Question How do you identify/organize SD cards?

[jhsachs]

I'm starting to use SD Cards, instead of flash drives, for backup. I'm accumulating a lot of them, and I'm finding that the strategy I used to identify flash drives doesn't work. I tied a paper tag to each flash drive and wrote notes on it; when I repurposed a drive I replaced the tag. On an SD Card there's no place to attach a tag. I tried keeping the cards in labeled pill bottles, but that didn't work either, because I have to take them out to use them. Whenever I have two out at the same time, I can never be sure which is which.

How do you deal with this problem?

My provisional solution is not ideal, and I'd welcome a better one. I got an acrylic paint pen that I can use to paint a waterproof white stripe on the back of each SD Card, and I write on it with a marking pen. I was supposed to be able to use a wet-erase marker and erase the writing with a damp cloth, but the damp cloth was ineffective. If I need to rewrite a label I remove paint and markings together with a cloth dampened in rubbing alcohol; then I apply a new strip of paint, and when it's dry, I write a new label.

For storage, I got a flat case that holds about three dozen cards. It comes with adhesive number labels and a log for writing descriptions, but I'm going to stick with my paint and marker instead.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm starting to use SD Cards, instead of flash drives, for backup.

Why?

There are not many worse options I can think of.

 

[jhsachs]

Why - because they're inexpensive, rugged, available in suitable capacities, and readable on many modern computers with no extra equipment (or on any computer with inexpensive extra equipment). I can't think of another medium except flash drives that meets those criteria, and SD cards are more compact.

I understand that data stored on SD cards or flash drives has a useful life of about five years before it has to be rewritten. That's utterly irrelevant -- I'm using them for backup, not archival storage. In five years everything I write to a card today will have been rewritten to a new or reused card approximately 60 times (assuming one full backup per month).

Now that I've justified my choice of media -- something I didn't expect to have to do when I came here -- can we please open the thread to comments on the question I asked?

 

[USAFRet]

Now that I've justified my choice of media -- something I didn't expect to have to do when I came here -- can we please open the thread to comments on the question I asked?

The thread was never "closed".

How to identify?
A lot of that depends on what you've backed up, and how.

But, I shall leave this to others to comment.

 

[USAFRet]

If you have a 3D printer, this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5644100

https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=sd+cards&page=1

 

[Ralston18]

@jhsachs

My comment:

Keep it simple.

Put each SD card in the applicable/appropriate plastic case. Put the case in a sealable sandwich bag and use a permanent marker to label the sandwich bag per your requirements.

Store that sandwich bag somewhere as you likewise deem a means to meet your requirements.

However, ensure that you have mulitple backups in different places - just in case.

Bottom line answer being that you must have multiple backups (verified backups) in different locations.

Verified meaning recoverable and readable.

Both on site and elsewhere.

 

[BFG-9000]

Use the smallest font available in a stick-on labelmaker and you should be able to print a lot of text on a tape. Many allow you to put two rows of text on a 9mm (0.35") tape which should fit on microSD, or five rows on a 1" tall tape, which is the largest you can stick onto a full-sized SD card. The tape peels off easily when you need to replace the label, and is thin enough to not interfere with readers.

The JEDEC JESD218A endurance specification specifies a minimum 1 year power-off data retention at 30°C for consumer SSDs. That includes after the drive has been written to the entire TBW rating, and the best guesstimate is that a relatively fresh drive that has been written to less than 10% of its TBW should retain data for around 10 years.

OTOH, SD cards have used the cheapest garbage QLC flash unsuitable for use in SSDs, since Sandisk switched to it back in 2009. These can have endurance as low as 100 write cycles for planar or 1000 for 3D. So to be safe, the SD cards should be written to no more than 10 times if you want them to retain their data for 10 years, + keep them in the freezer. You probably don't need the full 10 years but it's still a good idea to have a very large number of cards so you can rotate them enough to not write too many times to any single card. This also ensures you'd have multiple monthly backups each out-of-date by only 1 additional month

It's not like SD cards have the best controller either, so they won't always write to cells with the lowest number of writes or even automatically rewrite cells when powered-on, but a full backup implies erasing the card and filling it all at once which should minimize these issues.

 

[TerryLaze]

Everybody soooo fancy.
I use white electrical tape and a ballpoint pen.

There are also carrying cases for sd cards where you could probably put labels on the case for each sd card.
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Memory-Card-Cases/b?ie=UTF8&node=11548959011