Life Expectancy of a Compact Flash memory card

[paul246]

I have a SanDisk 32MB CF card, I think the serial number is AA9911FA, so I'm guessing its a 1999 issue. It also has A copywrite symbol with 99 beside it.

Anyway, I have (had) pictures on it, but the computer says the files or directory are corrupted. When I right click on properties it indicates there is data on the card.

Any hope of retrieving these pictures?

And is this about the expected lifespan for one of these cards?

 

[StevieC]

Something like 5-10K read/writes I think... But being from 1999 I think you got your monies worth!

 

[SrDriver]

Give the following free program a shot..... It's from the same folks that put out CCleaner.

Link To Recovery Progam

Post how you made out.

 

[JustinH]

you could run a program like spinrite on there if you want to get the data off it.

Its an $89 dollar program, maybe borrow a copy from a friend.. I have seen it work excellent on hard drives before.

 

[PandaBear]

There are lots of data recovery program out there. These program try to read sector by sector rather than file by file, and would in many case parse the sector so that it can get most of the files out. I've tried a few and most of the works pretty similarly.

I think back then we might still have lifetime warranty, so after you get your files out you can probably send it in, and get a .... 64 or 128MB card as a replacement.... but since flash memory is so cheap, you probably would be better off getting another card new.

Not sure if something this old has any wear leveling on it, but if it does wear, the block size is so small and the location of wear is so concentrated, it probably only damages the FAT table, and most of your data should still be intact.

 

[paul246]

Thanks guys for your help and advice. I downloaded the recovery program and it worked. I checked all the photos on the card and decided I could live without them, so I didn't pay the $40.00 to actually recover them. But, at least I got to see what was on the card before I turfed it out.

Thanks again.