Anyone with a Wii: Can you use regular SD cards with it or do you need the "special" branded Wii cards?

Without the password (typically, in the case that the user forgets the password), the host device can command the card to erase all the data on the card for future re-use (except card data under DRM), but there is no way to gain access to the existing data. All cards incorporate DRM copy-protection. Roughly 10% of the storage capacity of an SD card is a "Protected Area" not available to the user, but is used by the on-card processor to verify the identity of an application program that it then allows to read protected content.

The card prohibits other accesses, such as users trying to make copies of protected files. The DRM scheme embedded in the SD cards is the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM or CPPM) specification of the 4C Entity, which features the Cryptomeria cipher (also termed C2). The specification is kept secret and is accessible only to licensees.

The scheme has not been broken or hacked; however, this feature of SD cards is rarely used to protect content. DVD-Audio uses the same DRM scheme. Windows Media files can be DRM-encoded so as to make use of the SD card's DRM abilities.

Windows Phone 7 devices use SD cards designed for access only by the phone manufacturer or mobile provider. An SD card inserted into the phone underneath the battery compartment becomes locked "to the phone with an automatically generated key" so that "the SD card cannot be read by another phone, device, or PC". 32 Symbian devices, however, are some of the few that can perform the necessary low-level format operations on locked SD cards.

It is therefore possible to use a device such as the Nokia N8 to reformat the card for subsequent use in other devices. A Super Digital product formerly34 made by Super Talent was essentially the SD card without the DRM features. Integrated Wi-Fi — Eye-Fi produces several SD cards with built-in Wi-Fi transceivers providing static security (WEP 40; 104; and 128, WPA-PSK, and WPA2-PSK).

The card lets any digital camera with an SD slot transmit captured images over a wireless network, or store the images on the card's memory until it is in range of a wireless network. 35 Some models geotag their pictures. Pre-loaded content — In 2006, SanDisk announced Gruvi, a microSD card with extra digital rights management (DRM) features, which they intended as a medium for publishing content.

SanDisk again announced pre-loaded cards in 2008, under the slotMusic name, this time not using any of the DRM capabilities of the SD card. 36 In 2011, SanDisk offered various collections of September 20117 songs on a single slotMusic card for about $40,37 now restricted to compatible devices and without the ability to copy the files. Integrated USB connector — The SanDisk SD Plus product can be plugged directly into a USB port without needing a USB card reader.

38 Other companies introduced comparable products, such as the Duo SD product of OCZ Technology and the 3 Way (microSDHC, SDHC, and USB) product of A-DATA, which was available in 2008 only. Different colors — SanDisk has used various colors of plastic or adhesive label, including a "gaming" line in translucent plastic colors that indicated the card's capacity. Integrated display — In 2006, A-DATA announced a Super Info SD card with a digital display that provided a two-character label and showed the amount of unused memory on the card.

An SD card's speed is measured by how quickly information can be read from, or written to, the card. In applications that require sustained write throughput, such as video recording, the device might not perform satisfactorily if the SD card's class rating falls below a particular speed. For example, a high-defintion camcorder may require a card of not less than Class 6, suffering dropouts or corrupted video if a slower card is used.

Digital cameras with slow cards may take a noticeable time after taking a photograph before being ready for the next, while the camera writes the first picture. File fragmentation: where there is not sufficient space for a file to be recorded in a contiguous region, it is split into non-contiguous fragments. This does not cause rotational or head-movement delays as with electromechanical hard drives, but may decrease speed by requiring the controller to do more computationcitation needed.

With early SD cards the speed was specified as a "times" ("×") rating, which compared the average speed of reading data to that of the original CD-ROM drive. This was superseded by the Speed Class Rating, which guarantees a minimum rate at which data can be written to the card. The newer families of SD card improve card speed by increasing the bus rate (the frequency of the clock signal that strobes information into and out of the card).

Whatever the bus rate, the card can signal to the host that it is "busy" until a read or a write operation is complete. Compliance with a higher speed rating is a guarantee that the card limits its use of the "busy" indication. The SD Association defines standard speed classes indicating minimum performance to record video.

Both read and write speeds must exceed the specified value. Speed Classes 2, 4, and 6 assert that the card supports the respective number of megabytes per second as a minimum sustained write speed for a card in a fragmented state.