SD Card vs. Radioactivity | Data Loss? - YouTube

Hi!

A year ago I tested an SD card against my strongest magnet and the electromagnet in an induction cooker.

The card did quite well.

In this video I will take it up a notch and blast the card with radiation from my strongest, radioactive samples.

Will the card still be just fine or will radioactivity erase data on an SD card?

Take proper precautions when handling radioactive samples.

Or just don't handle them at all...

I have several SD cards for my video cameras.

Many of them are labelled as X-ray proof, meaning they should be able to handle low-energy, ionizing radiation.

However, this inexpensive one is not marked as X-ray proof.

Makes me wonder what will happen, if I hit it with not only X-rays but the more energetic gamma rays?

None of my SD cards are labelled as gamma ray proof.

Makes sense, since data are stored on SD cards by electrons, and strong ionizing radiation will move electrons.

Will radioactivity erase data on an SD card then?

I will start gently using a small specimen.

This is a natural mineral called torbernite.

Technically metatorbernite since some water has evaporated from it after being picked out of a mine in France years ago.

Anyway, it is a beauty and a beast in one, since it contains a special metal.

Uranium!

Should make it radioactive.

Let's test it with a geiger counter.

Oookay. It is picked up at quite a distance.

I will switch to my robot hand for this.

After sending out a morse SOS, the geiger counter settles at around 350 microsieverts an hour.

That's uhmmm...

... hot!

Around 3000 times as strong as the natural background radiation in my home.

Before I place the SD card on it, we need to perform a control test on the data.

As you can tell, I have filled it to the brim with four video files and it registers as the G: drive.

I will use Powershell to check every bit in the files.

More info on the method in my earlier video - links in all the usual places.

First I change directory to the G: drive and then I tell it to list the checksums for all the files.

This will take a while for 30 gigabytes of data.

After half an hour the first result is in.

This checksum is a unique string for the data in the file.

If a single bit is changed later, the string will be different.

If nothing has changed at all, the checksum will be the same.

As we can tell from the second checksum.

These two files are copies of each other and the matching checksums confirm that they are indeed exactly the same.

Down to the last bit.

After one and a half hour the control test is finally over.

Time for the more exciting part of the test.

Time to place the SD card on top of the torbernite and let it simmer for say...

15 minutes on each side at 350 µS/h.

After 15 minutes I turn the card over.

In case the flash memory chips are only on one side of the circuit board.

After another 15 minutes I wipe the card to remove any torbernite or radon progeny stuck to it.

Of all the safety protocols for radioactivity, avoiding cross contamination is the most frustating one.

Now the tissue paper should be considered radioactive, though it most likely isn't above background radiation.

Moving on.

Will the card even work after this treatment?

Yes, it does pop up and...

... everything looks normal.

It is not totally fried, but will the data and therefore checksums be exactly the same as before?

While waiting for the results - again - I realised how ambivalent I am about all this.

The angel on my right side is rooting for the card.

I mean, it is good thing if no data has been lost or corrupted.

I want my SD cards to be resilient in all situations when making videos.

But the demon on my wrong side is rooting for the radioactivity.

It's just a more exciting result if the files have changed, right?

Or wrong...

The checksum for the first file is the exact same as before.

Meaning at least a third of the card is unaffected.

All right, nothing changed on the card.

Perhaps not surprising, since it only received a dose of roughly 175 microsieverts in the 30 minutes.

Around the same as two months of natural background radiation from just sitting on my table.

Seeing this result after waiting for one and a half hour, I uhh...

... decided to hit the card a little harder.

I will now go all in and use my strongest, radioactive samples.

Pitchblende from a German mountain.

These aren't beauties. They are purely beasts.

Heavy metal rocks containing at least 600 g of uranium in total.

Obviously, they are more radioactive than the small torbernite sample.

Measuring around 860 µSv/h here.

But since I will make a sandwich with the SD card between them -

- the card will experience over 1 millisievert an hour.

Or over 9000 times natural background radiation.

Moreover, I will let it cook for much longer.

Ah, sorry. My robo-hand is not the most graceful.

Second try.

Perfect.

While we wait for the dose to build up, I have time to thank my patrons.

A big, BIG thanks to all my patrons.

Thank you so much for helping out.

It is really appreciated and important

for a niche channel with monthly quality uploads like mine.

You can help me continue with more and better videos too.

For only a dollar a month you get full access to all posts.

Link to my Patreon page in the description.

Thank you!

After 45 hours between the angry stones, I can't wait to see the result.

Great.... I broke my robo-hand and pinched my finger when the handle split open.

Easy repair though.

Inspecting the card, it looks fine.

Unlike my finger after the mishap.

Patrons, who saw my February video on Patreon, know I am used to pinches.

But are the data all right?

The card has received a guesstimated dose of 45 millisieverts.

Or over 40 years of background radiation in under 2 days.

Well, there we have it.

The data are just fine!

I for one am impressed by this.

Comment with your opinion.

Looks like my natural samples, which are literally picked out of the ground, are not strong enough to affect the card.

So you shouldn't worry about having your SD cards erased by radioactivity.

I should however mention, that they can be affected by stronger radiation for a prolonged time.

Like the cosmic radiation you could experience in outer space.

Here the energies can be in gigaelectronvolts - not the megaelectronvolts from uranium decay.

Look up radiation hardening.

Speaking of space, you may have voted in the poll on my channel's community tab.

If not, I have linked to it in the description.

Thanks for chiming in.

In short, I was contacted by the European Space Agency: ESA.

They are currently looking for their next astronauts and believe one of you could be exactly what they are looking for.

Now, you may think it is impossible to become an astronaut but have you even looked into the requirements?

Do you think you have to be a world record athlete

who flies fighter jets in the spare time?

Well, take a look at their website linked in the description.

Maybe your mind is more important than say...

... having both feet.

I think ESA is open to more people than ever before in our space history.

So please, go have a look and go for it.

Reach new heights and become part of planet Earth's space history.

I promise to make a proper celebration if one of you makes it.

Man, that would be out of this world.

Hope you liked this video enough to click like and subscribe for more like it.

Thanks for watching! Bye for now.