A case for More than One Card

480sparky · Jul 18, 2011

Went to take some shots this morning and pulled an SD card out of my card reader that is connected to my desktop. Inserted it into my D60, I got the message "No SD Card inserted". So I opened the slot door, and there was a card installed. I pushed on it, it popped out, and I pushed it back in. Still got the No Card message. So I pulled the card out and looked at it. The little button to "Lock" the card was gone.

Hmmmm. Oh well, put in a different card and continue. Once I was done shooting, I put the second card into the reader. It wouldn't register with the computer, despite several attempts to reinsert it into the reader. I finally noticed that the card was going in at a slight angle, so I pulled it out and tapped the reader on my desk. The little blue piece fell out.

Moral of the story: Cards can fail any time, any where, and for any reason. Memory's cheap folks..... there's no reason to have just one card.

Jeff Canes · Jul 18, 2011

sd cards do that, i've had maybe 4 brake the same way

Trever1t · Jul 18, 2011

Who would have only one card? I have too many.

Garbz · Jul 21, 2011

This is a case for an alternative, not necessarily more than one card. You have some strange failure modes.

My SD card can not be inserted at an angle. It sits all the way inside the card reader with no wiggle room, I suggest you look at that if you get a chance to replace the reader at some point.

As for the tab, get a MicroSD card and an adapter. One fundamental issue with SD cards is they have something mechanical to break made of cheap plastic. MicroSD and CF don't have those failure modes. Though CF cards have the potential to bend pins so again getting a reader with deep insertion depths help prevent any skewness.

480sparky · Jul 21, 2011

So you're suggesting using micro SD cards to eliminate this problem? How does that solve the issue?

Garbz · Jul 22, 2011

I think the interesting issue here is that the SD card failed in a way that a computer couldn't read it. This is a far more serious failure mode than most associated with flash which tends to fail to write and not fail to read. MicroSD isolate the issue since there's no mechanical failure mode. If the tab on the adapter fails pull out the MicroSD and put it in another adapter and you'll still be able to read the card.

You can still carry multiple cards if you wish to keep shooting on the given day, but the key here is being able to read a failed card.

480sparky · Jul 22, 2011

Garbz said:
I think the interesting issue here is that the SD card failed in a way that a computer couldn't read it. This is a far more serious failure mode than most associated with flash which tends to fail to write and not fail to read. MicroSD isolate the issue since there's no mechanical failure mode. If the tab on the adapter fails pull out the MicroSD and put it in another adapter and you'll still be able to read the card.

You can still carry multiple cards if you wish to keep shooting on the given day, but the key here is being able to read a failed card.

It's not that the computer couldn't read it.......... the camera couldn't recognize it.

As for shooting with a micro SD card, I would still need to put it in an adapter, which reintroduces the possibility of the same failure. Instead of carrying multiple cards, I end up carrying multiple adapters. What's the difference?

Tomasko · Jul 22, 2011

The difference is that it's a completely different story when fails just your SD adapter, which is much cheaper and failing of the adapter doesn't result in loosing all your photos on card

480sparky · Jul 22, 2011

The failure occurred before any images could be recorded on the card, so it's a moot point. If images can't be written, no images could be lost.

Tomasko · Jul 22, 2011

That's true, but this can happen after you wrote some images on it.

I believe you can't predict when such failure occurs next time.

480sparky · Jul 22, 2011

Well, I decided to play around with this card. The D60 will not recognize it, but my card reader does. Although there are no images on it, it is readable by the card reader.

Hmmm I wonder what I can do with recovery software..........

480sparky · Jul 22, 2011

FWIW, the recovery software found 268 shots on it.

Garbz · Jul 23, 2011

LOL ok I'm completely lost now

480sparky · Jul 23, 2011

OK, I'll recap.

Card was inserted into D60, and the screen said "No SD Card Inserted".

Card reinserted into D60, and the screen said "No SD Card Inserted".

Was noticed the little slider to lock card was missing.

Used another card to shoot with.

D60 would not recognize card, but card reader does, so recovery software was used even though no new images were on card that needed recovered.

Update: Card came through surgery just fine. I put some 2-part epoxy over slot where slider went last night. D60 now purrs along with said 'broken' card.

Card will be relegated to "Use only in emergency when all other cards have failed or are filled."

NikonME · Jul 23, 2011

I had a 2 Gig SD card that actually split on the corner where the lock is. The lock button also disappeared somewhere. I had nothing of importance on the card, and it was just a spare so there was no concern.

Shh, it happens.