# Can URINE on an SD card cause data corruption?



## Glaucoides (Nov 11, 2016)

I know this is a really weird question, but...

If a very small amount of urine gets on an SD memory card, can it cause corruption/damage to the photos stored on the card?

A little bit of pee may have gotten on an SD card containing photos of a very rare bird I photographed yesterday. Very little urine (if any) actually got on the card -- all that happened was that I handled the card after I had grabbed a piece of clothing that had gotten some pee on it. But is it possible that the urine could have damaged the card in such a way that the colors/patterns visible in the photos might be slightly corrupted or changed in any way?

This bird is probably the first of its kind ever photographed in North America. The photos look fine, but I don't want to claim such a rare sighting based on photos that might be slightly corrupted. So I'd like to know if you all think it's possible that data corruption occurred!

Thanks!


----------



## Dave442 (Nov 11, 2016)

Seems unlikely.


----------



## Piccell (Nov 11, 2016)

Doubtful in one day, but it will corrode the contacts so I'd get the images off the card ASAP and then decontaminate the cards contacts.


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 11, 2016)

Memory cards have spent years immersed in lakes, rivers and oceans and the images were still there.  I doubt a few drops of avian tinkle is going to do much.


----------



## Glaucoides (Nov 11, 2016)

Piccell said:


> Doubtful in one day, but it will corrode the contacts so I'd get the images off the card ASAP and then decontaminate the cards contacts.


Very little, if any, urine actually got on the card -- I just touched the card with my fingers after I grabbed a piece of clothing that had gotten a little pee on it. But I did get the images off the card IMMEDIATELY after this incident. So, the images are fine and I don't need to worry about potential color corruption?


----------



## ZombiesniperJr (Nov 11, 2016)

Dont have an answer to your question but can you tell me what type of bird this very rare bird is


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 11, 2016)

Once they've been copied to another recording media, they're fine.


----------



## Glaucoides (Nov 11, 2016)

ZombiesniperJr said:


> Dont have an answer to your question but can you tell me what type of bird this very rare bird is


It's either a Taimyr Gull, a Mongolian Gull, or a Lesser Black-backedXHerring Gull hybrid -- the first two would be 1st records for North America; the latter would be a first for the West as far as I know...

These three are very similar and I may never know which of the three it is, although I'm currently leaning towards Taimyr Gull...


----------



## Glaucoides (Nov 11, 2016)

480sparky said:


> Once they've been copied to another recording media, they're fine.


They were still only on that one SD card at the time the pee got onto it.


----------



## vintagesnaps (Nov 12, 2016)

I thought it got dropped in the toilet or somebody's kid or dog went potty on it or some worse disaster when I read this! lol I doubt it, if it was just on fabric or your hand it doesn't seem like that would be enough moisture or body chemistry to do much of anything. If you already got the picture off the card and it looks OK you're probably fine. Congrats on what sounds like a great find.


----------



## Piccell (Nov 12, 2016)

Glaucoides said:


> ZombiesniperJr said:
> 
> 
> > Dont have an answer to your question but can you tell me what type of bird this very rare bird is
> ...


Share the pic.


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 12, 2016)

Glaucoides said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > Once they've been copied to another recording media, they're fine.
> ...



Wipe the card off, insert it into a card reader and offload the images.  If the images survive, they're just fine.  Then treat the card as suspect from then.

I'm more interested in how the bird managed to whiz on your SD card.  I mean, did you take photos of it, then remove the card from the camera and put it in your hand, then reached out to pet it?  ............. or what?


----------



## jcdeboever (Nov 12, 2016)

If the pics are too yellow, you should be able to adjust the tint in post...


----------



## Piccell (Nov 12, 2016)

jcdeboever said:


> If the pics are too yellow, you should be able to adjust the tint in post...


----------



## dennybeall (Nov 13, 2016)

If you take the plastic cover off of the memory card all you will find is a solid block of plastic with some metallic contacts embedded in the plastic. There is nothing to be damaged by liquid.


----------



## Tallgrass1 (Nov 23, 2016)

480sparky said:


> Glaucoides said:
> 
> 
> > 480sparky said:
> ...


I think it's pretty clear he got so excited at seeing a national record (which is unbelievably awesome BTW, wow!) that he pee'd his pants* sd card fumbling commenced after that. 


*If I had a possible new species record, I'd probably wet myself too.


----------



## Drive-By-Shooter (Nov 25, 2016)

so where is the pic?!?


----------



## unpopular (Nov 25, 2016)

Don't worry. Pee is sterile. Your computer will not likely be infected with any virus.


----------



## zombiesniper (Nov 25, 2016)

Am I the only one that gets the impression that the OP had an event that caused an embarrassing moment and we haven't heard the full story?
.
.
.
.
C'mon. We're all friends here. You can tell us the truth about...........the pee pee moment.

P. Ha ha I said P.S. You're card is fine......your pants need a wash but your card is fine.


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 25, 2016)

unpopular said:


> ....... Pee is sterile. ..........



Well, 'fresh' from a _healthy _person, yes.


----------



## unpopular (Nov 26, 2016)

480sparky said:


> unpopular said:
> 
> 
> > ....... Pee is sterile. ..........
> ...



