Discover more from HardwareSavvy

The HardwareSavvy Portal is the friendliest Android/PC/Mac tech community on the internet. Join 17,000+ curious and smart Savvies. No ads, bias or sponsored BS. We are fully supported by our paid users and not some large corporation.

Over 17,000 subscribers

Are SD Cards Good for Storing Data Long-Term?

Arsen

Aug 27, 2021

SD cards are small, compact, pretty reliable but for long term data storage there are few factors to consider.

SD card stands for "Secure Digital." SD is a type of removable flash memory used to store data in portable electronic devices.

Examples include digital cameras, video recorders, smartphones, and portable music players. SD cards are considered removable storage (instead of internal or external storage), since they can be inserted and removed from a compatible device.

SD not just ensures a safe passage for your data transfer and storage but also helps increase the overall storage capacity of your smartphone, camera and other devices.

How data is stored in Sd card?

Inside of the Sd card is a circuit that includes flash memory. Flash memory is used for fast and easy information transfer and storage. Flash memory is also known as a solid state storage device which means there are no moving parts, everything is electronic, no mechanical parts.

If we compare Sd cards with Hard Drive:

It has no moving part as a result, no noise at all
It allows faster access
Small in size and portable.

There are reasons why we don't use Sd cards for everything. Cost per megabyte for a hard disk is very cheaper than Sd card and the capacity is even more.

The best place for long-term data storage is on a computer’s hard drive whereas Flash memory Sd cards can be useful for carrying files that are frequently used.

According to Toshiba, the company that invented the technology, SD cards can only go through about 10,000 write/erase cycles before the hardware is incapable of retaining new data.

What affects the lifespan of a memory card is the number of times data is being written to memory cells. One thing that SD cards are definitely not suitable for is long term storage, due to the charge in the cells leaking over time.

Most SD cards won’t retain data for more than about five years. The best practice for keeping your data safe is to copy it from your SD card to your computer as soon as you can.