What's your experiences in using older SD cards? is it safe to re-use in other devices?

[markipolo]

So, since I'm from a region where the steam decks aren't available yet, as you might've seen from my earlier forum posts...

Anyway, here's the story, I got a friend on discord who very recently got the steam deck 64 GB version gifted to him as a surprise, and the dude was totally stoked.
though, he found out fast enough that the 64 GB internal storage isn't quite enough to play the big and heavy hitter games.

So he told me he went looking for any spare SD card lying around, and he found a small sized SD card from his old Nintendo 2ds that doesn't work anymore, and the card was apparently forgotten there somehow for years... he just found it earlier today.

Now, the next part of the story was, he went on discord and messaged me saying that he wasn't sure if he wanted to put the SD card he found in the steam deck, because he was afraid it could cause problems somehow. He also forwarded me horror stories of SD cards causing the Device or phone to have errors or malfunction... like this lengthy reddit thread here.

or even this older article he found: Could Your SD Card Cause Your Android Smartphone to Crash or Lose Data?

he was pestering me cause I was the more "techie" guy in the discord group... anyhow he also sent me a picture of it just in case...

Tiny right?
Since this dude is really broke at the moment, he says this would probably fit a bunch of smaller indie games in it, and it would be better for him since he wants to go on a retro gaming streak anyway. Also, he said it was better to have +4GB than no GB. *sighs

I told him he'd better get a better SD card than that, and he told me later that he took a look at different buying guides, and is planning to get the 1TB SanDisk, which was recommended as best SD card for Steam Deck. Although he'll have to save up probably, he might get that SD card around Christmas season... (he's really temporarily broke, lucky he got that steam deck as a gift)

so... point of what I'm asking here is, does anyone have personal experiences with using older cards from other devices, and how susceptible are they to wear and tear, or will it affect his steam deck?

the dude wants to use it, at the same time is scared of bricking it or something.

Sorta feels like that option in games where you need an upgrade, but you're saving up for the 4th more expensive upgrade down the line.

I personally don't have much hand's on experience with having bunches of SD cards as I'm mostly a PC guy, and 1 phone... I need something to tell him to get him to calm down...

 

[AnnieWX]

Yes you can use any old SD card laying around it will be slow however you will need to format it doing so will erase all of the data on the card.

 

[Kitchencadet]

I think they have the same average life as say cds(between 10 and 30 years) but unlike cds which fail in increments sd cards slow down much like hardrives based on write frequency I may be wrong on the expenctancy though you’d have to check it’s just something I seem to remember hearing and could be a minimum rather than a rule(and like cds some early ones may be dying at a quicker rate where later ones exceed expectancy)