Re: Compactflash cards dying?

[David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>]

On Mon, 2003-02-03 at 23:56, Roger Larsson wrote:
> On Sunday 02 February 2003 23:30, Pavel Machek wrote:
> > I had compactflash from Apacer (256MB), and it started corrupting data
> > in few months, eventually becoming useless and being given back for
> > repair. They gave me another one and it is just starting to corrupt
> > data.
> 
> That is very bad... I wonder if you do something that the CF does
> not like - like power off while writing (can actually destroy the
> disk - read in some newsgroup)

I am led to believe that this is normal for CompactFlash. I seem to
recall that the phrase 'bogroll technology' was used by the last person
to attempt any serious testing.

It's fine for short-term storage of stuff like digital photos, but don't
try using it for long-term storage. Think of it like a floppy disc -- if
you have any _important_ data, make sure it's backed up or copied onto
at least three of them to avoid loss.

Not that there's any _fundamental_ reason why PCMCIA-ATA should be
completely unreliable, that just seems to be the way it's done.
Reliability costs, you see.

-- 
dwmw2