# How to fix a physically broken sd card?



## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

After 3 years of pulling it out of the camera and putting it into my laptop, my trusty ol' 32gb sandisk finally broke - the front part with the pins fell out because the plastic sandwich construction came loose.

However, I only then realized that the front part *is* the actual sd card, there's nothing but empty plastic in the back part - if I tape the thing together again, it works in my laptop, but won't fit into the camera.

Question: Is there any way to get hold of a replacement sd "chip" holder so I can continue using the front part that obviously works perfectly fine? If I'd bought a micro-sdhc with sd adapter the solution would be simpler...


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## Drizzt321 (Sep 19, 2013)

If you need to get some images off of it, use a tiny bit of superglue to hold it back together long enough to get the photos off. After that, time to buy a new one. I wouldn't trust it once it starts to fall apart like that. No telling if it'll fall apart while inside the camera/laptop, and then it'd get stuck and probably not cheap to tear apart the camera just to pull out a broken SD card.


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## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

Drizzt321 said:


> If you need to get some images off of it, use a tiny bit of superglue to hold it back together long enough to get the photos off.



Fortunately, there weren't any photos on it - but I hoped there would be a really working solution to revive the chip with a spare plastic holder ... looking at how cheaply the sd card is produced this looks like a case of "planned obsolescence" or "broken by design" :-\


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## emag (Sep 19, 2013)

I superglued one when that happened, no problems after several months


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## Drizzt321 (Sep 19, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> Drizzt321 said:
> 
> 
> > If you need to get some images off of it, use a tiny bit of superglue to hold it back together long enough to get the photos off.
> ...



Dunno about planned obsolescence, other than that over the past few years capacity/$ has gotten much better, but that's just manufacturing advances.

Broken by design, I dunno. Not broken, but it's not designed to be as robust as, say, CF is (other than those pins...) It's a consumer oriented design, which also involves build quality compromises in the name of slightly cheaper.


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## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

Drizzt321 said:


> It's a consumer oriented design, which also involves build quality compromises in the name of slightly cheaper.



I didn't want to start a debate a planned obsolescence and if saving a couple of ct in a €100 sd card is resonable  ... it was just that I was surprised to see that 3/4 of the card is empty space, but after reading up on micro-sd I can see why (though full sd seems to be faster vs. a micro-sd adapter).

Thanks for the glue drop advice though, I'll try that, it's broken now, it cannot get worse  and I might at least continue using it for the pc and data transport.


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## ajfotofilmagem (Sep 19, 2013)

What is the price of lost data?  When a card failure, I destroy immediately. ??? I am not rich, but I am rather cautious.


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## ajfotofilmagem (Sep 19, 2013)

It is good to remember that, even without physically breaking, electronic components wear out over time. Panasonic P2 cards are tested for a shelf life time of 5 years. In fact, P2 cards are a set of SD encapsulated in a cabinet with PCMCIA connector. Though an SD card does not break after 5 years it should be retired to avoid unpredictable failures.


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## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

ajfotofilmagem said:


> Remember that not even physically breaking, electronic components wear out over time. Panasonic P2 cards are tested for a shelf life of 5 years. In fact, P2 cards are a set of SD encapsulated in a cabinet with PCMCIA connector. Though an SD card does not break after 5 years, it should be retired to avoid unpredictable failures.



Are there any mtbf figures available for Sandisk SD? A quick research I just did said that with normal dslr usage, wear shouldn't be the problem, it's not like it's used as a computer ssd - so glue-fixing the casing shouldn't invite data loss as it's only 3 years old? And even a brand new card can break on day one...


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## ajfotofilmagem (Sep 19, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> ajfotofilmagem said:
> 
> 
> > Remember that not even physically breaking, electronic components wear out over time. Panasonic P2 cards are tested for a shelf life of 5 years. In fact, P2 cards are a set of SD encapsulated in a cabinet with PCMCIA connector. Though an SD card does not break after 5 years, it should be retired to avoid unpredictable failures.
> ...


