http://digital-photography-school.com/memory-cards-how-to-extend-their-life-and-keep-them-healthy

All in all I have had good success with the cards, mostly Lexar and Delrin with a few Sandisc in there.  I use Compact Flash.  I will take a look at the link.   Thanks.

For having prints made locally  (Walgreens) I  have found the little USB memory sticks very handy, no need to burn a disc and fits in the pocket easy.   Take care.          Tom.

The multiple accessing is an important point in the life of the CF card. Although I've been in electronics forever, I never thought of that aspect. I will reformat my CF cards frequently now. Thanks for that link!

Wayne

pretty useful info
thanx for link Bruce

This was well worth reading. 

I read the cited article. 

I agree that you should copy the image file from the flash memory to your HDD ... and then process the image from your HDD. 

That would be a good workflow  ... and the HDD and the flash memory would be backups of each other.  

The article claims that the PC continues to access and/or scan the flash memory after the copy. 

As far as I can tell ... my direct experience ... that is NOT true. 

A flash memory reader has an activity LED ... I do see it blink while the copy to the HDD is happening. 

However, after that copy finishes, the LED is inactive ... I would take that to mean that the PC has stopped accessing the flash memory. 

In that regard, the article raises a flase warning. 

Comments, please ...

--Martin

Martin, I am not sure if the LED is the only indicator; however, that does seem reasonable.  Which ever, I alway have followed the copy to drive and disconnect the flash card.   My reason was backup and having a "hard copy" on the computer, not to save the lifespan of the card.

another good point was formatting in camera..

I didn't do this at first..but it makes a lot of sense..

been working that way for a year now

And if you need to recover an image?  I deleted shots my wife wanted with her mom to send to relatives.  Fortunately, the card had a file structure that little Lexar Image Rescue 2 couild use.  I got images even which were deleted before and were "under" images from the recent delete. I had formatted the card in camera, as always...maybe that made a difference. I honestly don't know.

I got all back but one and it showed fine on Photoshop ™ but  I couldn't save since the program said the image had an improper termination or something like that.   

I really don't know how critical to image recovery all of this is but to me I was safe and family got the shots....