When to retire a compact flash memory card

[Picture North Carolina]

Hardly a week goes by here without one or more posts about corrupted pictures, lost pictures, etc.

I would prefer not to go thru that in the first place. Is there any published data on compact flash card usability / dependability and when to retire them?

[PhotosGuy]

I'd like to see that, too. Only solution I see now is to shoot critical stuff on two cards & I won't buy one over 2GB.

[Dermit]

I have nine 4GB cards and one 8GB card... I used to have ten 4GB cards but one of them went bad on me. All the cards I bought except two were of a very popular brand. The two others are of a well known brand but not as popular as the other company. Well one day one of the two went bad. Computer would not read it and camera told me it was not formatted (after I had shot on it and filled it). So I used my data recovery software and got all the images off it fine. I then took a sharpie and put a big red 'X' on the back of the card. I've been shooting digital and CF cards for 7 years now and this is the first time that has ever happened. Well, I chalked it up to just a fluke and decided to keep using that card, but for non-client, non-'inportant/critcal' stuff only... and it worked fine for several more uses. But two weeks ago same curruption happened to the same card. i did get all the images off it with data recovery. But that card, it's done. Retired. And now I worry about the other card of the same brand name... and I will only buy the brand that most my cards are now.

As far as retiring a card just due to age.... I feel as long as you have good data recovery software I would keep using them until they fail. Some of my oldest 4GB cards are 3 or 4 years old with no failures. I no longer shoot on the smaller CF cards I bought 7 years ago just due to their size (512s, 1GBs)

[Jim G]

I duplicate critical stuff onto the second in-camera card; as such I'm going to keep shooting with a card until it becomes an uneconomical size, which so far has happened to me well before any have expired.

[egordon99]

When you've upgraded your body enough times such that said CF cards now only hold two RAW images.

[Dermit]

When you've upgraded your body enough times such that said CF cards now only hold two RAW images.

Now that's funny, mostly because it's true-ish. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[egordon99]

Inspired by a recent poster's realization that him upgrading from a 20D to a 50D turned his 1GB cards into essentially a roll of film (~36 shots)

[doctorgonzo]

I would prefer not to go thru that in the first place. Is there any published data on compact flash card usability / dependability and when to retire them?

Flash memory can handle tens of thousands of erase/rewrite cycles. And since the software in the card moves the file locations around (instead of writing and erasing one block of memory 100,000 times, wearing it out, it will make sure all blocks are used equally), it takes a long time to run up against this barrier.

But like all electronic devices, some parts fail earlier, some later. No real way to tell until they fail.

[Riff Raff]

I "retire" them when they become too small for me to reasonably consider using. So the 512MB CompactFlash cards, and the 64MB SmartMedia cards have all been retired. :)

[John_B]

CannedHeat,
I have never had a SanDisk CF card die on me yet. Even one dropped into the water and it still works today.

Like others they become small way way before they die, and then they can come in handy for quick file transfers etc... I still got the original Sandisk I got with my 10D 6+ years ago and it works fine just small ;)

[René Damkot]

I have never had a SanDisk CF card die on me yet.
Same here.
And that's 2x512Mb; 2x1Gb; 2x2Gb and 2x4Gb.
First set bought when I went digital (2004 or so?) last a bit more then a year ago.
Total way over 200k shots on them. (not that I think that's that much)

[PhotosGuy]

I have never had a SanDisk CF card die on me yet. Me either. I wonder how many of the people who have problems carry the cards loose in their pocket instead of in the case?

[milorad]

.... or walk through massive EM fields with their cards, like those anti-theft scanners in supermarkets, etc.

They sell lead-lined CF holders for heavy abuse, and airport x-rays... I've never bought one, but mostly because I carry a CF holder on my person when travelling.

[Jim M]

I've had two Lexar CF cards tank on me at about three or four years of age. They were purchased at different times from different sources. Both got extremely hot when inserted into the camera and didn't work, which is how I discovered the heat issue. I believe they would have burst into flames had they been left in place. Most of my current CF cards are SanDisk with a few other random brands thrown in. My 1Gb cards are fairly old and have been through a number of airport X-rays, but seem to be doing fine with the occasional use they now get.

[JeffreyG]

I had a Lexar 2GB card bite the dust. It was newish, used maybe 50 times and suddenly I was getting ERR02 and the last shot would be gone (but previous stuff was OK on the card). I formatted it and tried again but still got ERR02 after about a dozen shots.

Then I pitched it in the trash and it has not caused me any further troubles.

[Sports_Dude]

Knock on wood.....I haven't had a Sandisk card fail yet. I even have 32mb and 128mb cards from back in the days that are still working.

Started with the standard blue cards, then moved to Ultra IIs, then to Extreme IIIs.

[Picture North Carolina]

Me either. I wonder how many of the people who have problems carry the cards loose in their pocket instead of in the case?

I've had two Lexar CF cards tank on me at about three or four years of age.

Thanks all for the replies. I agree on two points: I use 2G cards mostly, with the guessed-assumption being that memory-dense media may be less trustworthy, and I only use the Sandisk brand.

I also never put a used card in a pocket with or near any electronic device; I wonder how many of the random failures read about could have been caused by this.

[AndreaBFS]

I've also had a Lexar CF die on me. It's the only one of any kind of memory card that has died on me, but they did replace it even though it was years old at the time.

[illusions]

I have mostly sandisk cf, transcend and lexar... sadly lexar was the first to give up after 2 yrs of owning it with minimal use. :)

[Picture North Carolina]

Wow, that's interesting. Out of only 19 posts, look at how many people have had Lexar card die on them.

[Dermit]

OK, I confess, the one that I talked about that dies on me was..... a Lexar.

[Graybeard]

CannedHeat,
I have never had a SanDisk CF card die on me yet. Even one dropped into the water and it still works today.

Like others they become small way way before they die, and then they can come in handy for quick file transfers etc... I still got the original Sandisk I got with my 10D 6+ years ago and it works fine just small ;)

Ha ha....two of my "secondry" cards went through the wash by mistake...a 1gb Ridata & a 2gb Scandisc...:rolleyes:I panicked so I split the casings apart, left them to dry, they both work fine although I damaged one sideof the scandisc casing:o