what causes a memory card to go corrupt?

[quazimoto]

I just want to see if anybody here can chime in on this because everywhere I search the answer is always a relatively unknown. I've only ever had it happen one but when it did happen it created the worst week in my life. I've since been shooting with a 1ds mark III with dual memory cards so I don't worry. I did just buy a 5D MII though and I have some hesistancy.

Essentially is there something I can do to the memory cards to make them less prone to going corrupt. I've always used Sandisk cards in 16gb and 32gb sizes.

I was considering buying the wireless attachment for the 5D MII that lets you save to an external hard drive but how in the world can you save to a hard drive when you are mobile outside. It's all quite frustrating!!!

[benyl]

Are you using a card reader?

I found that some cards over 4 GB "seem" corrupt when they are over 4GB. None of my sub 4 GB cards have every done it. For those specific cards, I use the camera itself to download pics. Pain in the ass, but at least you don't lose your shots.

[quazimoto]

Well what happened the one time was on an 8GB card when it happened. I took the photos and I could read them on the camera when I took them. Took the card out of the camera to put a new card in. Then when I got home I put the card into the card reader in the computer and it wouldn't detect it.

I was able to detect the card with an external usb card reader but the files weren't there. I ran a recovery program which pulled up a bunch of corrupt tiff files that couldn't be opened. Oddly though somehow there were tiny jpegs that were like thumbnails for the camera, but uber tiny.

I'm just paranoid now about it happening again. I almost wish there was a way to connect the camera to a card externally just to have two copies being made at the same time. I've read random stories on the internet and to me it just doesn't make sense regarding what makes these cards just mess up.

[The_Rural_Juror]

The exact same thing happened to me a few days ago.

I had to connect the camera to the computer to retrieve my photos. The card worked perfectly after I reformatted it. :dunno:

[quazimoto]

Ya mine went to normal after formatting but in my case I couldn't get the files off the card in a proper working format. I have also not used the card since as I have no faith in it.

Sandisk more a less told me it could be just about anything but one of the causes which is known is the amount of electrical current going from the camera to the card. So in theory it's possible a camera could have some kind of an error and then push energy through the card making it go nutso?

[Pahnda]

solid state memory isn't super reliable to begin with, on the transistor level. The thing most people don't realize is that even properly working flash based memory degrades over time. The transistors only have a certain life and as they die, there's internal hardware/software to essentially mark off dead memory locations so it avoids using them in the future and will move (if it can through error correction rules) data from dead areas to other areas, sometimes transistors that are critical die out (filesystem, etc..) and will corrupt the filesystem.

But it could be a LOT of things. Could be the camera damaged part of it, could be just what happens as they go through aging and read/write cycles, could be that something else screwed it up.

There used to be a lot of life-span problems with solid state memory based off floating gate transistors... so at least we're progressing! haha

[quazimoto]

This is why I'm so hesitant to use the 5D MII with my clients formal wedding photographs. Utter fear of the card going bad. I would find it highly unlikely for two cards on the 1Ds MIII to go bad.

I just wish there was a way I could use the wireless tranceiver that canon makes to put a backup of the files on a card or hard drive while i'm shooting. I just don't see any company that really makes a portable battery powered hard drive capable of doing it though.

/SIGH!!!

[Trini]

bleh happened to me already 4 gig card.
It never could reformat in the end, so I wrote it off and bought another card.

[quazimoto]

Yes but its not so easy when your dealing with someone's wedding photos. This is my dilemma lol.

[ex1z7]

i`ve always thought they corrupted when you opened, edited, and saved back to the card - or just manually deleted the pictures on the card with your computer and put the card back in the camera - and did that repeatedly..

I`ve always heard that formatting your card after every time you clear the pics off it really helps with preventing failing..

[cancer man]

Oh man i hear your pain nothing worse than losing pic's.
Are you sure your Camera does'nt have a voltage spike?
When you charge the batteries are they in the camera or a
seperate unit.
If there in the camera remove the card when charging,so i have been told by Canon.

[The_Rural_Juror]

I just purchased another 8gb Sandisk Ultra II card for $47 at Costco last night. Might as well play it safe and get a new card at these prices.

[Pacman]

How often are these cards getting corrupted?

I only have one 4 gig card that I use. I would be pissed if I took a bunch of vacation pics and it went south on me.

[Mar]

I've never heard of a card going corrupt when used properly. Most times I've had people tell me their card was corrupt but actually it was just user error.

1. They put the card in the machine and overwrite some files or delete some files and pull it back out again. The deleted files were temporarily saved to the trash can but remained on the device causing a null pointer to point to an object that wasn't there, therefore making the device seem corrupt. To fix, just plug it back into the machine, right click, remove safely and it works again.

2. Some drives come formatted FAT32 for some reason and can't hold more then about 300 kilobytes before seeming full or corrupt. They need to be manually reformatted to NTFS in order to do mass memory storage.

But most times it's problem 1, people pull the thing out of the machine without choosing the REMOVE SAFELY option so all deleted files can actually be deleted and memory addresses freed up properly.

[quazimoto]

Well its happened to me only once. But once is more than I think anybody ever wants this happening. When it did happen it was literally I was looking at the pictures on the camera, turned camera off, opened memory card slot, finished shooting, went home put card into the computer, and poof there is no FAT32. I'm just trying to ensure it doesn't happen again is all.

[AccentAE86]

If you shoot a lot and shoot often, you'll have cards that fail. It's inevitable.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/potn/badCF1.jpg

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/potn/badCF2.jpg

Use smaller cards, or use a dual card camera. That's all you can do while keeping the setup portable.

[quazimoto]

God the 2gb cards would be horrid on 22 mp camera. I just wish there was a way to run external memory from a camera it would make life way easier.

How in the world did you make that many cards go bad? Just curious to see if I can find tips to stop it from happening.

One thing I was told was to format the cards properly after each usage. Apparently it cleans the FAT32 and decreases the chances of corruption.

[Pahnda]

Formatting each time (or once a week or two) would be a good idea and probably, other than having a 2nd storage destination, be your best bet. When you do a format the control logic *should* recognize bad bit areas when the OS is writing to it and mark them off accordingly.

[AccentAE86]

2GB cards don't bother me that much. I get about 60 shots per card at 21MP. That's still almost twice as many shots I used to get with 36exp film.

These cards just end up failing now and then. Not much we can do about it. I DO format it in the camera before each use though.

[quazimoto]

I'll just take a gues and say you have around 20 of those cards which could explain them going bad more than I've had. Just the sheer number. I started noticing one of my 16GB cards every now and then will have a picture come up that is all messed up and I can only think that part of the card is corrupted.