SD Card write lifetime?

happf

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Nov 21, 2016
Messages
84
Reaction score
51
The dahua starlight and other cams have built in sd card slots. I have put some 64gb cards into some of my cameras. Was reading an article and it never occurred to me to look at max write cycles.

Any concerns about the max write lifetime cycles for the sd cards? I have a few types in my cameras (depends what amazon has at the time). Right now have a sandisk ultra on my desk and I google and I find posts talking about max 100,000 writes. If I'm using this bandwidth calculator right, recording 24/7, that means I am getting 3-4 days on the card before filling it up. Does that mean worst case, the card will last 300,000 days as any given spot on the card is only being written to every 3-4 days?
 

mat200

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Jan 17, 2017
Messages
13,670
Reaction score
22,774
The dahua starlight and other cams have built in sd card slots. I have put some 64gb cards into some of my cameras. Was reading an article and it never occurred to me to look at max write cycles.

Any concerns about the max write lifetime cycles for the sd cards? I have a few types in my cameras (depends what amazon has at the time). Right now have a sandisk ultra on my desk and I google and I find posts talking about max 100,000 writes. If I'm using this bandwidth calculator right, recording 24/7, that means I am getting 3-4 days on the card before filling it up. Does that mean worst case, the card will last 300,000 days as any given spot on the card is only being written to every 3-4 days?
The card is being written to continuously, typically in 512 or 1024 bytes chunks.
 

giomania

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Messages
780
Reaction score
538
I have Samsung 64 Gb EVO+ Micro SD cards (recommended by @nayr), and did not consider that factor either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bug99

Pulling my weight
Joined
Dec 27, 2016
Messages
397
Reaction score
154
residential grade SSD that we buy fall in the range of 1 write per day for from 1-3 years (depending on quality, which is hard to ascertain). for a drive size and data rate that lasts 3 days this equates to from three years to 9 years of writing MTBF, failing exponentially at the end of life. I will be happy if i get two years, and count any more as a bonus. At the end of two years they will cost 1/2 half as much for the same size.
 

wxman

Pulling my weight
Joined
Feb 15, 2015
Messages
631
Reaction score
163
Location
Southern United States
I wouldn't worry too much. I consider the cards to be much like the cameras themselves...That is, they can fail at anytime for a number of reasons, though typically they should be able to provide continuous operation for at least several years. I would suspect there's about as much chance of the camera failing before the sd card as it is the other way around. Of course, this risk is also based on the brand quality. If you get the cheapest, no-name brand card you can find, then chances are it will have a shorter life span than a higher quality brand name card.
 

wxman

Pulling my weight
Joined
Feb 15, 2015
Messages
631
Reaction score
163
Location
Southern United States
Also, while speaking of SD cards, it's important to make sure you are purchasing from a reputable source. There are many counterfeit SD cards circulating on Ebay, Amazon, Etc. disguised as name brand cards for a small fraction of the standard price. Beware of these. Not only are they not name brand, the capacity of the card will likely not be as advertised...Even worse, they hack the cards to make it display on your devices that they have more capacity than they actually do. For example, they may sell you a 64GB Sandisk card for $5...In reality, it's not a Sandisk and it may only be an 8 GB card. However, when you put it in your computer or device, it will display as 64GB...What happens in this case is it only records the 8GB that the card actually has and any additional data is lost. It may act as though it's still recording to the card and you think it's been recording to the card for 3 days, but then you play it back and only the first couple hours of video is actually on the card.

I've been burned by this before purchasing cards online and I now only purchase cards from reputable local retailers. Even then, before using, I connect it on my computer and run a bench test on the card with software to ensure that it's able to record and read the capacity that it's supposed to.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2018
Messages
9
Reaction score
1
Location
Israel
Hi, newbie here so be gentle :)
just got a couple of IPC-HDW5231R-Z to start with from Andy, I was wondering if the Samsung 64GB Evo Select cards will work well and be sufficient to cover motion detection recording (cameras will also be connected to a PC with Blue Iris as a second recording target)

Thanks
 

looney2ns

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
15,521
Reaction score
22,657
Location
Evansville, In. USA
Hi, newbie here so be gentle :)
just got a couple of IPC-HDW5231R-Z to start with from Andy, I was wondering if the Samsung 64GB Evo Select cards will work well and be sufficient to cover motion detection recording (cameras will also be connected to a PC with Blue Iris as a second recording target)

Thanks
Yes.
 

reverend

Pulling my weight
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Messages
310
Reaction score
193
Location
UK
I've had the Toshiba M302 128GB microSD card running 24/7 constantly saving all video from a 5231 and it's been in there over a year now with only a blip when I did the latest firmware upgrade which caused issues but it's fine again after a rollback.

I just bought another couple to stick in the dashcams in the car as I've been happy with them.

So far I've had two Lexar 633x 64GB cards both fail within a week of each other that were in a dashcam running 24/7 and they lasted over a year before totally dying.
 
Last edited:

Charles Odom

Young grasshopper
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
53
Reaction score
9
I have an answer of sorts for this. I have been using SD cards, not the micro, for years in dashcam that write continuously with no failures yet.

I use 64gb to 256gb cards, all are SanDisk Extreme versions with a minimum of 80mb/sec stated write speeds. Some are 85mb/sec. That is what I use to differentiate the cards.

I have 2 cards for each cam, which equates to about 3 days write, then swap to offload the card and repeat. My oldest cards are over 4 years with continuous writes for at least 3.5 years.

This doesn' mean that all of them won' fail tomorrow, or that it negates the write cycle rating on the card, but how many people over write to their desktop HDD for years before a failure? A lot! A typical desktop drive can only handle a few TB per year per the specs, but people regularly smash that rating and they still last for years, not without the typical failure percentages, which would occur with or without the excessive writes.
 

Cameraguy

Known around here
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Messages
1,485
Reaction score
1,122
Hi

Sorry for bad english.

The longest live time have the “high Endurance Cards” like this

https://www.amazon.de/SanDisk-Endurance-Video-Monitoring-Speicherkarte/dp/B00V5Q1N1I

They are made for Security Cameras and they had also a great temperature window from -20 – 85 C

The Cards use MLC not TLC.
Like this?
SanDisk High Endurance Video Monitoring Card with Adapter 32GB (SDSDQQ-032G-G46A) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V5Q1K3O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0wxLAbJV2H0MF
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.

Cameraguy

Known around here
Joined
Feb 15, 2017
Messages
1,485
Reaction score
1,122
Hi

Sorry for bad english.

The longest live time have the “high Endurance Cards” like this

https://www.amazon.de/SanDisk-Endurance-Video-Monitoring-Speicherkarte/dp/B00V5Q1N1I

They are made for Security Cameras and they had also a great temperature window from -20 – 85 C

The Cards use MLC not TLC.
Actually i ordered this card.. hopefully its good
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-microSDHC-UHS-3-SDSQXAF-032G-GN6MA/dp/B06XWMQ81P/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1519745349&sr=8-4&keywords=micro+sd+card+video
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
Top