Status of SD card compatibility - What should I buy?

[SN]

I would think that the OVERWHELMING advice should be clear by now – your chances of getting a Class 10 card to work are very very very slim.

Stick to Class 6 or even better Class 4 cards – they're cheaper and seem to have a much much greater success rate.  And I don't understand why people are buying very large cards either (greater than 4Gb) – use a separate USB drive for big stuff and have it mounted in a standard way / mount point on all your images.  Linux doesn't suffer the M$ bloat nowhere near as bad.

And when you start to have to manage SD card images you're going to get fed up moving such large images around an a separate PC/Laptop… just my thoughts on SD card management….

And they are just thoughts at the moment, I'm still at Pi-Day-minus-11 at the moment (sob, sob)

[Usman55]

So does that mean the link I posted should be okay? I don't know why, but I don't feel like letting it go.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA.....368wt_1037

[woodinblack]

The last thing I would want is a separate USB hard drive attached to a pi, being able to contain everything one one SD card is pretty handy.
I have a 16g card now as it was the only one I had that worked, I wouldn"t necessarily have picked that. However, it is very easy to fill a 4g card so if I was to pick I would go for 8 as a compromise

[sorinm]

Here is my feedback with the following sd cards:

1) Kingston SDHC 4 GB, SD4/4GB, class 4 - working perfectly

2) Sandisk SD Card Micro 8GB (SDHC) Ultra, clasa 6, SDSDQY-008G-U46A, doesn`t work (already stated on the forum and on wiki)

3) Kingmax microSDHC, 4 GB, KM-Micro-SD4/4G, class 4, works ok BUT when I reboot it won`t turn on, I have to unplug the Pi, let it rest 1..2 min and then plug it back in to boot.

4) Sandisk SDHC Ultra SDSDH-004G-U46, class 4, 4 GB, works ok BUT when I reboot it won`t turn on, I have to unplug the Pi, let it rest 1..2 min and then plug it back in to boot.

[ThomasPRoberts]

So do the MyMemory Class 10 cards not work anymore? The wiki says the latest batch don't... was just about to order one.

http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/MyMemory ... --Class-10

http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... g_SD_Cards

[nick.mccloud]

So do the MyMemory Class 10 cards not work anymore? The wiki says the latest batch don't... was just about to order one.

Mine delivered last week does - but it's outperformed by a SanDisk Ultra Class 6 so I'm not sure it's worth the excitement of off-brand purchase.

[selsinork]

Anyone with failing cards should try with the latest firmware and kernel as per Doms "Request for Failing sdcards" post. This has solved the problems I saw with the Panasonic Class 10 / UHS-1 card I posted about earlier in this thread.

So if you have a non-working class 10 card it's definately worth another try.

[ThomasPRoberts]

So do the MyMemory Class 10 cards not work anymore? The wiki says the latest batch don't... was just about to order one.

Mine delivered last week does - but it's outperformed by a SanDisk Ultra Class 6 so I'm not sure it's worth the excitement of off-brand purchase.

Hmm ok, well I won't rush into a purchase.
Is there a thread that recommends the best cards? I know there are varying threads regarding memory cards and speeds etc. I'm not overly fussed on size as I'll use my nas for most of my storage needs but I'de obviously like the memory card to be as quick as possible.

What I had seen speedwise from the MyMemory class 10 card seemed to be good.... that might just be my inexperience in memory card speeds though.

[selsinork]

What I had seen speedwise from the MyMemory class 10 card seemed to be good.... that might just be my inexperience in memory card speeds though.

Keep in mind that the advertised speeds are unlikely to match reality and the speed you get when plugged into your desktop/laptop/camera are unlikely to match what you get from the card when it's in the Pi.

It's only the speed the Pi sees that really matters. I have class 4, class 6 and class 10 cards that all perform roughly the same in the Pi.

[ThomasPRoberts]

What I had seen speedwise from the MyMemory class 10 card seemed to be good.... that might just be my inexperience in memory card speeds though.

Keep in mind that the advertised speeds are unlikely to match reality and the speed you get when plugged into your desktop/laptop/camera are unlikely to match what you get from the card when it's in the Pi.

It's only the speed the Pi sees that really matters. I have class 4, class 6 and class 10 cards that all perform roughly the same in the Pi.

But is the Pi likely to see this extra speed in the near future. I would prefer to buy a faster card and have the option of popping it into my DSLR in the future if I don't need it for my Pi anymore.
It really is very confusing at this stage to know which memory card to get as obviously I just want to buy once and get the best I can for my money.

[selsinork]

But is the Pi likely to see this extra speed in the near future.

That's not clear at this point, it seems we may expect something more than we currently get. I wouldn't expect that to happen until some of the other sdcard problems get sorted out though. See this thread for something more http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... f=2&t=5057

It really is very confusing at this stage to know which memory card to get as obviously I just want to buy once and get the best I can for my money.

absolutely agreed, even more so when people have what appear to be identical cards but one doesn't work.

