Choosing Memory Cards

Tips for Buying Memory

Memory sticks come in many different formats. Different memory sticks are needed for the many different gadgets and devices available. Hundreds of millions of Flash drives are bought worldwide year in, year out, with many of these storage devices not being ideal for their intended usage.

Using a little time to properly assess your storage requirements before you make an unwise purchase will let you to make an a more informed choice and consequently you’ll end up with a superior device that is fit for purpose.

Types of Memory Cards

There are popular format standards that are the more commonly used by the majority of manufacturers. The most used are standard, Micro and Mini SD Cards, USB Flash drives, and Compact Flash card drives. The two important factors when buying ideal data storage, are the data storage capacity of the device and the transfer speed for your data.

Memory technology moves quite quickly leading to continual growth of capacity & more rapid data transfer.

The larger and quicker the memory card, the more costly it will be. With the recent growth in the use of mobiles for video and gaming, mobile storage of large amounts of data has now become ever more necessary.

Stick Capacity

At present, at the end of 2013, flash drives are on sale up to 256 gb and card capacity is on course to pass 2 Terrabytes by the start of the 20’s. Sticks and cards are becoming more and more stable, giving users more security and confidence than used to be accepted.

Most memory sticks and cards are hot swappable which means that you can remove them from devices without you being required to to first eject them. Flash drives are also designed to be compatible with both Microsoft and Apple computers, so it’s easy to back up your data onto your Mac or PC for using at a later date.

CompactFlash storage cards

High end SLR cameras usually provide several card slots and take CompactFlash memory (usually the preference for commercial photographers) & SDxc cards also. For photographers, often they only have a split second to capture a special moment, so they need to know that the images they take are going to be stored securely.

CF memory cards are some of the most consistently reliable portable storage cards as well as the most trusted. Most wedding and marriage photographers choose a few lesser volume data cards during important shoots like these instead of saving all of their images on just one card. Doing this ensures added piece of mind because in the worst case scenario, if data is lost, they just lose a single segment of their work, as opposed to all of it.

In spite of the increased reliability of modern storage devices, it is still sensible to preserve your data by backing it up using this method as it can save you from possible disaster. Due to their tiny size, flash cards & sticks are a really practical method of storing enormous volumes of content for either ease of mobility or safety.

Data cards can be easily carried in a purse, wallet or pocket, or discreetly concealed to protect your important documents. Portable flash memory has 2 basic forms, USB driven and a variety of memory card drives which either require a suitable card slot or a multi-card reader unit which is connected to a Mac or PC via USB. The cameras, portable gaming machines or other electronic devices you own or intend to purchase will normally dictate which types of cards you will need.

If you are only intending to store data from your PC or Mac then a USB stick will be your best choice. With the sale price of memory drives decreasing, this is the perfect moment to upgrade with newer, faster and larger capacity flash drives to store your valuable data.