making space on hard drive

Sd cards are a bit of a jungle. There's a whole range of standards that go from around 10MB/s transfer rates right up to hundreds.
Once you get into transfer rates that are worth having, for non camera/recorder use, you'll start paying for it.

They are also not ideal for long term storage as it takes very little to corrupt them.

If you can find an express card SSD in stock somewhere then health to enjoy but I'd forget that too.
It's old tech and puts you in a bit of a hole finding a compatible machine should anything happen to your current one.

Look at the FIT plus as an alternative - £23 for 128GB, USB for compatibility, decent speeds, and easily small enough to lose.
 
Sd cards are a bit of a jungle. There's a whole range of standards that go from around 10MB/s transfer rates right up to hundreds.
Once you get into transfer rates that are worth having, for non camera/recorder use, you'll start paying for it.

They are also not ideal for long term storage as it takes very little to corrupt them.

If you can find an express card SSD in stock somewhere then health to enjoy but I'd forget that too.
It's old tech and puts you in a bit of a hole finding a compatible machine should anything happen to your current one.

Look at the FIT plus as an alternative - £23 for 128GB, USB for compatibility, decent speeds, and easily small enough to lose.

"FIT plus" got me sports kit until I digged deeper. Yeah but, that ties up one of my 2 USB 3.0 ports. I think I shall give the SD card a go? It is effectively inside the lappy and so cannot be damaged. I won't be putting anything on it I would be very gutted to lose. I have had a lot of SD cards over the years, never had a problem?

But thanks matey!

Dave.
 
It is effectively inside the lappy and so cannot be damaged.

The concern isn't so much about physical damage as it is data corruption. They're notoriously fragile, that way.
Given that you BSOD monthly I'd strongly advice against an SD card unless, as you say, you're prepared to lose what's on it once in a while.
 
The concern isn't so much about physical damage as it is data corruption. They're notoriously fragile, that way.
Given that you BSOD monthly I'd strongly advice against an SD card unless, as you say, you're prepared to lose what's on it once in a while.

I tremble to argue with you Mr S but I just don't see a problem? I have had SD cards for years, in laptops and in a USB reader. I have one in a camera that is a good ten years old and I dump pictures off to this PC from time to time, again, never lost a byte. 3 phones between me and the bread.k no bother with SD card . And what about all those mixers, m'track recorders and hand helds that use the cards?

Or, is this a 'mac' thing?

Dave.
 
I tremble to argue with you Mr S but I just don't see a problem? I have had SD cards for years, in laptops and in a USB reader. I have one in a camera that is a good ten years old and I dump pictures off to this PC from time to time, again, never lost a byte. 3 phones between me and the bread.k no bother with SD card . And what about all those mixers, m'track recorders and hand helds that use the cards?

Or, is this a 'mac' thing?

Dave.

Just trying to give you good advice, Dave.
I don't see the point in buying into outdated technology or tech that is known to be volatile/unreliable.
Have a google and try to find one person recommending SD cards for long term storage - It's not what they're for.

You're BSODing once a month - I don't think you get to poke about 'mac things'. ;)
 
Why not just clone the drive and replace it with a good SSD? On the T510, I think there are 2 or 3 screws to removing the drive. A simple USB>SATA adapter is cheap so you can easily clone the drive. The whole machine runs so much faster. I was skeptical of SSDs when they first came out due to some rather high failure reports, but they seem to have improved immensely over the past few years.

As for corrupting SD cards, I've only had 2 flash cards go bad, one CF and one USB. Between USB, SD and CF cards, I probably have at least 50. My PNY that I used for work has gone through the washer cycle at least a half dozen times, and never gave me a lick of trouble over the 5 years I used it. It only got replaced because I needed a larger drive. I would leave it in my pants pocket, toss the clothes in the washer, only to find it lying at the bottom of the tub later.
 
Why not just clone the drive and replace it with a good SSD? On the T510, I think there are 2 or 3 screws to removing the drive. A simple USB>SATA adapter is cheap so you can easily clone the drive. The whole machine runs so much faster. I was skeptical of SSDs when they first came out due to some rather high failure reports, but they seem to have improved immensely over the past few years.

As for corrupting SD cards, I've only had 2 flash cards go bad, one CF and one USB. Between USB, SD and CF cards, I probably have at least 50. My PNY that I used for work has gone through the washer cycle at least a half dozen times, and never gave me a lick of trouble over the 5 years I used it. It only got replaced because I needed a larger drive. I would leave it in my pants pocket, toss the clothes in the washer, only to find it lying at the bottom of the tub later.

I think that's good advice. The prices are so good these days that there's little reason not to just clone + replace existing system drives with something roomier.

I'm not saying SD cards are crap and always fail - I'm saying they're designed for convenience and short term storage.
For anything longer than that the risks of data loss are significantly higher - Look into communities which rely on them for longer term use and/or more frequent reads/writes, like Raspberry Pi communities, for example.
It's common place there to take regular clones of the install and pretty much expect to have to use it at some point.
 
Just trying to give you good advice, Dave.
I don't see the point in buying into outdated technology or tech that is known to be volatile/unreliable.
Have a google and try to find one person recommending SD cards for long term storage - It's not what they're for.

You're BSODing once a month - I don't think you get to poke about 'mac things'. ;)

The 'mac thing' was not meant as a slight, I just wondered if they were not as reliable with SD cards as PCs?

Clone the drive? I have but I would only fit a new drive if I absolutely had too...IIABDFI. And then I would get the local tech to do it.

The BSOD is an annoyance, never happened to my W7 HP so I can only conclude it is a W10 thing. There is a message on screen (so not the totally blank BSOD of old) from Ms saying something has gone wrong and they are fixing it and sho'nuf they do, PDQ. I must try to keep a camera handy but I don't get a lot of time to snap it.

Sorry if I seemed an ungrateful, bolshy git!

Dave.
 
All good, Dave. :)
I can totally understand reluctance to replace the existing drive.
I've never had an issue with SD cards myself, using them as intended. I use them fairly often in cameras and other devices, and as a convenience moving files around or between people.
Just wanted to make sure you were aware that all things aren't equal, in terms of reliability, when it comes to system reboots (particularly unexpected ones) and longer term storage, and that when looking for higher transfer rates they're not the most competitively priced things.
 
All good, Dave. :)
I can totally understand reluctance to replace the existing drive.
I've never had an issue with SD cards myself, using them as intended. I use them fairly often in cameras and other devices, and as a convenience moving files around or between people.
Just wanted to make sure you were aware that all things aren't equal, in terms of reliability, when it comes to system reboots (particularly unexpected ones) and longer term storage, and that when looking for higher transfer rates they're not the most competitively priced things.

Cool: Well, for LONG term storage I would be dumping the contents of the SD about every six months IF I can shift my lazy A to do it, will go onto my 2TB USB 3.0 mini mechanical drive. I do the same with the 160G drive in the T510 now but it would nice to have a spare 'drive' to load stuff directly onto. I have build a few desktops in my time and always had two drives in them for that very purples!

Dave.
 
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