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Memory Card Torture Tests
saikatguha266 writes "BBC is reporting that five types of memory cards were dipped into cola, put through a washing machine, dunked in coffee, trampled by a skateboard, run over by a child's toy car, given to a six-year-old boy to destroy, smashed by a sledgehammer and nailed to a tree. It was still possible to retrieve photos from the xD and Smartmedia cards while the others didn't survive just the last two tests. "
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right, coz it happens to me all the time, to nail a memory card on a tree by accident...
:)
Note that I did had a PS2 memory card go to the washing machine, and it worked like a charm afterwards. Thank God, I was not going to start FF7 all over again
Je n'ai pas d'avenir Je n'ai qu'un destin Celui de n'être qu'un souvenir C'est pour demain
Sounds like these memory cards are about ready for use in the real world now that they've passed durability testing. Oh wait...
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10);'
"Most of them did fail to get through two additional tests - being smashed by a sledgehammer and being nailed to a tree."
The number of times i've accidently nailed my high-tech electronics to a tree... anything that survives that most common of IT mishaps will be a real lifesaver.
At last, indestructible storage for my p0rn!!
no no no no. That was just your camera trying to honor the old 'what happens in vegas, stays in vegas' rule.
Although this only really applies to the nailed-to-a-tree test, where the nail goes through will matter. In DIL ICs, most of the area is taken up by connections to the pins. If these cards have the core close to the edge with the connectors, and a nail is put through the center, it could miss the core entirely. And if the nail went through the bridges, a data recovery person could wire a reader the the connectors inside the package.
is this a feature or a bug?
There's always the microwave in the employee breakroom. Guaranteed to destroy small electronics placed within - in a matter of seconds.
Besides the fact that "nailing to a tree" is something which is unlikely to happen to my memory cards, probably the outcome depends strongly is the nail goes trough the flash memory or only trough plastic. Furthermore "washing" should be carried out at temperatures from 30-90 degrees, and the results should be interpreted in terms of flipped bits. Hammering is a combination of mechanical stress and vibration, two things which can be separated (and are interestin separate- one tells you if you might put the memory card in your pocket, the other one if you should damp vibrations if you put it onto your bike). Running it over with a toy card after running it over wit h a skateboard (I suppose with sombody on it) will not do additional damage, i guess! And dipping into cola may oxidise the contacts......
So.... I think the test was not carried out correctly and scientifically......
My parents have about 50 baby photo's of me. I have about 2000 digital baby photo's of my daughter. However, if I am lucky 25 of those are really worthy of printing. If 2 out of 10 digital pictures really make it to actual print, I consider that a great deal. I would say that translates to booming business for the printing services.
That will kill it....
Regardless of these tests, the fact still remains that the vast majority of friends that have had memory cards fail have been using SmartMedia. Practically every person I know with SmartMedia cameras have at least one card that isn't working.
I've been using CompactFlash for a long time, and have yet to have a failure. I have everything from 16M cards (used to carry files around) to 1GB cards (hundreds of photos, filled only on vacation). I don't know any of my friends with CF that have ever had a card fail, though a few of them have had filesystem corruption (I blame that mostly on the devices, not the card).
I think it's odd that with all the things they did to these cards, they did not put them through a microwave. It's not like that would have been hard to do and should happen more often to cards than being nailed to a tree.
http://nyamenation.org/
CF cards usually stand a trip through the washer. Just let it dry (no, don't use the dryer.) If you use a liquid fabric softner, it might not work. The advice I got from a Canon rep was to wash it again, but don't add softner.
DB26
The dustbunnies are under your bed.....
... for something from these guys to handle these.
The Tunsten has something of a reptutation for destroying memory cards. Check out this list of problems encountered using different cards in different machines.
Note that in the Tungsten T3 only 1 out of 7 tested cards actually survived the ordeal! Of course, this particular test isn't scientific, but it is based on real user feedback really using them for real things, so it's probably worth a read.
To destroy your flash card:
Install a small httpd server on flash card and get it \.ed.
For an extra five (5) points, install Java (Sun) at the same time.
Still, those two cards are a bit out of style, since SM is REALLY old, and xDs are only used by digital cameras made by Fuji and Olympus, so I dont think they will find a great audience.
