On this page I will
try to enlighten you a little on today’s most versatile and convenient storage
media, the SD card (front and back photo above).
SD means ‘secure digital’ and SDHC means 'secure digital high
capacity' (capacity of 4GB and higher). These handy little electronic
miracles will (so far) store up to 16 Gigabytes (the equivalent of 22 CD’s)
worth of information of all types - including photo’s, music, and video’s.
I
will talk first about what most of you are already familiar with, photo’s.
Most all digital cameras today come with SD cards installed and they will
hold thousands of pictures (the number varying with disk capacity and the file
size from one level of megapixel to the next).
Most all cameras also come with a movie making capability that uses the
SD card for storage as well.
Once photo’s and video’s are recorded to the camera, the user then
either copies them to his or her computer for editing and storage - or takes
them to Wal-Mart or someplace for printing.
Here I would like to give you a couple tips on option 1.
First,
go buy a SD card reader (picture right).
This VERY handy little device has lots of uses and the one you see here
can be purchased at Radio Shack for less than $4.00.
Just insert the SD card, plug it into any USB port, and away you go.
Using the reader instead of the cable that came with your camera is
convenient and safe.
Next, use the reader or the cable to connect the card to your computer
and open your ‘Windows Explorer’.
Most cameras come with complicated software programs that can be used -
but if you stick with something simple, you will be much better off when it
comes to finding and manipulating your photo’s later.
In
Windows Explorer, go down your directory tree until you see a drive called
‘Removable Disk’.
Under the drive you will see a folder called DCIM (Digital Camera Image
manager).
Under that folder you will see your camera model or brand.
Click on that and your photo’s and video’s will appear in the large
pane on the right.
Next, select the photo’s you want to copy to your hard drive (ctrl>a
will select them all), right click on any of them, and say ‘copy’.
Go up to your ‘My Pictures’ folder, right click on the sub-folder you
want to put them in, and select ‘paste’.
If you haven’t made a storage folder yet, right click on ‘My
Pictures’, choose `new>folder’, give the folder a name, and then paste
your photos in the new folder.
From
here, the use of the SD card is limitless.
With the USB reader, it becomes a flash drive and can be used to back up
anything on your computer.
Many MP3 players accept SD cards so you can just copy your music (or
photo’s and video’s) to the card from your PC using the USB reader, plug the
card into your player, and listen away.
Other players accept USB inputs so the reader/SD card combo works with
those also.
I think you can see where I am going with this.
A SD card functions just like a hard drive and you can even use one to boot and run your computer with. Another great part of it is that the price of an SD card starts at about $5 for a 1GB card and ends (today) at $50 for a 16GB card - and it just keeps going down. What are you waiting for!!!
The SD Association is constantly innovating to ensure SD technology stays current with the needs of consumers and product manufacturers everywhere. All SD memory cards, in any size or memory capacity, come with different speed varieties designed to suit a myriad of uses. This flexibility allows developers to select just the right speed for the right device.
These new speeds are available in a new specification defining the minimum data transfer speeds for both SD/SDHC memory cards and SD/SDHC host products. This enhancement is easily recognized by three levels of Speed Class, class 2, 4 and 6. Speed Class 2 guarantees a minimum transfer speed of 2 mega bytes per second (MB/s), Speed Class 4 guarantees a minimum transfer speed of 4 MB/s and Speed Class 6 guarantees a minimum transfer speed of 6 MB/s.
The memory of a card is divided into minimum memory units. The host writes data onto memory units where no data is already stored. As available memory becomes divided into smaller units through normal use, this leads to an increase in non-linear, or fragmented storage. The amount of fragmentation can reduce write speeds so higher SD card speeds help compensate for fragmentation.