Hacking SD Card Damage Question

[OldGlass]

I just want to be cautious, but can ejecting an SD card too many times bring harm to it?
If so, then what exactly is causing the damage?
I'm sorry if this was posted in the wrong section

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Unless the housing is already damaged, no I don't think so.

 

[OldGlass]

Unless the housing is already damaged, no I don't think so.

I'm using a microSD card with a proper adapter.
Nothing is damaged, and I've probably ejected it more times than I can count.
Someone told me that can render it unreadable because every time it's being ejected, apparently there's some damage being done.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

I'm using a microSD card with a proper adapter.
Nothing is damaged, and I've probably ejected it more times than I can count.
Someone told me that can render it unreadable because every time it's being ejected, apparently there's some damage being done.

I eject mine all the time just for the Hell of it. More times than I can count. No ill effects yet.

 

[OldGlass]

I eject mine all the time just for the Hell of it. More times than I can count. No ill effects yet.

Can I get a bit more info about your SD card? Like what brand is it, how much capacity does it have, what class speed, and how long you've had it?

I just bought mind somewhere around one month and a half ago. Brand is DANE, and it's a 64gb class 10

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Can I get a bit more info about your SD card? Like what brand is it, how much capacity does it have, what class speed, and how long you've had it?

I just bought mind somewhere around one month and a half ago. Brand is DANE, and it's a 64gb class 10

It's a Silicon Power 64GB Class 10 MicroSD in a Generic Chinese SD adapter. Had it sometime since the begining of this year.

 

[Thomas83Lin]

I've had acouple of cards start to come apart, near the tip. On one the little plastic separator strips started to break off. I do a lot of reinserting during testing stuff. I try to be gentle and the cards do still work fine.
Last time one of those plastic strips I was talking about ended up inside my WiiU irritating. These are Sandisk and other then those couple cards no problems with Sandisk and I still recommend them.

Its possible one of my devices is causing the problem I haven't really looked into it.

 

[OldGlass]

Hmmm... interesting.
I will try to be as gentle to my card as possible now that I've seen what you've been through

 

[Mikemk]

It can damage the pads so the connector can't make electrical contact, but you can fix that with several pieces of electrically conductive tape.

Image from Google, not mine

If you pull it out before all the data is written, you'll damage the filesystem and have to reformat. That doesn't damage the actual card, it just corrupts the data stored on it. And it happens instantly, not over the course of several times.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

I've had acouple of cards start to come apart, near the tip. On one the little plastic separator strips started to break off. I do a lot of reinserting during testing stuff. I try to be gentle and the cards do still work fine.
Last time one of those plastic strips I was talking about ended up inside my WiiU irritating. These are Sandisk and other then those couple cards no problems with Sandisk and I still recommend them.

Its possible one of my devices is causing the problem I haven't really looked into it.

I've had that happen but never witnessed it breaking, have you? I'll go to pick up my SD card and suddenly the edge has broken away, seemingly without any actual trauma. I imagine it's cheap plastic. Haven't had that happen in a while though.

Hmmm... interesting.
I will try to be as gentle to my card as possible now that I've seen what you've been through

I belive Thomas is talking about full-size SD having this fault. I have never had a Micro-to Full SD adapter break on me.

 

[Mikemk]

I belive Thomas is talking about full-size SD having this fault. I have never had a Micro-to Full SD adapter break on me.

I've never seen an actual SD break, but I've seen adapters break quite frequently. If you plug the microSD in too far, it slowly wears down the plastic and/or acts as a lever pushing the top and bottom halves apart.

 

[OldGlass]

It can damage the pads so the connector can't make electrical contact, but you can fix that with several pieces of electrically conductive tape.

Image from Google, not mine

If you pull it out before all the data is written, you'll damage the filesystem and have to reformat. That doesn't damage the actual card, it just corrupts the data stored on it. And it happens instantly, not over the course of several times.

what does the write protect switch do?

 

[Monty Kensicle]

what does the write protect switch do?

It prevents the system it's installed in from writing data to it. Effectively making it read-only.

I've never seen an actual SD break, but I've seen adapters break quite frequently. If you plug the microSD in too far, it slowly wears down the plastic and/or acts as a lever pushing the top and bottom halves apart.

Really? That is so odd, I've only ever had full-size SD housings break on me. Never lost functionality though.

 

[Mikemk]

what does the write protect switch do?

It's a physical switch that the computer can read the position of. It doesn't actually protect the card, and the computer can do whatever it wants with the data, but it means "The person holding this card would appreciate if this computer does not write any data."

 

[OldGlass]

Hmmm...
I'm looking at my SD adapter right now, and it seems the small detector bits at the bottom have faint lines in them... Does this indicate it will break soon?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

vertical lines to be precise

 

[Mikemk]

Hmmm...
I'm looking at my SD adapter right now, and it seems the small detector bits at the bottom have faint lines in them... Does this indicate it will break soon?

Unlikely but possible. It just means you've worn down the copper connector

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Hmmm...
I'm looking at my SD adapter right now, and it seems the small detector bits at the bottom have faint lines in them... Does this indicate it will break soon?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

vertical lines to be precise

Those are most likely impressions of the pins from the reader inside the 3DS. Wear that is inevitable and should not hinder connectivity.