I purchased a couple of SD cards and I have only 1 favourite - SanDisk. I've purchased the Lexar and the Kingston and in both cases they "broke." Losing precious pictures is a very troubling issue that I've had, but my most recent acquired card is a 16 GB micro Sandisk SD card Class 10 (no issues for the past few months). I purchased it for a total of $19.30 on eBay and it was shipped from somewhere in the states, not a bad price actually. What is the most that you would pay for an SD card? The most I would pay is $20.
I've seen people sell 2GB SD cards for $23 which is a joke if you ask me. I'm sure these kind of sellers target people who don't know the 'standard' prices of SD cards or they just don't know where they can get great deals. For me, the most I'd pay for an SD card is $8 regardless of it's storage capacity.
I do also like SD cards from Sandisk. I have never used the others because of the reviews people have left after using them. Some say a 4 GB SD card will be reduced to less then 1 GB storage space after using it for a while. How is that even possible. It will continue shrinking until it becomes useless.
I've never seen anyone sell a 2GB card for that price, that is ridiculous. My aunt actually purchased a 4GB for about $12, not a bad price, but it was Kingston and it's completely broken now, I can't even repair it on my phone. With that being said, I don't think that it was worth the buy. I think that she was one of those targeted people. I bought an 8GB Sandisk for her online for about $10, i just hope it lives up to my expectations now.
I understand your pain. That has happened to me too many times to count. unfortunately those are the hazards of flash memory. There isn't really much that we can do about it. I combat this by backing up all of my files to an eternal HDD. My philosophy is "Better safe, than sorry". I would recommend you do the same, because it doesn't matter if you switch brands, or not. The problem is with flash memory technology.
When it comes to SD cards, I always prefer SanDisk over other companies. I have had my fair share of experiences with SD cards of different companies like Transcend, Kingston, etc. But I have to say that SanDisk takes the crown in terms of reliability and quality. And the maximum I would pay for a card is 10$. This is due to the reason that i tend to transfer stuff to my laptop.
The most I would pay for an SD card is $10, and fortunately, I've never encountered any trouble when using my flash drives and memory cards. I've used Sandisk too, but I guess I just don't use them regularly enough for them to get defective. Have you tried using a software recovery program to recover your files? There are free ones that you can use.
I also buy SanDisk SD cards. I recently upgraded the microSD card for my phone. I paid $10 for 8 GB. I was browsing in Staples. They had microSD cards on sale. The deal was just to good to pass up. The most I would pay for a SD card really would depend on its size. 8 GB is more than enough for my basic smartphone though. I can't imagine needing more than that.
