Secure Digital...Not So Secure

I use secure Digital cards quite a bit. They're probably the most common flash memory cards out there as many MP3 players, most consumer digital cameras and my Palm T/X uses them. I use these cards quite a bit in my Palm as I can write content literally on the go, and upload it to Blogger when I get back connected to the internet.

Unfortunately, I had yet another SD card go bad this week. That makes the third card in the last six months. They have all been from different manufacturers, SanDisk, Ridata, Lexar, and in different devices, at different times. None were exposed to any temperature extremes or moisture. I even keep them in storage cases, and don't touch the exposed metal contacts. Yet, all of these went bad.

What puzzles me is that I haven't had these issues with other flash memory formats. My Compact Flash cards have soldiered on for years, and I have yet to have a USB flash drive go bad (can you see me knocking on wood?). Still, the SD cards simply seem very fragile, for no apparent reason.

Needless to say, I lost some of my content this week, but nothing that can't be written again. I'll work on RMA'ing another card real soon.

--Jonas

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