memory card failures

keitaro wrote in post #10389041
With card prices these days it's almost not even worth it to bother calming warranty. While I was visiting Costco down in the states, I saw 2 4GB Sandisk Ultra on sale for like $25, and 2 8GB Sandisk Ultra for like $40. For all the time, effort, and postage, I would just replace older smaller cards.

Yeah it was a real hassle. Went online, filled out a form, put the card in regular white envelop, walked out to the mailbox and dropped it off. I think the whole process took 3 minutes. Got my brand new replacement 16GB SDHC card about a week later.

Just today I tried to use my Sandisk CF card in my 40D, and it came up with the error that there wasn't any storage space. It's an empty card. I guess the card's bad now. This could somehow be connected to the fact that when I tried to last put the card in the reader, the reader wouldn't work because it somehow got a bent pin (I don't push my cards in to the reader so I'm not sure how it happened), but now neither the card or the reader work. Luckily when I ordered a new reader, I ordered an additional backup card as well.

I have recently had a problem with a Kingston 133X 32GB card. The majority of raw images have large streaks of bright colour. JPEGS seem less affected, but many images have bands with distorted colours. Although Lightroom opens the images, Adobe RAW and the Canon utility just report corrupted files and will not open. A second similar card from Kingston has occasional problems, but not as widespread.

The problem appears to be isolated to the Kingston cards. It doesn't matter whether I upload from a card reader or the 7D, or changed cables. Reformatting the card did not fix the problem - still got a majority of distorted images. The camera and computer work fine with other cards - Sandisk or Lexar.

As example is here - http://i77.photobucket​.com …cpollock/Proble​mImage.jpg

The scary thing is that the review function on the camera did not give any warning. The images look normal viewed in the camera, even with magnification. It's only when I uploaded to the computer that I found that your images were worthless. Fortunately, the images were not important. The lesson is to always fully test a new card, including uploading to a computer, before using it on an important assignment or going on vacation. Stop using any card that gives a hint of warning.

If anyone really needs to get back the info on their cards, maybe check out

http://card-recovery.biz/us/servic​e.php

I had a completely dead card and they were able to recover my photos.

I've never had problems with my Sandisk cards, but I did take a cheaper card with me on my last trip to Brazil and the card died I was crushed.

Anyways, just thoughts I'd write this as help to anyone who really needs their pics.

I've used lots of brands (Sandisk, fake Sandisk, Transcend, Kingston, Viking, Sony, Integral, Datawrite, Kingmax), capacities (from 64MB to 32GB) and formats (Memory Stick, CF, Mini SD, SD, SDHC) of memory card and only once had a problem. That was a 2GB Datawrite CF card that was bought four years ago and was DOA. It was replaced and the replacement and one other I bought at the same time have never let me down. I've never had a working card fail on me.

I have had only one card fail...

The only CF card I have ever had fail on me was a Kingston 8-GIG card that I bought from Fry's Electronics.

I formatted it in my camera and tested it with a dozen or so shots and it worked fine. I then took it out shooting and I could see the images on my camera's viewing screen but could not find the images when trying to download them. I used a recovery program and still could not recover the images.

Unfortunately I did not keep the receipt nor the packaging. I thought after the initial test that I was home free. I am glad that the card was on sale for only twenty bucks.

I reformatted the card and used it around the house for images which I could immediately re-shoot if I lost them. It worked 10 or 20 times and then I experienced the same failure.

Then my only decision was whether to throw in the trash or the recycle container. I opted for the trash.

I have other Kingston cards which have served me well, I will keep them and keep shooting with them because I have confidence in them. However - I will not buy another Kingston card.

Personally I have never had a CF, SD or SDHC card fail. I also have the fear that one will fail at the absolute wrong time. I guess we just have to take that chance.

jurgenph wrote in post #10391438
i back up my photos on a RAID1, i have everything backed up.
the failure i'm referring to is one that happens while the card is still in the camera , with all your fresh shots on it, before you get home and are able to actually back them up onto another media. i do not lug a laptop around when i go on vacation.


J.

i always take my laptop pretty much anywhere i go but i leave it in the hotel room most of the time unless im doing a big shoot with lots of people and we need to review stuff on site. i how ever may shoot 6 or more cards in a day so i got a hyperdrive to backup all my cards well im in the field then i upload them to the laptop at night then copy them onto a external drive. once im satisfied all is well the cf cards go back into circulation with 3 copies of each file. if its something important like a paid shoot multiple people will carry a copy on the way home or i have been known to make a copy of the entire shoot and fedex it home just in case the plane gets hit by a gamma ray "you get the point" and wipes out all the data

Google search and you will find that Kingston, Lexar, and Sandisk ALL have reports of memory failure!!! Nobody is immune, it is the nature of the beast. Even this thread has posts from people owning all of the above names, who have direct experience with failure of one of the three. Personally I have never had failure of Kingston or Sandisk, but I have had a Lexar fail. Your mileage may vary.

I had one card go bad - it was a cheapee 1 gig from micro center . Not sure who messed up or if card just got loose .
It's history was - it was used to transfer pictures to and have them printed . Anyway it was in Mexico , I loaned out card , it came back , I reformatted if , Transferred shots to it to be printed the next day .
I dropped it off , went later to pick up . Was told no pictures on card . Took home and if I held it just right the shots were there . Either something came loose in card / pin sockets came loose / what ever . They guy that borrowed the card said his did same thing , so he used a cable to download . I gave him a good san disk USB reader and threw his away [I also gave him a Lexor 2 gig card] . Now he can read different cards than just CF .
If you have read my other posts , this is same relative the wife gave my tripod to about 5 years ago .
Anyway , try a bad card in a different reader - after you recover the shots toss the card .

I never had a card go bad on me *knock on wood*, but given the circumstances that anything can happen, it is best to use a body that can save to two cards at once, such as the 1d mark iii and a few others, or make use of spreading the pictures over a few cards