$5 Micro SD Cards

Das blinkin lights is nicht fer der finger gepoken.

Wow it is just like Christmas in June.

The MicroSD card in my Nuvi is way down on my risk list -- much higher on the list are the cards I use in other storage applications. The GoPro likes fast cards. Running the big Nikon in burst mode likes fast cards as well. My Raspberry Pi computers don't like slow cards.

And there are a bunch of counterfeits out there, ranging from re-marked cards to just plan junk. Others have mentioned tools for checking out cards (I use some Windows tools). I've had people bring over cards they've gotten at flea markets that have name brand labels over junk contents.

(If you have a bad card, do yourself and those around you a favor and IMMEDIATELY destroy it so it won't bite you, or someone else again? Cut it in half, bend it, snap it, drill it, but do something!)

I stick to Costco or one of the local computer stores for memory cards, SD, microSD, and the occasional USB thingy.

Responding to an off-line question, the tool I use most in formatting/verifying the operation of various cards is:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

SD Formatter, which I pick up from the SDCard official website. Available for Windows and Mac.

I like SD Formatter, too, since it also will reset partitions to a single large partition as well as format the SD.

To test SD cards, I like H2testw.exe

Thanks for that feedback & very logical.

Too bad the spell check doesn't have grammar too! Guess my fingers didn't type what I was thinking. And I don't see an option to go back and fix it.

Those were the days when you needed a separate hard drive controller plugged into a slot. First came full height then half height drives. Low level format then high level a new drive. My first PC was an IBM-XT compatible @ 4.77MHz (Turbo @ 8MHz) using 640K RAM, 2 floppies, and one 20 MB MFM HD with a CGA monitor. Cost me $1750 back in 1987.

After all this discussion I am happy to have my class 4 for my GPS and Class 6 & 10 for my camera and phone.

Have enjoyed the other discussions on what we started with. There is another little instrument that cost a bit back when ... my first calculator was an HP ?? that cost me about $50 (1971 I think)and all it would do was the 4 basic functions. Now for $50 you can get a full scientific.

In the early 1970s I was looking for a calculator to replace the K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig slide rule I bought in 1959. But there was only 4 function (add, subtract, multiply, and divide) calculators available and they cost around $300.

I noticed that prices were dropping fast and more functions were being added so decided to wait for a calculator with at least the basic transcendental functions (sine, cosine, tangent, and their inverse, plus natural and common logarithms) and the cost to be under $130. Soon the Bowmar MX100 met my requirements and I bought one.

I used DOS Debug to low level format hard drives and also to write small programs in assembly language to make .com files do things such as set the font size and style on dot matrix printers. I also used it to modify an existing .sys driver file so that I could use some of the memory of a Hercules B&W video card as a disk drive.

The first computer I worked on was an analog computer in 1963. It was “programmed” by comparing the differential equations describing electrical circuits to similar differential equations describing mechanical systems. Electrical components such as operational amplifiers, capacitors, inductors, resistors etc. were selected as indicated by the equations. The output of the circuit was hooked to a plotter which could display solutions of the differential equations such as the displacement of a vibrating spring-mass system versus time and the trajectory of a missile.

In 1964 I started programming an IBM 1620 using Fortran. At first it was for solution of heat transfer and fluid flow problems in my college classes and next as a “summer hire” I wrote a Finite Element Analysis program for ACF Industries (a company in Albuquerque that made tritium triggers for nuclear bombs). The input to the 1620 was via a stack of punched cards consisting of IBM JCL (Job Control Language), Fortran program, and data cards.

Ahhhhh. Commodore. The name brings back many, many memories.

Way back when... I started off on a Commodore Pet, upgraded to a VIC-20... and when the Commodore C-64 came out I bought it also. Shortly thereafter the C-128 came on the market so I had to add it to my collection... and I eventually ended up owning a Commodore Amiga.

Along the way I acquired their 1530 Datasette... and when the 1541 5.25" floppy drive came out I bought two, which you could "link" together.

At the time, (being the Commodore person I was), my printer ended up being the MPS-802, while my monitor was Commodores 1702.

My modem was 300 Baud Vic which, (at the time), was the fastest you could go.

After all these years, I still have all my Commodore 'puters, accessories, floppies and other various programs. They'll most likely still be around when I pass away, once again meeting "Jim Butterfield of TPUG" at the great Commodore convention in the sky.

Nuvi1300WTGPS

For me, it was the HP-35:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-35

http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp35.htm

Gold-plated contacts, I think, plus one (yes, one!) storage location--and all for a mere $395. I bought mine used in 1973 for around $300 and thought I scored a great deal. I needed the log and exponents functions--anything to replace the old slide rule. I've been a fan of RPN ever since. One feature of RPN was/is that almost no one will ever want to borrow your calculator for more than about 30 seconds--they give up when they can't find the equals sign.

The owners manual also shocked me when I read for the first time that:

355/113 was an amazingly-accurate approximation of π.

I know it is silly but "Reverse Polish Notation" gave me a bad image and made me avoid HP calculators.

Some of my friends swore by them but I went the Texas Instruments route when they had even more transcendental functions and I gave my Bowmar to my brother.

TIs were OK if you liked parentheses.

(I did)

I've gotten some counterfeit cards on ebay before.

But with the eBay cards can't you file a dispute with PayPal?

I've bought several SD cards on Ebay after reviewing the seller. I ONLY buy Sandisk cards.
Once I receive the card I go to the Sandisk site and register the card for the warranty. It is quite difficult to read the serial # on micro cards; a strong magnifying glass is needed.

Once I enter the serial # the card is registered. I assume they won’t register counterfeit cards.
When I sign into the Sandisk site I can view all the cards registered in my name.

I figure if Sandisk registers the card it must be legitimate. But there is always the possibility it is not if whoever manufactured the card used a legitimate serial #. I'm not sure if Sandisk has the ability to check if a card was registered more than once.

@muellk9k

Thanks for the post. I have bought SanDisk for many years and never knew that they could be registered. Have never had a SanDisk fail, but now that I know, may start. But then again is it work $5-10 and the time it takes to file a claim?

ROFL I've never heard fleabay called that. Thanks for the laugh.

The primary reason I register them is not so much for the warranty but rather piece of mind that I've reduced the risk of buying a counterfeit one.

I've never had to file a claim since all my Sandisk cards are still working.

MFM and RLL.... Then ESDI drives came and went about just as fast.... Then we got this wonderful new drive technology: SCSI!

I had forgotten that as part of self-education was learning about interleaving, high and low level formatting, and don't forget writing that little bat file to park the heads.

Have done DOS 3-6.5(?) and all the Windows versions except Vista and 8. ME was a bust.

ME was the "Mistake Edition"!

Then 10-15K RPM drives and Fibre Channel infrastructure (& competitors), and then SAS & SATA (& competitors), and now everyone pushing SSD (Solid State Drives). Makes me "flash back" (no pun intended) to the days when I worked on Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) and built & attached a very expensive RAM based "disk emulator)" .