DO NOT DO THIS!!!

[Wink Jones]

So I was working on my computer last evening and I disconnected my Pro Grade CFEXPRESS B/SD card reader. I put it on top of a sheet of paper that was on my desk. After a few minutes I heard a strange clicking sound that kept getting louder and my computer was acting strange. I probably would not have heard it, but I was wearing my new and very annoying ears. My wife has been after me for three years to replace my old pair, one of which broke.

I located the clicking noise and lifted the card reader only to discover it has a strong magnet and it was lifting up my 1 TB hard drive upon which are stored all of my photos from the last several years. I am now in the process of downloading all of those files through Back Blaze, as it was easier to figure out than my time machine backup.

So, if you do not already know, The ProGrade card reader has a strong battery, and it will mess up your external hard drive if you give it a chance. Thank goodness for time machine, and thank goodness for Back Blaze.

Hopefully, I will have this totally restored by tomorrow morning, I keep having to download portions of the drive and restore them one after another. Not fun, but WAY better than losing many years worth of photos.

 

[Warren D]

I stopped using the Prograde CFe reader for that reason as well as it seems to keep the heat in the card, ejected cards were so hot I couldn't hold them. The Sandisk reader is better, cards are still hot but holdable and no where near as hot as the Prograde and there are no magnets.

 

[Wink Jones]

I stopped using the Prograde CFe reader for that reason as well as it seems to keep the heat in the card, ejected cards were so hot I couldn't hold them. The Sandisk reader is better, cards are still hot but holdable and no where near as hot as the Prograde and there are no magnets.

Thank you Warren. I was surprised at the heat of the cards, but these old fingers did not seem to mind the heat too much. The slow restore process is a pain though.

 

[jer]

@Wink Jones Say whut?!! Good grief!

Exploding batteries, overheating cameras, and ultra-magnetic accessories. Photography is getting dangerous even before you get in front of the wildlife! Soon we'll be comparing & shopping for haz suits just for handling our equipment!
Thanks for the heads-up and your personal-experience warning to reassess your back-up system.

 

[MadMikeOne]

I have the Delkin brand CFe card reader. Anyone here have any input on that brand? I'm heading for Kenya in late September, and the last thing I need is to lose my images that I've backed up to a hard drive. That being said, I'll be bringing enough cards so that I won't be formatting ANY of my cards until after my return home. I'm a charter member of the belt and suspenders and garter belt school of photo back up when traveling.

 

[Ivan Rothman]

I have the Delkin brand CFe card reader. Anyone here have any input on that brand? I'm heading for Kenya in late September, and the last thing I need is to lose my images that I've backed up to a hard drive. That being said, I'll be bringing enough cards so that I won't be formatting ANY of my cards until after my return home. I'm a charter member of the belt and suspenders and garter belt school of photo back up when traveling.

I have been using the Delkin Devices USB3.2 CRExpress Type B reader (DDREADER-54) and I've been very happy with it. It is fast and it is quite compact. I also have the Prograde reader, but because of the strong magnet that it has, I have stopped using it and I just bought a 2nd Delkin Devices reader to have as a backup on my upcoming trip to South Africa.

 

[MadMikeOne]

I have been using the Delkin Devices USB3.2 CRExpress Type B reader (DDREADER-54) and I've been very happy with it. It is fast and it is quite compact. I also have the Prograde reader, but because of the strong magnet that it has, I have stopped using it and I just bought a 2nd Delkin Devices reader to have as a backup on my upcoming trip to South Africa.

Thank you so much for quick response. You've set my mind at ease.

 

[Ken Miracle]

So I was working on my computer last evening and I disconnected my Pro Grade CFEXPRESS B/SD card reader. I put it on top of a sheet of paper that was on my desk. After a few minutes I heard a strange clicking sound that kept getting louder and my computer was acting strange. I probably would not have heard it, but I was wearing my new and very annoying ears. My wife has been after me for three years to replace my old pair, one of which broke.

