Compact Flash Cards - Failure rates ??

[JCalvert]

I just had a 1 GB CF Card die completely as I was beginning to read the images from it.
It was only 4 months old. I lost about 150 images from a trip.

Can anyone tell me if this is a rare occurrence and what mishandling could cause this if it wasn't a simple failed card.

What are the best practices for using with a CF reader. Should the CF card be in the reader before plugging it into the USB port or vice-versa?

Is any particular brand more prone to failure ( or least prone to failure )?

Thanks
jc

[Illegally_Alive]

This just happend to me a week ago, I used a data recovery program, and got most of the images off, and the card works well now. (Knock on wood).

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/download.htm

-Ben
p.s. The card working is not a function of the software, I think the crash was a one time thing.

[alan sh]

I have had one failure which was in my Minolta A2 and got very hot (Southern Spain). It was a cheap 250mb one.

I have loads of others and have never had a failure. I insert the card into my reader with it plugged in and active - no issues.

[thomascanty]

The only card of any type I've had fail on me so far was a 340Mb microdrive. I killed it by removing it from the card reader without unmounting it via the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the task bar while the system was still reading/writing to it. I had dropped the thing twice onto hard surfaces before, but it survived those.

No wait... I also killed a 64Mb Smart Media card once, several years ago, when I slipped and fell during a hike and landed on my right hip. The card was in a pouch in my Ricoh RDC-4200's case strapped to that hip. The camera ended up with a nasty dent in the lens housing, but it still worked fine. The card looked ok, but it didn't work any more...

[trbo187]

I sell PNY, Sandisk, Sony and Fuji memory cards. Most of our sales are in SD and CF cards. In a very unscientific general survey, I find that failures happen with all brands and types of cards with the frequency being about 1 per 1000 sold. Keep in mind these are cards that fail within our return policy.

[scottbergerphoto]

Having read this and another board regularly for the last 2 years, the only CF card with consistent reports of failures is Dane Electric.
Scott

[pierrot]

All cards, whatever the brand, come from 15 to 20 packaging factories around the world, and are made of chips dyed by 3 or 4 manufacturers only (exception : microdisks, made by Hitachi and sold as IBM MicroDrives). Thus the only difference between all versions of a same chip type is the brand sticker (and price!) ;)

Furthermore, a memory card working OK on purchase date will continue OK forever... as far as no cataclysm (from a memory card POV!) occur, caused by an external factor : physical damage, static discharge, overheating, etc.

That's why I'm prone - like Trbo is - to say that no brand is better than another : as far as it works on day 1 it should work you throw it away because technology is obsolete.

[scottbergerphoto]

In spite of the certainty of the last poster, all CF cards are not created equal even when built with similiar components. See the facts:
http://www.datarescue.com/laboratory/cfcompare/
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007
Scott

[pcasciola]

I'm not sure if these things can be mishandled based on some stories I've seen of going through the wash and coming out with all the pictures still on them, and even a camera that got destroyed during a bridge demolition but the CF survived. I've read that they are immune to magnetic fields as well.

Just curious, was this a Lexar 40x or 80x card? Because I've been seeing a lot of reports of failures on those lately.

[pierrot]

Uh-oh : what I mean to say is that a non-defective card has no intrinequal reason to stop working. Of course there are different designs, some being less "elegant" than others. But you cannot say that brand A is better than brand B ; only that the X model of brand A is better than the Y model of brand B. ;-)
(the first article - Datarescue - is very well done, thx).

[pcasciola]

only that the X model of brand A is better than the Y model of brand B. ;)Actually, we can't even say that anymore, because a lot of times they keep the same name but change the internals. For example, I'm really happy with my Sandisk Ultra II, but they recently switched over to MLC memory which is less expensive to make, so who knows how good the new Ultra IIs will be. Same with the Lexars. The original design of the 40x and 80x cards were very problematic and slow, and now they have a 2nd edition which you cannot tell apart from the 1st edition other than by checking the edge stamps against Rob Galbraith's list.

[Andy_T]

I feel a bit more confident with manufacturers like Sandisk that give a lifetime guarantee.

Aah yes, and don't go near the Magicstor 2.2 GB microdrive. It's known to be a very bad CF card.