Black holes were created when god tried to divide by zero
No matter what I used to give one of our CEO's, no matter how hard I'd tested it first, he found new and unusual ways to kill it.
That's the test I want to see: Can it survive a week at home with a mining company CEO?
The same kind of CEO who's password was always "password"....
Its good to know that if Hillbillies steal my memory card and nail it to a tree to worship as a god, I will still be able to get back my precious pictures of last years Christmas party!
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
... of a letter I read in a now long-defunct weekly computer magazine in the UK called New Computer Express. Printed on cheap paper, it attempted to cover all available platforms in one 80-page weekly magazine. This included everything from ZX Spectrums to the then quite new 486 PCs. Macs, Amigas, Ataris, Amstrad CPCs, you name it, they all had their corner in there. Great magazine. Only problem was, their letters page looked like the flamewar from hell...
One guy wrote in saying he had got fed of up how his friend was always boasting about his Amiga 500 and how it was vastly superior to any other machine on the planet, especially this individual's ZX81 Spectrum. So convinced was he, he proposed a test. He offered the letter-writer his Amiga 500 for free if he could come up with one test, any test of his choice, where the ZX81 outperformed the Amiga.
The Speccy-owner, sat down, had a think, realised what to do and called his friend over with his Amiga for the test to begin. The friend arrived, and was summoned to the back garden. The Speccy-owner took his ZX81 frisbee-style and flung it across the garden, landing it perfectly in a compost heap.
The Amiga owner stared at him, spun around with his Amiga, tried throwing it, fell over under the weight, the machine smashing into several pieces. The speccy owner picked up, cleaned off and plugged in his ZX81, and was playing Manic Miner in minutes. The Amiga owner was told to take his trash and go home, which he did, crying...
When it comes to destruction tests, you have to ask "what's the point?". My media cards are normally well protected inside cameras or PCs and are unlikely to be dipped in cola or nailed to trees. However, it's always interesting to see how things work outside of the environment for which they were designed, just like that ZX81 and Amiga 500.
shuffle your feet thru carpet with nylon footwear and pick up a memory card (in Minnesota in February).
Have my cat determine the memory card is alive and subsequently attack the memory card
Have a dog carry the memory card in it's mouth for a couple of hours; then bury the memory card in the back yard.
Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
Much more real-world than even the dog chewing on your memory card.
:-(
Just insert the card the wrong way up into your card reader. Our Compact Flash card reader is not well keyed and allows this.
Instant card death on powerup
Notice there aren't any brands mentioned (don't know about the magazine article it came from though). I'd bet anything that they bought the pricey stuff. Try those tests with PNY CrapMedia cards and see how long they last.
These guys have just such imagination. How about some real-life tests, like static electricity, X-ray machine, being left on the dashboard on a sunny day, being brought in on a cold winter day..
And if you are going to drop it in water, use salty water. After all, there are those things called "sea" and "ocean" and people get their cameras splashed when they play near them. Probably no less often then they spill soda on them.
Oh, and when you precious memory card falls out of your pocket while you are crossing the street, there are going to be tons of toy cars running over it.
It may have been the USB controller that was damaged. The way that these drives were designed was that the connector was attached directly to the circuit board, without anything else holding it in place. Or, perhaps it may have been the flash memory that was faulty, like in your circumstance.
You know, a normal person would just delete the files.
So most memory cards are just as powerful, if not more so, than Jesus. Hmm.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
Giving the card to a six year old kid to trash is all very well, but what about a _really_ destructive force like a four year old? There's a good reason why the nearly indestructible Pelican protective cases are guaranteed against everything except shark bite, bear attack and children under five.
I'm not worried about the nail-to-a-tree test, but I am worried about the staple-through test. I've only rarely seen a tree in an office, but I've seen many lUsers who are given to some strange behaviors. I've seen them staple through a 5.25" to attach it to a document. What would come of a staple-to-docuemnt for these media? Why didn't they test that?!
Now I'm going worry so much that I'll have problems sleeping, followed by curling up into the fetal position in a dark corner, rocking myself back and forth whispering "Rosbud," until they give me my Thorazine.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.