Archiving to SD card, yay or nay?

7on

macrumors 601

Original poster

• Jul 12, 2009

• #1

I just realized that I have a bunch of files on CDs from highschool, college, etc. and was wondering about the archival quality of SD cards.

As in, do they degrade faster or slower than CDR/DVDRs? And are there other problems with them?

 

B

beaner454

macrumors regular

• Jul 12, 2009

• #2

7on said:

I just realized that I have a bunch of files on CDs from highschool, college, etc. and was wondering about the archival quality of SD cards.

As in, do they degrade faster or slower than CDR/DVDRs? And are there other problems with them?

Click to expand...

Pros:

Easily Rewritable
No Burning Required
Less Physical Space
Just Leave It In The Slot
Uses Less Battery Power

Cons:

Tiny & Easier to Lose
More Cost/GB


As far as the degradation I have noticed when I keep my DVD's & SD Cards safely stored away, my SD cards tend to have problems sooner. However, when I use them both regularly and with normal wear & tare the DVD's fail much sooner for me.

Personally I would go with the SD card route.

 

Tomorrow

macrumors 604

• Jul 12, 2009

• #3

SD cards are magnetic and can degrade over time - not likely, but possible. That, and they can inadvertently get wiped by a magnetic field, or ruined if they get wet.

Optical disks are forever unless the media becomes physically damaged.

 

CJS7070

macrumors 6502a

• Jul 12, 2009

• #4

Plus, for archiving, CDs are much easier to label in detail than SD cards are.

 

B

bgd

macrumors regular

• Jul 13, 2009

• #5

Tomorrow said:

Optical disks are forever .....

Click to expand...

Having struggled over the weekend to retrieve data from CDs archived about 8 years ago I'd have to disagree with this statement. No physical damage, I guess they have degraded over time.

 

7on

macrumors 601

Original poster

• Jul 13, 2009

• #6

I don't think SD cards are magnetic though.

And I have see CD-Rs become unreadable in less than 4 years just sitting on a shelf. At least a couple. The plastic that forms the pits and grooves for the 1s and 0s expands overtime eventually becoming indistinguishable over each other.

 

0098386

Suspended

• Jul 13, 2009

• #7

bgd said:

Having struggled over the weekend to retrieve data from CDs archived about 8 years ago I'd have to disagree with this statement. No physical damage, I guess they have degraded over time.

Click to expand...

Same here. I have backup CD's from 1998 that don't work anymore. They were kept in sleeves and never exposed to sunlight or water. Good quality discs too.
Some brands have survived though. Sony failed but Memorex survived.