Is there some way to detect when SD-card and similar media are near their end of life?
~~~ 0;-Dan

No.....With a few exceptions.

I have killed more than my share of thumb drive, SD, mini, micro and compac memory cards over the years. From what I can tell, if treated well, they die at random times for unknown reasons. Of course, I have killed more than a few by bending them, applying heat and cold, adding water, .....those, I could tell had a limited life span.

I have not seen any real data on a card that is left alone dying. (Unlike floppy disks, tapes, .....) Then again, maybe I have not left a thumb drive a lone long enough...

From a data storage perspective, all of these "media devices" are considered flash memory -- not to be confused with Adobe Flash the animation tool. The big-daddy of flash memory are the various Solid State Disk (SSD) devices. All flash memory has a lifetime.

I found this article Proper SSD Management -- PC World. That has some words about reading and writing flash memory.

Another article Understanding SSD -- CNET

Most Linux file systems keep track of a mount count and other details. Most flash media are FAT/FAT32/EXFAT file systems which lack that sort of record keeping. I'd hate to burden the already sluggish access times of flash memory with any sort of I/O error logging if that exists.

Interested & Concerned,
~~~ 8d;-/ Dan