That is when we have memory cards no bigger than our pinky fingernails: they can store mountains of information, and they’re everywhere -- phones, cameras, game consoles, and what not! (Yes, you own one too even if you do not know it, if you own any gadget at all!)
We humans ought to be ashamed, because our condition is becoming obsolete every minute: the memory card does not even forget anything stored in it!
And the operative phrase here? ‘DOES NOT EVEN FORGET’.
Because how many of you knew that your card does not erase anything you had in it? Not even when you delete it! Not until it absolutely has to, anyway. Talk about being good to a fault!
Let us talk about the file system, and it will all make sense in a minute.
Your pictures and music files, or ‘data’ for your memory card, will all be stored in physically close and continuous groups of memory spaces called clusters in your card. Why close and continuous? Because had they been jumbled up, not even Superman will be able to locate all the millions of different places where bits of your pic was stored in! Plus, you might also have to hear the card accidentally play Black Sabbath in the middle of Mozart’s soulful Magic Flute. Scary thought!
Your card also has a kind of a table in addition to the data region. The card checks the table to see what data went where. Think of it as a bunch of entries, where each one describes each cluster in the data region.
So obviously, when you transfer a file to your card, the card writes the data in some clusters in the data region, and makes a mark in the table about which clusters it filled up.
But when you delete a file, all the card does is erase the entry in the table, and mark those clusters empty in the table (and table alone!). The data is still there in the data region, and is only erased when the card runs out of ‘really’ empty clusters to store new incoming data. When it does, it resigns to overwriting the ‘deleted’ data and filling in the new data instead. (Do not blame the card: We have a strong suspicion that the inventor of the memory card just passed on his inherent laziness.)
So what’s the big deal in that, you might ask. Here’s the big deal: you send us your memory card, and we shall send it back with 90% of the stuff you thought you had deleted. And that includes the pic you took in that skimpy dress posing like Marilyn Monroe. If it had been any other guy, he would have loved that pic and kept a copy for himself. And if he is enterprising enough, so would the whole world, thanks to the web!
To ye who still embraces thy doubt: never wondered why transferring files to your card takes forever, while deleting them takes just half a second?
You should know that recovering deleted data is easy too. Data recovery softwares are abundant in the internet like maggots in rotten cheese.
It is not just about the pictures you stored. If you had stored backups of your messages, contacts or business information in your card, you almost deserve being victimized: backups should be under lock and key in a system, not in a flimsy memory card!
Think all this might not happen to you? We hate to break your bubble, but there seems to be a buying spree for ‘second-hand memory cards’. And it is definitely not triggered by low cost. Proof? One word: China. The number of downloads for data recovery softwares on the internet has hit an all-time high. If you watch the news, you would know that there is no dearth of creeps who would do anything for a fleeting moment of pleasure, so better be safe than sorry.
The problem with memory cards is that it is so small, and yet so powerful. Small, so you can easily lose it. Powerful, because it is so durable: one of our colleagues actually ran a card through a full cycle in the washing machine, but the card survived without a scratch, and the pictures in it were still ‘awesome’. (That is the word he used.)
First things first: your memory card is NOT the place where you store your wild-night-out pics or the company’s annual report. Or anything that can get you in trouble for that matter.
Secondly, when you are about to throw away your memory card, follow the FFF rule – Format, Fill with junk, Format again! Explanation: you format the card, and then fill the card with stuff that is not even remotely private, like a lot of songs or pictures of apples. Then format it all over again! So when someone stealthily tries to recover your data, he gets a load of garbage, and you get the last laugh!
Lastly, your card, and all your personal information, is precious, and you have to treat it like the Holy Grail. Never ever lose your card. To those who think this is a remarkably useless piece of advice: see ya when you are the star in those sleazy websites! And oh, can we get an autograph when you are all over the news for being the ‘authentic inside source’ for startling news leaks about your company?
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