What Makes a Camera Memory Card Fail?

Camera cards that use flash media to store pictures and video are so standard nowadays that children are often confused when an old Polaroid photo shows up.

"Did it print like this?" my nephew asked last week, pointing to one of the old shake-to-develop pictures (or maybe you weren't supposed to shake them; the picture looked awful).

The biggest problem with camera cards, though, is that when they fail, hundreds or even thousands of pictures can be lost. Here's a list of some of the most common causes of camera card failure, and how you can best avoid them.

Heat - This is by far the most common cause of damage to a camera card. The inside of digital units can get very warm when operating for several hours (some in only a few minutes), and flash media generally is very susceptible to changes in heat. Cameras don't usually cause that problem, but computer slots which read information off of camera cards certainly can.

Leaving a card out in an area where it could get extremely hot or cold is also a danger; if the electronics which the card uses to communicate with your camera (or computer) fail, then you're pretty much out of luck--you'll have to have a data recovery company pull the data out of the camera card, or scrap it. To avoid problems with temperature, use your camera card moderately, only leave it in your computer's card reader when you need to access information, and keep it at room temperature the rest of the time.

Corruption - Errors in the reading and writing process can cause corruption, an issue where a card is referencing data that's not at the right location. Some camera card data recovery software such as Prosoft's Klix can address these issues, and usually camera cards that suffer from corruption failure are able to be used later after being formatted without carrying a risk of continual failure. If a card is continually becoming corrupt, though, there may be an issue with your camera or computer that's causing the problem.

Physical Stress - Finally (and perhaps most obviously), physical stress can cause a camera card to fail. They are just bits of plastic and metal, after all, and with surprising frequency their owners will break them in half, drop them onto hard surfaces from long distances, and even crush them to varying degrees of annihilation.

The most common physically-caused problem with camera cards, however, occurs when a user tries to force a camera card into a slot. Be sure to only press lightly on your camera card when inserting it into your camera or computer; excessive force is never necessary and could damage the electrical components of the camera card or cause a physical break.