What to do with old memory cards?

What was once large capacity is now tiny. I have some 512, 256 and 128 MEG sized cards and they don't get any use. What do some of you do with them?

I was thinking that to keep up I'd have to sell/rotate cards about every 18 months or so to get reasonable value re-selling them. Then buy the next size up... That treadmill sounds like flashlights. :thinking: :huh:

same thing as old hard drives

throw them away

keep them around like floppies.... till you no longer have a way to plug them into the computer you can still use them to give to friends when they need something from your computer. They are a lot easier to use than burning a cd or dvd and when your friends get the files from them they can bring them back (or keep them). You could set up the 500meg one with portable apps that you can use on other computers like a browser, picture editor, etc.

Lynx_Arc said:

keep them around like floppies.... till you no longer have a way to plug them into the computer you can still use them to give to friends when they need something from your computer. They are a lot easier to use than burning a cd or dvd and when your friends get the files from them they can bring them back (or keep them). You could set up the 500meg one with portable apps that you can use on other computers like a browser, picture editor, etc.

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This is what I've been doing with them for the last 5 years now; just pass them on to the next person who has a use for them.

Get a card reader for your computer if you don't already have one. Very useful device which is standard on all my builds. Most of them take all the common formats (including obsolete ones like SM). Use them the way you used floppies. 128MB to 512MB may not be huge by today's standards, but it's still often useful to hold one type of file (perhaps all your MS Word documents or spreadsheets, for example). You can even back up these types of files to several old cards for redundancy.

Everyone so far is assuming you're referring to flash memory cards. If you mean RAM sticks then just sell the old ones on eBay or give them to friends if you already filled all the slots on your motherboard with higher capacity RAM.

if your refering to the sd memory cards you use in your camera. use them for data storage on your smartphone and or your garmin gps. or use them to play finger football

Ditto, are you speaking of computer RAM or portable mem cards (SD, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, etc?).

I'm always upgrading someone's printer mem or older CPUs (including laptops).

If you're speaking of the portable cards...my wife stores different audio books on the smaller ones - they certainly don't take much space to store.

Last option: Send them to me, I'll pay postage! :thumbsup:

They make great little backup devices. I'm storing scans of all my important papers on one, thing like warranty papers and insurance documents. I keep the card at work, so if anything happens at home, I still have access to all that stuff...

I have none over 256. I always re-use RAM and hard drives. Right now I have friends who I've upgraded with stuff that's been through three or four owners by now. Most folks can't find PC100 RAM when they walk into a store, so it pays to be the guy with a drawer full of it.

I keep them. I have a 16 MB, 128 MB and 512 MB xD cards for my Olympus digital camera. I tend to use the 128 MB card the most since the camera starts up faster with that one than with the 512 MB card.

All my other memory cards are modern capacities; 2 GB SD cards for the Wii, and a 4 GB micro SD card in my cell phone.

I also use them for data transfer between systems. I have 1G and 2G now so the lower and slower ones just sit. It is funny cause just back a short spell, these things would sell at $60-$100 during their time. I'll probably put these low capacity ones in the electronic recycling box for next hazardous waste pick-up.

I need such cards very much, since I have several electronic devices that are still useful to me but can't take new high-capacity cards (and wouldn't know what to do with all the space if they could).
I occasionally browse eBay for them, but the sellers are all on crack - they seem to think a bunch of 128MB cards are worth as much as a brand new 2GB one, if not more.

If you can stick them all in a simple envelope and send them to me (they are tough and won't be hurt by rough handling, so an actual expensive package is unnecessary), I'll be happy to pay you a reasonable amount of money and postage. If interested, please send me a private message

I'm still using 128Meg Smartmedia cards in my old Olympus camera. Picked up a spare but I'm still using the original. Old 2 megapixel camera still works fine for forum pix.

What to do with old memory cards?

Forget them!


Sorry:shakehead

i have a boatload of memory cards, almost 20gb of CF
the newest ones get used first, and then i work my way back through the older ones (im a motorsport photographer, somedays i use 12gb in a day)
my camera also takes SD cards, so i have a fast 1gb card in there, just to switch to as its quicker to switch than change CF cards if something happens, then change CF during a lull in the action
i use my tiny old cards to store stuff on, like Firmware's for my different cameras, settings from my main camera (which i can easily drop into a work camera and it will behave like mine)
i also use them to transport stuff to work (like top gear video's for the guys on night shift to watch)

Most computers today have a media card reader and no floppy drives, and often there are no USB ports open.

Every canon camera I've bought came with a 16MB SD, I've pretty much used them as "floppies" to transfer small files from one computer to another...and of course, I tote along a card reader just in case.

If you have 128/256/512 SDs, 1GB/2GB CFs, 128/256/512/1GB microSD give me a PM and I'll buy them from you under any reasonable price:wave:
[keep in mind I only need so much, some PMs (if any) may be refused]

While on the subject, if anyone has any smaller cards they're ready to throw in the trash, especially Smart Media, I'll be happy to take them off your hands. My mom's digicam takes SM cards. While extras would be nice to have, the prices on eBay are beyond ridiculous.

Echo63 said:

i have a boatload of memory cards, almost 20gb of CF
the newest ones get used first, and then i work my way back through the older ones (im a motorsport photographer, somedays i use 12gb in a day)

Click to expand...

Will you be at the Bathurst 1000 this weekend?

Don't throw them out! Get an IDE-->Flash adapter, and make an embedded system out of them! I am working on one right now to play movies on my TV. It will use a 256 meg flash card. Of that, only eight megs will be used for the OS. :thumbsup:

these are perfect for making redundant backups of critical files.
since the hardware to read them is common its easy to use these if a major disaster strikes.
so copy those irreplaceable files to them and stash in a safety deposit box or with a family member/friend who you have a distributed backup agreement with.the farther away the better.reduces the likelyhood the same disaster will get both copies.btw you dont stop at 2 on really important stuff.use multiple media types and brands too.
ss media will often survive events that hard drives wont.
take it from someone who does data recovery every day.
hardware destruction is the least of your worries in a disaster.stuff is cheap.
time/labor to recover your data is not!those of us that know how to do this dont work cheap!