I located the clicking noise and lifted the card reader only to discover it has a strong magnet and it was lifting up my 1 TB hard drive upon which are stored all of my photos from the last several years. I am now in the process of downloading all of those files through Back Blaze, as it was easier to figure out than my time machine backup.

So, if you do not already know, The ProGrade card reader has a strong battery, and it will mess up your external hard drive if you give it a chance. Thank goodness for time machine, and thank goodness for Back Blaze.

Hopefully, I will have this totally restored by tomorrow morning, I keep having to download portions of the drive and restore them one after another. Not fun, but WAY better than losing many years worth of photos.

One of the reasons I keep the prograde reader in a drawer away from all drives and ony have it as a back up or to use with SD cards for my wifes Z50. I use the Delkin reader for all of my CFExpress B cards mostly Delkin Black and some power and have for the Prograde cards I have as extras for my Z6II.

 

[NWGuy]

Are there any brand incompatibilities between reader and card manufacturer, e.g., prograde card in Delkin reader? If one prefers to use the Prograde reader, I guess just switch everything over to SSD's.

 

[Mike Bull]

I have never used a card reader, always connect the camera via the USB cable, and download via Nikon Transfer. The advantage of doing this is less wear on the card connections due to taking it in and out of the camera.
I mentioned this to a friend who did a test of transfer time with his card reader, there was no difference in transfer time. I realise there are people who probably take a load more images than I do with multiple cards, But I rarely take my cards out of camera.I don't no anyone who does not use a card reader, am I the only one.

 

[Ken Miracle]

Are there any brand incompatibilities between reader and card manufacturer, e.g., prograde card in Delkin reader? If one prefers to use the Prograde reader, I guess just switch everything over to SSD's.

The only 2 brands I have used in my Delkin reader are Delkin and Prograde and both worked.

 

[Ken Miracle]

I have never used a card reader, always connect the camera via the USB cable, and download via Nikon Transfer. The advantage of doing this is less wear on the card connections due to taking it in and out of the camera.
I mentioned this to a friend who did a test of transfer time with his card reader, there was no difference in transfer time. I realise there are people who probably take a load more images than I do with multiple cards, But I rarely take my cards out of ccamera.I don't no anyone who does not use a card reader, am I the only one.

Multiple times I have had pros and camera store owners say to never download straight from the camera attached to your computer since there is a risk of having the computer damage your camera with a surge etc.. Because newer cameras have tethering options etc. I do not know if that is really an issue anymore or not but I just never risked it. And my card reader takes up a lot less space on my stand up desk where my computer is than my camera.

I am a mac user and using the card reader I just drag and drop the files to my desk top and it is very fast with the Delkin Black and the Delkin card reader.

I can then sort with photo mechanic 6 if I have a lot of files, then review the remainder if I want with NX Studio to see what settings worked the best, approximately where the focal point was and occasionally export an as is Tif to see how my camera settings are working when I want to use Tif or jpg out of the camera (not very often).

Then I import the raw files I want to process to my Light Room Classic catalog on a very fast OWC Envoy Pro SX w/thunderbolt OWCTB3ENVPSX04 4TB and I back up to 4TB SSD Mercury elite pro with Crucial MX500 and two other external SSD drives (one is rotated out about once a month from my safety deposit box at the bank) using carbon copy cloner.

 

[dabhand16]

I have never used a card reader, always connect the camera via the USB cable, and download via Nikon Transfer. The advantage of doing this is less wear on the card connections due to taking it in and out of the camera.

I rotate cards as then I have another back up until it gets to the front of the queue again. I'd more worried about messing up the socket in the camera than the card connections.

 

[Ivan Rothman]

Are there any brand incompatibilities between reader and card manufacturer, e.g., prograde card in Delkin reader? If one prefers to use the Prograde reader, I guess just switch everything over to SSD's.

