this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Edit: I replaced it with a book

I'm specifically referring to microSD cards here, but I'm too lazy to type that every time and I doubt many people will think of full-sized ones anyway.

I got two 256GB SD cards (Samsung pro plus something) for Christmas, but I can't think of a good use for the second one.
I have a Raspberry Pi, currently with a 32 GB SD card, where I'm gonna put the first one.
My phone has 128 GB of storage, which is already enough for me.
I'm considering putting it in my Nintendo Switch, but it already has a 64GB SD card, which is enough for the 2 non-physical games we have.
I plan on getting a Steam Deck once I can afford it, but that already has a lot of storage.
I don't have a camera or drone or similar.
Selling is not an option.
A refund is technically an option, but I'd rather find a use for it.

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[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

FWIW, I have a 1TB steam deck with an extra 1TB SD card added—my storage is close to full.

Gotta remember some games these days can get ridiculously huge (100-200gb)

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

I don't play many AAA ganes. My Steam library on my Laptop currently takes ~126 GB.

[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Switch if you ever plan on downloading more than like 4 games

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Thats fair, just gotta watch out for updates then :)

[–] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would use the second one as a backup.

You could use one of these USB SDcard reader and script something that backups the content of the running/live SDcard to the second one on the USB stick. With dd or something you could have an always ready backup SDcard of the RasPi system.

That or using an old Android phone as a media center and putting the second SDcard in that.

Or using an old Android phone as a surveillance camera but that would be a bit overkill to have 256Gb.

Also if you have an early model of the Switch you could hack it to run pi... homebrews and in that case having a super large SDcard could be good.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Since they already have an extra card, why not. But buying one for the purpose might not be a good idea, see for example https://superuser.com/questions/1254904/using-an-sd-card-for-backup#1254907

[–] BunnyKnuckles@startrek.website 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a Raspberry pi project you've been wanting to start. Sounds like now is the time.

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I said in the post body, that's what I intend to use the first one for.

[–] BunnyKnuckles@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I find it hard to believe you're not buying a second Raspberry pi.

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm considering, but I barely use my current one.

[–] variants@possumpat.io 2 points 1 year ago

I remember having issues with my pi using a 32gb card and having to format it to a smaller size

[–] rufus@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Retro gaming is fun. If you don't mind pirating games, you can put all of the N64 games, SNES, Gameboy, lots of MS-DOS classics, C64, Playstation 1/2 games, Arcade games etc on it and play some Frogger or Banjo-Kazooie. That'll fill 256GB. Emulators are available on many platforms. Raspberry Pi, Android, PC, ...

You can also stick it into the SD-Card slot of your laptop and use it as additional storage.

If your devices are a bit older: There are adapters to use micro-SD cards in devices that only accept full-size cards. They come for free with some micro-SD cards or should cost a few cents.

archive.org has some old games. Some of them are legal to download or abandonware and somewhat a grey area. Illegal sources for 256GB torrents of old games would be something like www.arcadepunks.com or maybe rompacks.com but I wouldn't recommend pirating games from your own internet connection especially not with bittorrent.

[–] Lusamommy@alien.top 2 points 1 year ago

They come for free with some micro-SD cards or should cost a few cents.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever bought one that didn't come with the adapter.

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Pi… with the second to be used when the first one dies? Every now and again I make an image backup of the sd card for my klipper install on my printer.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago

It should be in a shoe box labeled “flash cards”

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Steam Deck is great and I'd recommend getting the base model then upgrading the drive to something bigger on your own in addition to using the SD card.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

You can also get a matte screen filter so it looks like the top model.

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I bought the steam deck with the largest storage available, and still ended up picking up a 1Tb SD card. I wouldn’t end up tossing that idea unless you have a modest library without a lot of the big footprint games.

I’ve reached that point where I’ll spend some extra money to avoid the inconvenience of having to redownload a game if it’s at all unavoidable, and the internal storage gets filled up a lot faster than you’d think. You know your own library and habits, but you might be happy to have one on hand.

[–] lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

If it's a higher speed than the 64GB one in your Switch, it could make sense to replace it with the new 256GB one for slightly faster game loading times.

If you had a rooted Android I would have suggested using the SD card for primary photo storage, and app backups/"timeshift-like" restore. I use mine for both, as well as offline maps, app data, and some LLaMA models before the AI LLM novelty wore off

[–] Lusamommy@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, I have one in my Wii, one in each of 3 Wii Us, one in my vita, one in each of 3 3DSs. We're you looking to hack any of those consoles?

[–] backhdlp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My Switch is too new to be hacked, don't have any other consoles.

[–] Lusamommy@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, your only options are really a) get something to use it in, b) sell it, or c) save it as extra space for a rainy day. You're really not going to conjure up a novel use for an SD card

[–] NullaFacies@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Outside of games, you could use it in your desktop or laptop as a drive for different things. On my Mac, I use a 512GB for torrents instead of having it write to the SSD. I also have one that the Photos.app saves the Local iCloud Photo Library to.

Likewise, if any of your media apps let you set a default location, you can take advantage of it and have the apps and programs save content there, I do this for DVDs and Blu-Rays I get to have a digital copy.