HP 50g & SD Cards: Performance, Format, Notes

[Joe Horn]

Everybody is saying that speed doesn't matter? Well, it doesn't matter when the 50g is storing small objects, BUT it DOES matter if you plan on doing frequent memory backups to the card (e.g. while developing software). One of my 50g's has a Pretec SD card marked "60X"; it performs a backup of 200MB (EDIT: oops! I meant 200KB!) in 1.5 seconds. Sweet. Another 50g has a PNY card whose speed is not mentioned on its label; it takes over 10 seconds to perform the same backup. Awful! Ok, that difference might not bother people with more patience than I have, but please be aware that card speed DOES make a difference when storing large objects such as memory backups.