Bad SanDisk 64Gb SDXC card. Who can U Trust?

daehttub · Nov 11, 2013

Just found out my SanDisk 64Gb SDXC Class 10 UHS-1 card is bad. I lost data, photo, and video. I thought SanDisk was the best so I paid the premium price. This was an Amazon purchase, not some eBay knockoff. SanDisk is sending me a replacement but I do not trust them anymore. Anybody have any opinions on the most reliable SD card brand - regardless of price? I can't risk another data loss and smartphone downtime. My Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is my portable "desktop". Backup could not save me from a corrupted SD card. I didn't lose everything but I lost enough to make it painful. Anyone else get dinged by a bad SanDisk SD card? Thnks.

twister6 · Nov 11, 2013

I would still use only SanDisk. Had the same issue early this year with 32GB card, purchased officially from Amazon. Turned out there are a lot of sellers under official Amazon listing, and I didn't pay attention when I click on purchase (was just looking for a better price). Turned out I got a fake card from Amazon!!! SanDisk still replaced it under warranty (top notch service!!!).

Rukbat · Nov 11, 2013

The best SD cards DO go bad (they have a large, but finite, number of write cycles). The only way to make absolutely certain that you don't lose data you absolutely can't afford to lose is to keep 2 separate backups of all the data. That way, when one card goes bad, you can copy the second backup to the new card. (Keeping them in different buildings even guarantees against a terrorist blowing up your office building.)

As far as San Disk's reputation, if they made cars, I'd buy one from them. You can probably pay more, but I doubt that you can buy better.

NeoGrandizer · Nov 11, 2013

SanDisk is fine. I never had any real issues with them to date, though I've stayed away from the newer 64GB cards since they are still relatively new and expensive. I also used Transcend, Lexar, Kingston, Samsung, Sony and ADATA. Not just microSD, but Compact Flash, SD/SDHC, USB keys, etc.

Out of all of them, I seem to have no luck with ADATA. They failed within a month of use and was really unreliable (maybe just very unlucky with this brand). Definitely wouldn't try them or consider them again. Heard Patriot was also good; might try them in future.

daehttub · Nov 12, 2013

Thanks for the quick replies. I can't wait +10 days for SanDisk so I ordered an Adata (DOH!) Card on Amazon so I would not have a cardless phone. I should have waited for your replies... I will definitely keep a 2nd 64Gb SD card handy going forward.

potionsteak · Nov 14, 2013

NeoGrandizer said:
SanDisk is fine. I never had any real issues with them to date, though I've stayed away from the newer 64GB cards since they are still relatively new and expensive. I also used Transcend, Lexar, Kingston, Samsung, Sony and ADATA. Not just microSD, but Compact Flash, SD/SDHC, USB keys, etc.

Out of all of them, I seem to have no luck with ADATA. They failed within a month of use and was really unreliable (maybe just very unlucky with this brand). Definitely wouldn't try them or consider them again. Heard Patriot was also good; might try them in future.

Same with me i haven't experience it, mine is reliable too

Davdi · Nov 14, 2013

SD cards and USB sticks are not backup media. they are transport media; the same is true for data on CD/DVDs. Disks burnt on a computer are nowhere near as durable as commercially pressed disks. I know all media can fail, but an external Hard disk is the recommended (non-archival) backup medium, together with dropbox/Google docs/Sugar Sync and other cloud storage options. For long-term storage, there are (expensive) archival-quality media available.
I've recently transferred about 30 CD and DVD disks to an external Hard Disk which is stored in a heavy 60 minute rated fire safe (Paranoid, me?), but not another 6 disks (that's 20%) that would not mount in either Windows 7 or Linux, nor would Autopsy read them. Stuff that really matters is in the cloud with at least 2 different services as well.

mikedt · Nov 14, 2013

Even with Amazon a lot of items are shipped directly from the vendors, just like Ebay, e.g. fake Sandisk SDs from China, for which Amazon has no knowledge, not until customers complain. If you think you were sold a duff you can take it up with Amazon.

Also it is important not to just rely on an SD for your irreplaceable photos or videos, keep another copy of them somewhere, either on your PC, in the cloud, or whatever. Have a backup. Even good SDs and USB sticks can go bad at any time, and without warning. In fact they will wear out anyway with use, which is the nature of flash storage media

NeoGrandizer · Nov 14, 2013

Davdi said:
(Paranoid, me?)

Nah, just being extremely cautious with your data.

But even with HDDs, I keep at least 5 running backups of the same files if they are extremely important. Even though HDDs are reliable, you might run into a piece of equipment that is not. I've had a few HDDs get toasted with hardware controller going bad (corrupting partition table, etc.). Good thing for multiple backups.

daehttub · Nov 17, 2013

The ADATA card I ordered from Amazon was a fake. I've ordered a Kingston 64Gb card now. I think any 64Gb SD card under $50 on Amazon is a fake as the one and two star ratings show. I learned my lesson about buying an unrated item on Amazon. Big mistake. I do use a laptop (backed up to cloud) to backup my phone. Unfortunately, it is not real-time backup. I will turn on Carbonite back on for my phone. I had turned it off. DOH! I might spring for a 3TB external drive as they have become ridiculously cheap. Does anybody have any reccomendations on reliable makers? Seagate?

