I've never had one go on me.

[tonyniev]

same here CF card in use since 2002....

[dcclark]

I've never had one of my SD cards die, and they've been in continuous use for about 5 years. I abuse mine horribly, especially as far as temperature goes.

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by Murtasma

Odds are with a properly used, manufactured, stored and operated card you will likely bend the pins of the card or upgrade to a faster card before it stops working. I have cards that are 5 - 6 years old and still working like the day I bought them.

Second this. Assuming no manufacturing defects or other physical damage to the card, it will likely be obsolete long before it stops working. I've owned more than a dozen CF cards, and never had one completely fail on me.

[Murtasma]

Now those stupid little mini SD cards will likely blow away in the wind so be careful.

[BCampbell]

Generally any individual block of flash data has read/write life expectancy in the thousands (some say closer to 1000, some say a bit higher, maybe 2-3000). This doesn't mean that you will only be able to read/write to your card only 1000 though; the memory uses a technique called wear levelling to evenly distribute the use across sectors. It's also prepared for failure in invidiual blocks, so losing a block just means it won't write to that one and you can keep using your card.

Given enough time, it's feasible that you'll start seeing your capacity shrink (I usually blame the cold water in the pool), but because of wear levelling and error correction that would take a really vast number of read/write cycles, probably beyond any normal use we put them through.

[kirbinster]

They will last almost forever, but they are guaranteed to die at the worst possible time -- part of Murphy's law.