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Most, if not all, SD cards are not a viable archive medium. Expect bitrot within 5 years. In testing PhotoStructure's image and video bitrot detector, I found
by mceachen 7y ago
Most, if not all, SD cards are not a viable archive medium.
Expect bitrot within 5 years. In testing PhotoStructure's image and video bitrot detector, I found all of my older (5+ year) cards were either unreadable or had file corruption.
- brudgers 7y agoI agree. But reformatting SD card seems a less useful backup strategy. Both in terms of accelerated bit rot and by adding human error into the mix. Basically, reformatting is worse than filling and storing. Filling and storing is less work. And the work it eliminates is prone to serious errors.
- godot 7y agoRight, I think he's not doubting your strategy of not reformatting, but more pointing out that the SD cards maybe shouldn't even be considered "first level backup" because they'll probably inevitably bitrot at some point.
- brudgers 7y agoSince the SD cards contain the originals, we're heading for trouble as soon as anyone applies formal semantics to 'backup'. We could call the SD cards "copies" but again, they contain the originals. I'm using 'backup' informally. Concern about bitrotting originals is one reason to backup. Losing some images is a partial disaster. Losing all of them is total. Reformatting is exactly that. It's objectively worse than bitrot over time. It's objectively better than not "backing up" at all. It might be less contingent than an online solution with a credit card dependency over a period of five years.