One thing is the planned useful life time. Another thing is the set of small failures that lead to a hidden defect, which will show up someday. : The airplane is the safest means of transposte there, but when it fails ... :'( Therefore preventive maintenance is required to replace any part of the aircraft that is suspected of wear. I would not fly in a plane that was glued with super glue...


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## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

ajfotofilmagem said:


> I would not fly in a plane that was glued with super glue...



It really depends on the usage scenario - for mission critical applications, I wouldn't trust any *one* sd card, not matter if brand new or glued together but rely on a second card slot or live backup via wifi ... but for data transport, i.e. duplicate data, the glue solution might very well do ok.


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## emag (Sep 19, 2013)

I have to correct myself......I didn't use superglue, I used plastic model cement (Testors Liquid Cement for Plastic Models, to be specific).


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## tgara (Sep 19, 2013)

A new Class 10 UHS-1 32GB Sandisk SD card is about $30 on Amazon. Buy a new one and move on. At those prices, trying to fix a busted old one is simply stupid. IMHO, of course. 8)


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## Marsu42 (Sep 19, 2013)

tgara said:


> At those prices, trying to fix a busted old one is simply stupid. IMHO, of course. 8)



€30 is €30 ... and the point is that it isn't busted, it's just the plastic casing, the actual sd card chip carrier is fine. Would you junk your car because the windshield wiper is broken? But then again I was never the "just throw it away" type


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## emag (Sep 19, 2013)

tgara said:


> A new Class 10 UHS-1 32GB Sandisk SD card is about $30 on Amazon. Buy a new one and move on. At those prices, trying to fix a busted old one is simply stupid. IMHO, of course. 8)


I consider it being frugal......although whenever my kids say that word it sounds like they're saying "cheap bastard". ;D ;D I was intending to just toss it, but the glue was sitting there, so......


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## Drizzt321 (Sep 20, 2013)

emag said:


> tgara said:
> 
> 
> > A new Class 10 UHS-1 32GB Sandisk SD card is about $30 on Amazon. Buy a new one and move on. At those prices, trying to fix a busted old one is simply stupid. IMHO, of course. 8)
> ...



The other thought is that it's gotten a lot of physical wear and tear, what's going to go next? One of the gold contacts going to come lose and break off leaving you unable to get photos off of it? Plus they do eventually wear out and start losing data/capacity if you write to enough.


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## Marsu42 (Sep 20, 2013)

Drizzt321 said:


> One of the gold contacts going to come lose and break off leaving you unable to get photos off of it?



That's what surprised me when my sd card disintegrated - the actual chip/contact module seems to be bomb proof, quite contrary to the hollow "large" sd-type casing. That's why I had the idea to fix it...



Drizzt321 said:


> Plus they do eventually wear out and start losing data/capacity if you write to enough.



Afaik only the premium sd cards have wear leveling, and they should have enough reserves before loosing data - but I didn't really research that.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 20, 2013)

I'd check with the manufacturer. Its possible they will replace it or give you a discount on a new one. A card should never break under normal usage.
They have quite a long warranty, at least 5 years.

http://www.sandisk.com/about-sandisk/warranty-and-user-guides/warranty-table/


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## tcmatthews (Sep 20, 2013)

A fix is worth it to get pictures off but that is all. Do not count on the card to hold up under use. About the worst thing that could happen is the card get stuck in the camera or you computer. I bought a 32 GB SanDisk Ultra class 10 card for $19 a few weeks ago it is not worth the risk.


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## alexanderferdinand (Sep 20, 2013)

Please buy a new one.
And if you are in the mood, contact the seller for replacement,
If it is broken again, maybe the card and/or the camera is broken.
Would be a nice surprise on important pictures or your once in a lifetime holiday.

PS.: I don`t like throwing things away, but this is not worth any trouble.


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## ramatthews121 (Aug 14, 2016)

I actually broke my SD card and the tiny circuit board inside was cracked. I found a service out of Germany at recoverfab.com that specializes in recovering data from broken SD cards and he was able to get my 602 pictures back. Pricing is based off the size of the card, but is honestly worth it if you could otherwise not recover the data. Try it out.


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## martinslade (Aug 14, 2016)

Same thing happened to me. I got a cheap SD card reader taped it in and now I have a 32gb usb memory stick


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