How Do You Manage Your SD Card Library?

txmadman writes "Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several SD , mini-SD, and micro-SD cards for various purposes: cameras, cell phones, my laptop, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer easy and significant storage, but are very easily lost. We have also have run into some instances where it wasn't clear whose SD card was whose, and have also started to see a need for a storage mechanism. I have seen SD card 'wallets' and such, but have never seen anyone actually use one. So: How do you manage and keep track of your SD cards?"

Comments

Labels

[FluffyWithTeeth]

Put labels on them and keep them in a credit card pocket of your wallet.

This is seriously not a difficult enough problem to warrant a /. story..

Re:Labels

[rm999]

Having 100s of memory cards around makes about as much sense as having 100s of rolls of used, unlabeled film laying around. Even if your uncle is taking 20 megapixel RAW pictures, he can fit 800 pictures on eight 2-gig cards. In this extreme example, he shouldn't need more than eight cards if he takes 800 pictures a shoot, because the first thing he should do when his shoot is over is empty the pictures onto a hard drive with an automatic backup, then format the cards.

If you are having trouble organizing your memory cards, you can probably simplify some other aspect of your life to fix the problem.

Re:Labels

[lordSaurontheGreat]

He needs to have a number of cards at his immediate use at all times. Large high-resolution raw-format images are big no matter how you spin it, and the prospect of loosing an expensive card (well, probably less expensive now, but rewind five years and let the horror set in) isn't good.

When you're at a shoot, "oops, I somehow managed to grab ten cards, five of which were full" is inexcusable.

He organizes it by keeping track, putting things in consistent places, eg. full cards in need of download to the computer go in one place, cards that have been downloaded to the computer can be put in another place.

Simple habits can fix most problems of organization.

He needs so many cards because sometimes he doesn't have time to process photos between shoots, and there isn't always time to stop by the store to buy more, either.

And yes, he archives all data to hard disks and what not. Keeping it on flimsy cards that can easily get deleted by a camera's "clear card" function is a horrifying way to loose your customer's data.

While not always avoidable, try to keep critical data off cards. We've all seen photos of cell phones with address books in toilets or the fabled $2,000 latte. Do you really want to be the next /. headline "I lost my SD card in the wash and there was data on it I didn't have replicated - can you suggest any good recovery techniques, or am I basically screwed?"

Re:Labels

[theheadlessrabbit]

no, you would need at least 16 cards, but likely more. much more.

800 shots per job is not an overestimate, it is actually a very reasonable number.

I use one set of cards for each particular job. each set of cards is numbered and lettered. (1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a, 2b, 2c ...etc.)
for one job, i use my '1x' set, while the next job, i use my '2x' set.

use a sharpie, never pencil, to label your cards. different colours can help, too.

I copy the images to a properly named folder on a hard drive at the end of the night, and put those memory cards into a clearly labeled box. (I use an Altoids tin with some padding material thrown in)
at the start of the next day, I insert the next set of cards into my camera bag for the next job.

you ONLY format those cards and re-use them after the job is complete. before then, a minimum of 2 copies of the data must be kept. even after the job is complete, i keep the data on the cards until i need to format them for another job.

A professional has no excuse for lost data. but even at the amateur level, you don't want to lose your data. those photos could become treasured memories for generations to come.

Horde!

[lordSaurontheGreat]

I horde my digital media! People. Do. Not. Touch. My. Stuff.

Family members taking personal responsibility to know what is theirs and where it is is the only solution. There is no technological substitute for plain-old responsible living.

Putting labels on cards if they know they'll forget is part of that. Putting their things in their specific corners of the shared domicile are manditory. I infest my bedroom and my computer desk. My dad inhabits his desk of the study and his side of the master bedroom. My brother floats between the sofa, the piano, and his room. My mom Supremely Controls the rest of the house, and of course has jurisidiction as to the aesthetics of everyone else's little corners.

Do what you (hopefully) learned in kindergarten! Put things back where you found them! Develop habits! My keys always go with my wallet and phone and PDA on the articulating arm base of my computer monitor. I never wonder where they are: they're either on me, where they belong, or stolen.

Life is very simple when you take responsibility. It's all black and white, easy to differentiate, and on the whole much more pleasant.

Re:Horde!

[Captain Splendid]

It's hoard, not horde.

Fucking WOW idiots...

Treat Them as Garbage!

[Bruce Perens]

Treat your SD cards as garbage! No kidding!

You do this by using a hard disk copy as the "master", and copying to and from SD, considering that the SD is always "ephemeral", and may get bent, may pop out of the device and be stepped on and lost, etc. So, it is never the host for any critical data for very long.

And you make darned sure to back up the disk. These days my short-term backup medium is a couple of 1G or larger SATA disks, which I place in a front-loading holder and put in the fire safe after they're written. Long-term backup media is currently DVD, but will probably go to Blu-Ray when the media gets cheap enough. Some of these are stored in a relative's closet, because having all of your backups in one building is stupid.

Bruce

Re:Treat Them as Garbage!

[Psychotria]

couple of 1G or larger SATA disks, which I place in a front-loading holder and put in the fire, safe after they're written

Bruce, I have no reason to doubt you; but are you sure it's OK to put SATA drives into the fire? I know it's probably romantic to sit in front of a nice fireplace made from SATA disks, but wouldn't logs be cheaper (NO, NOT the /var/log kind)?

No Subject

[Orphaze]

Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several white, black, and blue pairs of socks for various purposes: school, work, dress, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer easy and significant comfort, but are very easily lost. We have also have run into some instances where it wasn't clear whose socks were whose, and have also started to see a need for a storage mechanism. I have seen sock 'drawers' and such, but have never seen anyone actually use one. So: How do you manage and keep track of your socks?

Re:Fire safe won't do much

[Bruce Perens]

Fire safes are generally designed to keep their contents below the combustion point of paper. Hard drives will melt at much, much cooler temperatures.

Good point. You don't want to be in the sort of situation where it's necessary to call Kroll Ontrak to recover the drive. The fire safe will probably reach an unacceptable temperature in a structure-destroying fire. That's why I have off-site backups.

Instructions to my wife and child in case of a fire are get out first, do not concern yourself about any disks. This even though some of the forest fires we are subject to give warning before the structure must be evacuated. My critical business data gets backed up out of the state every night, via the net.Bruce

I know how

[gparent]

I stored the info in a database on another SD card.

However I mislabeled it and lost it.