So far I've spent probably twice the cost of the Pi on sdcards, and I've been mostly lucky. All we can hope for is that any reamining bugs get worked out soon. Then as more people get their Pi and a greater range of cards get tried a clearer picture emerges. I wouldn't like to recommend a particular card, all I can do is tell you which ones have worked for me.

[nick.mccloud]

It really is very confusing at this stage to know which memory card to get as obviously I just want to buy once and get the best I can for my money.

If money is an issue, try this: eBay - cctv_quality   8GB Micro SD HC Card with SD Adapter   £2.75

[ThomasPRoberts]

It really is very confusing at this stage to know which memory card to get as obviously I just want to buy once and get the best I can for my money.

If money is an issue, try this: eBay - cctv_quality   8GB Micro SD HC Card with SD Adapter   £2.75

Thanks, i'm sure i've got a micro sd to sd adapter about somewhere, so I will try that and i've got some fairly old and slow SD cards as well.

Money really isn't a issue when were talking about several quid but wasting money for the chance of something working is.

Anyway, i'll leave it at that as I don't want to clog up this thread. By the time my Pi is delivered (within next few weeks) then maybe there will be a clearer picture about what consistently works and what doesn't.

[Sweden]

Tried with a Transcend Ultimate microSDHC Class 10 8 GB with included adapter, works OK!

[plugwash]

It really is very confusing at this stage to know which memory card to get as obviously I just want to buy once and get the best I can for my money.

If money is an issue, try this: eBay - cctv_quality   8GB Micro SD HC Card with SD Adapter   £2.75

If you do buy a card on ebay make sure you test the card thoroughly on receipt and please for the sake of other customers don't let yourself be bullied into leaving positive feedback in exchange for a refund on a fake part.

http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/

[AndrewS]

But is the Pi likely to see this extra speed in the near future.

That's not clear at this point, it seems we may expect something more than we currently get. I wouldn't expect that to happen until some of the other sdcard problems get sorted out though. See this thread for something more http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... f=2&t=5057

Have a look at this thread too http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... f=2&t=4076
A class 10 card may have a higher "headline figure", but it may actually be slower in real-world use, depending on the I/O usage patterns of your Pi.

And for the sake of completeness, you also ought to look at http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... f=2&t=6093

[nicholfd]

WOOT - I received my Raspberry Pi on May 17th. I purchased 2 x Mushkin 8GB, Class 10 cards - $8.99 w/free shipping:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820226233

So far, they work great with the Debian distro. Trying ArchLinux now...

BTW - I'm a big fan of Mushkin products. I've used their notebook memory, SSD's and USB sticks (and now their SDHC cards). They have the fastest USB sticks I've tested. (I've tested 30+ x USB 2.0 sticks & 8 x USB 3.0 sticks). For those that might care, they are a US based company.

[nicholfd]

I failed to mention that the time to dump the Debian image on the SD card (with 'dd' on a MacBook Pro w/built-in SD card reader/writer) was a little over three (3) minutes. Not bad at all.

With Arch Linux, it took 3m 10s.

[csgabe]

I'm using a 4GB Silicon Power microSDHC Class6 with adaptor on debian19-04-2012 & it works ok.

[stevepdp]

I'm using a Silicon Power microSDHC Class6 with adaptor on debian19-04-2012 & it works ok.

There's a list of verified working peripherals on the Raspberry Pi wiki, would you like to add this to it?

[csgabe]

Sure. I've added it to the wiki.

[selsinork]

A class 10 card may have a higher "headline figure", but it may actually be slower in real-world use, depending on the I/O usage patterns of your Pi.

Yeah, and that's going to get people all wound up over nothing.
I have three things that I can use an sd card with: a usb reader, the onboard slot on my laptop, and the Pi. Using the same card and running the same test in the three devices gives three very different results.
So as far as I'm concerned all of those windows benchmarks are largely meaningless. Why ? Because they don't reflect what you get when you put that card in a Raspberry Pi and ultimately that's all that counts.

[Feakster]

All of this discussion is exactly why I started this tread.  There still doesn't seem to be good, clear information on what does really work or what to buy, if you want to make sure the SD card works with a Raspberry Pi.

An SD card is not just an SD card...

It seems that Class 4, full size SD cards are what most people are having the best luck with.  Anything rated at above Class 4 still seems to be failing (anyone seen confirmed reports that Class 6 works?)

MicroSD has been confirmed to work, in at least one case.

Is this a good summary?

Thanks.

I'm using a 16GB class 6 Transcend SDHC with no problems.

[mike632t]

Does anyone know if a SANDISK 8G Class 4 card (BI1025316014G) will work - I've now spent twice as much on SD cards as I did on the Raspberry Pi in the first place...

Mike T.

[mike632t]

Ordered a couple of Sandisk Class 4 cards from Misco - unfortunatly they shipped a couple of class 6 cards which did not work (the system boots then I get mmc0 timout errors),

Since I now have a small collection of Sandisk cards, all of which which work in everything I have apart from the Raspberry Pi regardless of class, would it be unfair to conclude that the problem is actually with the Raspberry Pi..?

Hopefully a firmware update will fix this at some point.