How long do you think CF cards last?

I've got to find my receipt to find the buy date, but I just had a 4GB SanDisk fail. .. 28 L jpegs on it and then it said "CF Full!". ... so I dumped the images, reinserted the card into the camera.. and still got a "CF Full!" signal. This card is about 8 months old.. and has only had about 6k - 10k shots on it. (is # of shots an issue?)

.. just curious what others' experiences have been.

My Sandisk Extremes and Ultras have taken many thousands each. I think I must have shot 15K of pictures so far this year. They should last a couple of hundred cycles.

Do you reformat the card (in camera) each time you start fresh? If not, you should.

hmm.. Thanks SuzyView. This is an ExtremeIII. .. I wouldn't have expected it to fail so soon. (6k - 10k shots) .. I'll dig out the receipt and see if Circuit City will let me exchange it for another one. (do they consider these returnable??)

I was reading something about the life of the memory in CF cards a while back but can't remember where (it was a reputable book or mag though). I do remember that it stated the memory should last many thousands of cycles and that the better cards somehow "cycle" the memory to utilize the full card. The end conclusion was that most people would loose, destroy or replace a card before they could wear it out. Sorry I couldn't be more exact with my answer I can be exact in telling you that I have memory cards that are several years old that have seen thousands of photos and still work without a hitch.

Solid state memory in card and thumb drives will fail eventually. It's not guaranteed to last forever, the gates usually break down over time with many cycles. I had a Sandisk USB thumb drive die after a year of moderate use. They replaced it under warranty, I think Sandisk has a rather lengthy warranty (might even be lifetime) so you may want to check in to that as well if it's too late to return it to the store you bought it from.

no, I didn't know you were supposed to reformat each time it's inserted. - Thanks Gatorboy!

boy do I feel dumb. ... geesh. Ok.. I just reformatted it.. and it's fine. *whew*
(I guess I'm still adapting to digital from film.. .. LOL)

Just wanted to say Thanks to everyone. ... even though I figured out why (this time).. everyone's opinions and information is much appreciated!! This is all stuff I need to know. Thanks again.

Sandisk CFs have a lifetime guarantee, just send it off to them if you need a new one.