Best regards,
Andy

[Persian-Rice]

I had a kingston that took a crap on me after shooting my first F1 race. Back then, I only had the one card, so most of my images were lost. But before it died, I was more then happy.

Now use 6 512 Ultra II's, so far I am at about 60,000-70,000 shots with them combined and I have had no problems. Very solid

[KevC]

Lol. A guy at the computer store was offering me the Magicstor 2.2GB.... very cheap for the amount of space but I didn't trust...

I'm supposed to get a call from the same guy about a gig Ultra IIs... I hope he can cut me a deal :)

[PaulB]

"Aah yes, and don't go near the Magicstor 2.2 GB microdrive. It's known to be a very bad CF card."

Andy,
Surely, by definition a microdrive cannot be a CF card - can it?
Microdrive = mechanical hard drive technology. Subject to mechanical failures as well as electronic failures caused by shock/movement etc.
CF = compact FLASH memory - solid state, chip based technology. Not affected by movement (no moving parts) but still affected by electronic failures - sadly.
And yes, I have washed a CF card. But it avoided the tumble dryer...still works fine.

[Tom W]

CF cards are known to be pretty rugged - I've read of people running them through the laundry without failure. I haven't suffered a failure yet, myself (knocking on wood).

[dobova]

Hey guys,
I sell memory cards, and like trbo187 pointed out, I have a rough 1/1500 CF return, 1/900 SD return, with a little more (1/700) on 1GB SD. Any brands has returns, but Sandisk CF less then others.
It's not true that chips are made by 3-4 brand only. Now China is producing lot of NAND flash chip on her own for 128/256 flash memory on bulk basis. SD has a bit more casualties due to a static discharge and electrical contact problems.
Extreme Sandisk CF type for the moment no return at all (on 2430 pcs sold) for example.

Ciao

[Jon]

"Aah yes, and don't go near the Magicstor 2.2 GB microdrive. It's known to be a very bad CF card."

Andy,
Surely, by definition a microdrive cannot be a CF card - can it?
Microdrive = mechanical hard drive technology. Subject to mechanical failures as well as electronic failures caused by shock/movement etc.
CF = compact FLASH memory - solid state, chip based technology. Not affected by movement (no moving parts) but still affected by electronic failures - sadly.
And yes, I have washed a CF card. But it avoided the tumble dryer...still works fine.
CF is also a form factor. The MicroDrives are CF Type II form factor.

[PaulB]

"CF is also a form factor."
True - but only if CF is suffixed to denote which form factor; otherwise CF without a suffix implies CFI which is NOT the Microdrive form factor, but is Compact FLASH memory - ie. Solid State, no moving parts.

[kmagic-digital]

I have 7 different brands of CF cards plus a Magicstore 2.2 Gb - And Yes, the magicstore 2.2 has quit working. The only other brands that have died are 2 Kingston 256mb CF cards, a 512 mb Lexar 40X and a 256 mb Lexar 20X. I currently prefer the Sandisk cards.

[prsast]

I fell in a local canal (and swam / wadded 30 yards) with my old digital compact. The camera was a total write off but the card once dried was OK. The same card has also been through a Bosch "hot cottons cycle" and still works although part of the label has washed off!!!

On both occations the card (Sandisk Ultra II 512mb) was fine (once dry) and all the data was still intact/undamaged on the card.

My new 2Gb cards (total 3) have now been through about 3,000 images and no problems.

Andy

[Phil Hall]

So far I have not had any problems and still have two IBM disks that are 4 years old. I have dropped them, used them in the Arizona desert and Canadian winters.

Phil Hall

[Jon]

"CF is also a form factor."
True - but only if CF is suffixed to denote which form factor; otherwise CF without a suffix implies CFI which is NOT the Microdrive form factor, but is Compact FLASH memory - ie. Solid State, no moving parts.
I'll be sure to tell my CF GPS receiver that. You may infer that CF, unadorned, refers to the nature of the device, but it's just as likely to be used in the general sense, not in the restricted digital photography environment, to refer to the form factor.

[JCalvert]

To Pcasciola; Yes, as a matter of fact, it was a Lexar 1GB 80x card.

However everybody, that does not mean anything other than I may have got a 1 in a million failure.

JC