SD card data retention durability

[fernando_b]

Someone has experience or sure knowledge about how much time (years) SD cards can keep images stored without data corruption?
I'm not figuring SD cards as alternatives to CDROMS.
Fernando.

[geoff]

Originally Posted by fernando_b

Someone has experience or sure knowledge about how much time (years) SD cards can keep images stored without data corruption?
I'm not figuring SD cards as alternatives to CDROMS.

The data retention, also referred to as “operational life time,” for flash media is generally reported to be 10 years by manufacturers, assuring that proper environmental safe keeping is adhered to.

On a side note, in reality, regular standard CD-ROMs can start losing data integrity in less than 5 years and are fairly susceptible to environmental conditions. Specialized “gold” CD-ROMs utilizing advanced phthalocyanine dye are claimed to last 75 years and beyond, again, provided proper environmental safe keeping is adhered to.

For ultimate data protection archiving, I use magneto-optical discs, which are currently the least susceptible media to environmental conditions.