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Which is the best micro sd card company/manufacturer you can recommend ? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I don't care about speed, bigger storage, or small price difference all i want is it to not start corrupting my files randomly, die really fast, be unreliable etc . i just want something to put my files on then delete em and add something else, and forget about it and have it work for atleast 10 years . I don't really transfer a lot of big files so i don't think the memory cycles thing is gonna be a big problem . I used to think sandisk was good as i have an old 7+ year sd which still works without any issue but recently i bought another one which started corrupting my files and stopped working on my device under a year and i'm beginning to think sandisk is not that good anymore so share your experiences and opinions/thoughts etc .

Also i don't know where else to ask or if this is the right /c/ so feel free to let me know and i'll take it down but don't downvote incase i can actually get some answers .

Edit : This is probably a dumb question but does always being in a device reduce lifetime compared to being kept out of devices after putting data in it ? It is designed to be put in devices right so it shouldn't affect it right ?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There is no "set and forget" solution to data storage. If not cared for, data does not last.

Already pointed out by others but:

DO NOT USE NAND FLASH FOR ARCHIVAL STORAGE

Flash storage drives work by trapping tiny electric charges to represent binary data. Multi-cell NAND uses multiple levels of charges to represent more data with less individual charges, and this makes the drive more sensitive to corruption over time. Older NAND (or just any SLC drive) is better at data retention because of this.

As capacity has gone up, the tech has become gotten smaller, cheaper and more dense, it's sensitivity has gotten worse.

If you want your data to still be there in ten years DO NOT USE NAND FLASH. It relies on being powered regularly to "refresh" the charges representing the data.

Unplugged, the data will start to become corrupt within 3-5 years.

A magnetic hard drive is slightly better but most manufacturers won't promise you more than five years of guaranteed data retention when unpowered.

If you want something to be safe for ten years, an external storage device/card of any kind is not the answer (except tape drives, they are rated at 15-30 years). A live storage array with parity and hot spares, is.

If you don't want the hassle of maintaining a storage array, the next best thing is optical media, CDs, DVDs and Memory Blu-Rays are all very reliable for their rated lifetimes. Even they will eventually experience data rot, but you can expect about 25 years before that becomes a concern.

If you intend to use the SD card to essentially expand you phones storage for example, or something similar, this is ideal.

Always plugged in, is the best, and kind of only, way to use flash storage with full reliability. In this use-case, regularly powered, their only functional limit to their lifetime is how much data is written to them over time.

How to find the good ones has already been commented on. I've had a good experience with Samsung's higher end microSDs.