NeoGrandizer · Nov 17, 2013

For HDDs, I stay mainly with Seagate or Western Digital (though lately, I've been going with Western Digital). Definitely stay away from Toshiba. I have had bad experiences with their drives. If they fail, they fail (without warning too). It just decided to die without any warning one day. I replaced it with a Seagate Hybrid SSD/HDD. Needless to say, all data was lost and no recovery was possible as the hardware itself failed.

I have no experience with already enclosed external HDDs as I usually just buy an enclosure and slap a HDD in it. Makes it easy in case there is a problem and I can strip the drive out (without destroying anything). But regardless, make more than one backup. As I said, the HDD may be good, but if paired with a faulty/bad controller, it will take out your data quickly (even if it's in mirror RAID setup).

As long as proper backups are made, you really don't need to worry about anything else. Unless there is a cascade catastrophic failure in which everything fails all at once. Like my motherboard and CPU both fried about the same time. What are the chances of that? Had to use the Note 2/10.1 as my backup systems during my downtime.

daehttub · Nov 23, 2013

Update #2: The Kingston SD card is doing the random dismount thing requiring a reboot. Very annoying. ADATA confirmed that my card was a fake and Amazon gave me the refund. My Sandisk replacement should be arriving shortly. In the meantime I am very unhappy with my Kingston SD card. Any ideas? I am going to return it as defective when my Sandisk comes in.

NeoGrandizer · Nov 23, 2013

Not sure.

Kingston is another recognized brand when it comes to memory. I never had issues with them either...

5280Man · Nov 24, 2013

I've used SanDisk in the past and have lost data on two different cards. Switched to Samsung cards and haven't had an issue. I just purchased a Class 10 64 gb USC card for the girlfriend. I was amazed that it's water resistent. I only roll with Samsung cards.

daehttub · Nov 26, 2013

Bad Kingston card update: I finally got the damaged sd card error message. My GN2 has also started to reboot randomly. I am done with SD cards from Amazon.com. Too many counterfeits and long return times. I am going to source my SD cards from. Retail store (best buy) so I can be assured of authentic product and instant return/exchanges while traveling.

PyroSporker · Nov 27, 2013

5280Man said:
I've used SanDisk in the past and have lost data on two different cards. Switched to Samsung cards and haven't had an issue. I just purchased a Class 10 64GB USC card for the girlfriend. I was amazed that it's water resistant. I only roll with Samsung cards.

Newer Sandisk cards, SDHC and SDXC cards 2-64GB*, are water resistant too.
SanDisk.com | About - Proofs

I can personally vouch for the Sandisk water resistance. I had a Sandisk card that spontaneously couldn't write data to any longer (through 2 years of normal use). It would still read prior data fine, and files could be copied from it, but I couldn't write anything new to it or format it no matter what I tried.
Sandisk approved my RMA via the unique serial # on the back of the card and said I could do whatever I needed to in order to destroy my data on it so I could ship it to them securely (at my request).
I submerged it in a cup full of water over night, microwaved it for 4:00mins on high, smashed it with a hammer, attacked it with a super strong Hard Drive magnet, etc. It still mounted after all that and data could still be copied from it.
I had to drill holes through the part of the card that encloses the cells (around the edges to leave the serial # readable) and peel off the gold connectors in order to render the card unreadable.

mikedt · Nov 27, 2013

I should think all SDs going to be waterproof, because the chip itself is completely sealed in plastic. Most likely won't work while it's wet though, because the contacts will be shorted. But once it's dry it should work just fine. Same thing with SIMs and chipped credit cards. The chips are completely sealed from liquids.

PyroSporker · Nov 27, 2013

mikedt said:
I should think all SDs going to be waterproof, because the chip itself is completely sealed in plastic. Most likely won't work while it's wet though, because the contacts will be shorted. But once it's dry it should work just fine. Same thing with SIMs and chipped credit cards. The chips are completely sealed from liquids.

Correct. I was just trying to counteract the fallacy that Samsung cards were somehow superior cards because they are water resistant, when in fact Sandisk cards are water resistant too (with documentation).
And as we know, other cards and card types, are water resistant as well.

5280Man · Nov 30, 2013

I understand your need to point out that Sandisk has water resistant cards. I was not trying to say that SanDisk doesn't have water resistant cards. I was just impressed to see water resistant cards. I've just had better success with Samsung cards. I was burned twice with SanDisk cards. Until Samsung fails me I will stick with their cards. Some and/or most SanDisk cards may be good, just relaying my experience and which card I trust which was the answer to the topic of the thread.

sfhkahr · Jan 31, 2014

Sandisk SDXC is okay. It is pretty expensive and the data read/write speed is not exactly what they claim but it is okay for transferring files sometimes. I don't trust the reliability of any memory chip SDcard/USB flash drive because no one knows when they are going to go bad. So I always have backup files on another storage like hard drive.

Bad SanDisk 64Gb SDXC card. Who can U Trust?

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