Testing an SD Card's true capacity

Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by ptero on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @08:26AM (#14743528)

How you do you purchase cards to guarantee you are not getting a fake? I believe fakes are pretty much everywhere now, in branded stores as well. Maybe buying those from stores that serve people who care helps (e.g., B&H photo -- as you indicate, a pro photographer losing his photos would be furious). They try to act on problems and work with suppliers quickly, but even this is not a guarantee.

A better approach IMO is to test the card first using easily available tools and use backups. This is more work, but can save you a major aggravation. My 2c.

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Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by sho on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @08:39AM (#14743601)

> e.g., B&H photo

I basically buy all my camera gear from B&H. The prices are competitive, their shipping is prompt and reliable, and I don't have to think about counterfeits - I have a fair amount of trust that they will not devastate their entire professional-oriented brand by allowing fakes into their supply chain. Getting something fake from B&H would probably be more shocking to me that getting it from an Apple store! Amazon is a different story - you can hardly tell if it's the "real" sandisk (or whoever) you're buying from. Hundreds of listings from hundreds of unknown sellers for the same thing, all slightly different, maybe backed by amazon, maybe not? No thanks.

I'd rather have a reasonable amount of trust in the distribution chain and not have to run checks when the thing arrives.

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Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by cdubzzz on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @08:56AM (#14743736)

Further to that, I buy as much IT stuff in general as I can get at B&H for those very same reasons. I even got a couple of 52-port PoE switches from them a few years back. Generally the prices are better than/comparable to Amazon and faster shipping (to the D.C. area, to be fair).

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Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by otterpro on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @12:28PM (#14745506)

B&H has been the only online store (and maybe NewEgg) that I trust for SD/flash memory. Strangely, I bought a SanDisk SD card from Best Buy (in retail store) that went bad after a year of very light usage (write speed becoming slower over time), and although I'm sure it's genuine, it leaves a little bit of a doubt, even when I buy something from trusted retail store.

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Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by hjposner on Wednesday July 12, 2017 @12:38PM (#14754002)

Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to post this here. -- Henry Posner / B&H Photo-Video

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Re:Testing an SD Card's true capacity by CaptainZapp on Tuesday July 11, 2017 @08:39AM (#14743599)

I reply to you, but mean both of you who replied to my comment.

Thanks! I was really not aware that this is a problem and will likely test my cards in trhe future.

This is atrocious.

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