I have used the Delkin reader with Delkin Black cards, Promaster Velocity Cine cards Prograde 2.0 Gold cards and older Sony Tough EFexpress cards. It works flawlessly with all of those cards.
Sometimes I need to read SD cards when I am using my Nikon Z7ii. Because I decided to no longer travel with the Prograde reader which has a slot for SD cards as well as CFexpress cards, and because the laptop I have doesn't have an SD card reader, I have bought the SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II USB-C card reader. It is very compact.
On my upcoming trip to South Africa, I am taking a pair of Z9s, a Z7ii (which I will use mostly for slow motion video), a pair of Delkin readers and the SanDisk SD reader.

 

[Hawkeshead]

I have the Prograde PG04 CF Express B/XQD reader. Rather than buy a new reader, I have removed the magnet as follows:- Remove the metallic sticker. Under that is magnet that is held in a recess by a plastic clip that is easy to spring out. I left both the magnet and clip out and replaced the sticker in the recess. Try to avoid bending the sticker. A touch of superglue will solve any lifting of corners etc.

 

[Steve]

I have the Delkin brand CFe card reader. Anyone here have any input on that brand? I'm heading for Kenya in late September, and the last thing I need is to lose my images that I've backed up to a hard drive. That being said, I'll be bringing enough cards so that I won't be formatting ANY of my cards until after my return home. I'm a charter member of the belt and suspenders and garter belt school of photo back up when traveling.

I have it, no issues at all.

 

[Wink Jones]

Darn. I wish you had written a week ago.

I just got my new reader from Hoodman, recommended to me by @Butlerkid. Works great and no magnet.

If anybody wants the pro grade at 60% off, just let me know.

Thank you @Hawkeshead for the information. I bet there are others out there who will be happy to use it.

 

[Ivan Rothman]

I have the Prograde PG04 CF Express B/XQD reader. Rather than buy a new reader, I have removed the magnet as follows:- Remove the metallic sticker. Under that is magnet that is held in a recess by a plastic clip that is easy to spring out. I left both the magnet and clip out and replaced the sticker in the recess. Try to avoid bending the sticker. A touch of superglue will solve any lifting of corners etc.

Thank you for this fix that I hadn't thought of. I just did remove it easily and am now happy to have the Prograde reader without a magnet in it. I still prefer the Delkin reader because it is more compact, but the advantage of the Prograde is that it also has a slot for reading SD cards, which I use only when traveling with my Z7 in addition to my Z9s.

 

[Wink Jones]

Well, I officially retract my offer of 60% off. I took off the magnet and the metal sticker was still sticky so I put it on the back and now have a spare if anything goes wrong, or if I actually fill my card and overflow into the SD card. It could happen...

 

[Wes Peterson]

Magnets erasing data on a HDD is a bit of an old wives tale. I have the same card reader and its conveniently stuck on the side of my computer case.... which is why the magnet is there in the first place.

 

[Wink Jones]

Just don't put it on top of an external hard drive. It was pre SSD, so I do not know how magnets affect SSDs, but I just spent two whole days downloading and copying my entire external hard drive backup to a new SSD external hard drive.

No Old Wives were harmed in the true telling of my problem...

 

[Wes Peterson]

Just don't put it on top of an external hard drive. It was pre SSD, so I do not know how magnets affect SSDs, but I just spent two whole days downloading and copying my entire external hard drive backup to a new SSD external hard drive.

No Old Wives were harmed in the true telling of my problem...

If you were able to copy the data to a new drive then obviously no harm was done to your data.

 

[Ivan Rothman]

Just don't put it on top of an external hard drive. It was pre SSD, so I do not know how magnets affect SSDs, but I just spent two whole days downloading and copying my entire external hard drive backup to a new SSD external hard drive.

No Old Wives were harmed in the true telling of my problem...

I think SSD drives are immune to magnets but I prefer not to take any chances with a magnet that serves no purpose for me

 

[Wes Peterson]

Hard Drive Destruction

K&J Magnetics - Incredibly strong neodymium magnets at affordable prices. Large variety of stock rare earth magnets available.

www.kjmagnetics.com

 

[Hawkeshead]

Interesting update in the last article.