How reliable are SD cards? Lost my encryption keys...

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devavictrix

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Nov 30, 2014
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I rarely use SD cards to transfer data but I do have a small wallet of micro sd cards storing data. I have one that I use as an encryption keys for Bitlocker and Keypass, another to store my Keypass data file, one for Windows 10 installation files, a bootable DOS/Linux etc.

Then all of a sudden the micro sd card that has my encryption keys has died. Its not recognised by BIOS or Windows... its like it isnt there at all.

This is no great problem because I have a backup of each micro sd card but I'm now worried that the same could happen to one of my backups and not be aware because they are hidden away at my mums. I bought the sd cards using eBay and although they say they are Sandisk cards I realise it's likely they are cheap copies.

Are branded cards more reliable than cheapo ones? Are some formats of flash storage better/more reliable than others? (ie, should I consider using CF cards instead of micro sd?), does the capacity of the card affect reliability (many of my cards are 64mb because I only use a mb or so of each one).

Many thanks for any help
 
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BFG-9000
The lifespan of SD cards plummeted after Sandisk went to 16-voltage QLC in 2009 and then everyone went to ever smaller processes in a race to the bottom. The target lifespan for them is now down to 150 P/E cycles so they are much worse than any SSD, especially when you realize they have no CPU or firmware to even out the writes or remap bad blocks. CF does have Integrated Drive Electronics as they are, after all, IDE devices, but still probably use worse flash than is found in any SSD.

The quality has dropped so low I now consider them less reliable than floppy disks, which similarly had quality problems once they dropped below 25 cents per disk ($174 per GB would be a shockingly high price today). You could consider...
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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You get what you pay for. SD cards can last a long time or a short time depending on their usage. Any solid state based storage (SSD, SD, ETC) has a limited number of read/writes. Getting them off Ebay is a great way to get used SDs sold as new or as you stated cheap copies/counterfeits. Buy new and always have at least 3 copies IMHO of important files on separate drives. In the case of money/bitcoin you may argue that isn't even enough.
 
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BFG-9000

BFG-9000

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Sep 17, 2016
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The lifespan of SD cards plummeted after Sandisk went to 16-voltage QLC in 2009 and then everyone went to ever smaller processes in a race to the bottom. The target lifespan for them is now down to 150 P/E cycles so they are much worse than any SSD, especially when you realize they have no CPU or firmware to even out the writes or remap bad blocks. CF does have Integrated Drive Electronics as they are, after all, IDE devices, but still probably use worse flash than is found in any SSD.

The quality has dropped so low I now consider them less reliable than floppy disks, which similarly had quality problems once they dropped below 25 cents per disk ($174 per GB would be a shockingly high price today). You could consider very small 8 or 16MB cards on eBay which are undoubtedly very old and robust, although there's no way to check for remaining life so new-in-package old stock would be best. Nobody would bother counterfeiting such small cards.

I still write to 1GB and smaller SD cards from before this everyday. They were made on a huge 50nm process just like the original X-25 SSDs. I still have a SLC X25-E with Win 7 on it, rated 100,000 P/E cycles and it says 99% life remaining.
 
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