Storage photographs on SD Card

[RichC]

SD cards fail after 7 years.

Ronald's right, despite protestations from others!

Solid state "flash" memory devices can be used for decades, and unused perhaps last a century. However, they're not designed for long-term storage, as the stored data "pattern" degrades over time. Manufacturers of USB drives, SD cards and the like suggest long-term storage to remain viable for about 5 years. So, we can expect our stored photos on SD cards to start failing between 5 and 10 years. That's an average, so Joe Bloggs saying his card's lasted 15 years is of no consequence.

The most archival way of storing electronic data is on optical discs - just as it has been for ages. Archival "gold" DVDs, for example, should last at least a century - and they're cheap, easy to create and convenient to store. Owing to their convenience and reliability, DVDs should be around for a few more decades yet (despite Apple's attempts to kill off optical drives!).

Blu-ray can store 10 times more data on a disk, which have been suggested may last 1000 years! However, DVD is a far more established technology: so there's the concern that in the future you will still find DVD drives while Blu-ray drives have disappeared through obsolescence.

 

[raid]

If we "disappear" one day, there is no worry about lost images.

 

[RichC]

If we "disappear" one day, there is no worry about lost images.

Well, that's certainly true! Perhaps we ought to worry more about us becoming extinct rather than our tech!

 

[Corran]

Optical disks are not considered truly archival. Digital tape media is the gold standard still for deep storage and reliability of large amounts of data. A RAID or RAID-like array is another very viable option, with routine maintenance and parity checks.

I researched this at length and discussed with archivists while working on a proposal for large-scale data storage for the university I used to work with. Gold "Archival" CDs made for data storage were already failing 10-15 years after creation. The proposal moving forward was for a 50+ TB data storage server for campus-wide storage. This is important for such entities, as retention of certain types of data related to student work is required by law.

Of course for your typical hobbyist/amateur who wants to safeguard potential lost images of their family and life, there are plenty of options out there that are viable for simple storage that will probably be fine, especially with some duplication and redundancy. A professional working with clients will want to investigate best practices and options to guard against loss which could hurt business and possibly cause litigation (losing an entire wedding because an SD card failure for instance).