Actually, no. It's a myth. The bacteria in urine does not typically grow in a culture prepared for UTIs, and that's where the myth comes from. But if you do a DNA analysis there are other bacteria present.

Turns Out Urine Isn’t Actually Sterile      |     Smart News | Smithsonian


----------



## jaomul (Nov 26, 2016)

I'd be pissed off if the photo wasn't still on the card


----------



## 480sparky (Nov 26, 2016)

unpopular said:


> Actually, no. It's a myth. The bacteria in urine does not typically grow in a culture prepared for UTIs, and that's where the myth comes from. But if you do a DNA analysis there are other bacteria present.



Hang on.  Let me get out my lab equipment.  I haven't done anything with my sequencer for quite a while now, so it will take me some time to retrain myself on how to use it.


----------



## Peeb (Nov 26, 2016)

Waiting for @pixmedic to chime in to give guidance on proper protocol for ferret urine....


----------



## unpopular (Nov 26, 2016)

480sparky said:


> unpopular said:
> 
> 
> > Actually, no. It's a myth. The bacteria in urine does not typically grow in a culture prepared for UTIs, and that's where the myth comes from. But if you do a DNA analysis there are other bacteria present.
> ...



And you call yourself a biochemist!


----------



## Glaucoides (Dec 9, 2016)

Piccell said:


> Doubtful in one day, but it will corrode the contacts so I'd get the images off the card ASAP and then decontaminate the cards contacts.


What would happen if the card's contacts got corroded over time by urine? Would the images on the card be completely inaccessible and unreadable, or would they be accessible but have color corruption?


----------



## evancamp13 (Dec 9, 2016)

I'm from an electronics background, so I'll throw my two cents in on the issue. The acidity of urine is incredibly low, and contact materials on electronic devices are designed to be fairly corrosion resistant, most memory cards I've used have what appears to be an ENiG finish on the contacts (emersion nickel-gold). The nickel gold contacts will not corrode... If they do oxidize slightly, inserting into a reader a time or two would be enough to remove the oxide layer and make contact. Memory is memory, urine will not affect digital memory... I wouldn't try it, but you can likely submerge the card in liquid, remove it, let it dry for a few days and it will still be usable. As long as it is dry when powered on internally, there should be no adverse effects on the electronics


----------



## 480sparky (Dec 9, 2016)

Glaucoides said:


> Piccell said:
> 
> 
> > Doubtful in one day, but it will corrode the contacts so I'd get the images off the card ASAP and then decontaminate the cards contacts.
> ...



If the contacts (only) get corroded, that won't affect the memory in the card. Trying to offload the images through corroded contact _might _corrupt the images, but only the offloaded image. The original should not be affected.

If the contacts cannot be cleaned enough to allow offloading, anyone competent I'm electronics could be able to transfer the board to another card case and solder it to the new cases' contacts.


----------



## Glaucoides (Dec 9, 2016)

evancamp13 said:


> I'm from an electronics background, so I'll throw my two cents in on the issue. The acidity of urine is incredibly low, and contact materials on electronic devices are designed to be fairly corrosion resistant, most memory cards I've used have what appears to be an ENiG finish on the contacts (emersion nickel-gold). The nickel gold contacts will not corrode... If they do oxidize slightly, inserting into a reader a time or two would be enough to remove the oxide layer and make contact. Memory is memory, urine will not affect digital memory... I wouldn't try it, but you can likely submerge the card in liquid, remove it, let it dry for a few days and it will still be usable. As long as it is dry when powered on internally, there should be no adverse effects on the electronics


The card may have been still wet when it was inserted in the computer's memory card slot... I didn't realize it may have had pee on it until I had already inserted it into the computer, downloaded the images, and removed it again... The images downloaded with no trouble, but I wonder if they might be corrupted...?


----------



## Glaucoides (Dec 9, 2016)

480sparky said:


> Glaucoides said:
> 
> 
> > Piccell said:
> ...


The original images are still on the card; I only copied them to the computer (I didn't remove them from the card). But I did use my computer's image-viewing program to view the images while they were still on the card, before I offloaded them. Do you think that could have corrupted the original images in the card as well as the copies that were offloaded?


----------



## 480sparky (Dec 9, 2016)

Glaucoides said:


> The original images are still on the card; I only copied them to the computer (I didn't remove them from the card). But I did use my computer's image-viewing software to view the images while they were still on the card, before I offloaded them. Do you think that could have corrupted the original images in the card as well as the copies that were offloaded?



I seriously doubt the images on the card have been corrupted.


----------



## Destin (Dec 9, 2016)

Glaucoides said:


> The card may have been still wet when it was inserted in the computer's memory card slot... I didn't realize it may have had pee on it until I had already inserted it into the computer, downloaded the images, and removed it again... The images downloaded with no trouble, but I wonder if they might be corrupted...?



If you got the files off of the card and were able to open them without issue, they are not corrupted. 

Does anyone else feel like this thread is a troll? lmao


----------



## The Barbarian (Dec 13, 2016)

I've run a couple through a washer, with oxygen bleach.    Images were fine.    Don't recommend it, but they seem to be a lot tougher than the manufacturers warrant.


----------

