MicroDrives?

[new.Style]

Hello all,

I haven't posted in quite a while but I was wondering as to whether I could use a Microdrive (possibly a 4gb hitachi) to store/access music? I was thinking that at 3600rpm it might not be able to read fast enough and would be choppy while playing but I'm not sure?

Any help is appreciated.

-Steve

Oh ya P.S. If you know any website/good place to buy from post a link please! Thanks

[Kolyan]

Its fast enough, i read somewhere (around here) that the MicroDrive can even play movies, problem is that it drains a crap load of power so u'll need a big battery.

Kolyan

It'll work, but make sure you turn on any Microdrive mode any software players you have might use (or increase the cache of the player to reduce the number of times your microdrive will spin up/down). For videos, this works as well.. but you do need to enable microdrive mode to ensure smooth operation.

How much you willing to spend?

Yeah it's actually very quick, I can write a 350MB file in less then 2 minutes via USB 2.0 card reader. I've had my 8GB Microdrive for quite sometime and here is what I recommend:

Just get a 4 GB SD card http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=4gb%20sd%20card for <$100. Just make sure it DOESN'T say "SDHC".

If I could buy a different item instead of my microdrive, I would. It does take about a second or two to initially read the file/folder/etc... each time it starts up. Besides that I never hear it skipping... ever. It takes alot of dropping abuse too. Battery life ain't bad with microdrive mode. I mostly use my Axim + MD for video and it's great. I could usually watch about 2-3 hours of video at the lowest brightness setting (night mode :) and thats including using my BT headphones.

Noise... I can hear it starting and stopping in a quiet room but to hear it spinning I need to put my ear to it.

Microdrive mode is an option in some programs that stores your media in your axims memory then spins down the drive to save power. Without it, it constantly spins. If your the kinda person that likes to listen to like 5-10 seconds of a song then skip to the next track until your happy, that really drains your MD faster because thats about the time it takes to cache up. WMP has NO microdrive mode so the other other programs I know that has it is TCPMP, CorePlayer and MortPlayer. I really love TCPMP/CP's MD mode because there isn't a delay while starting a song, just the 1 second it takes to spin up. But if you have bluetooth headphones and need AVRCP and MD mode, your only free option is MortPlayer.

One more thing: it's very difficult to remove my particular MD. Since this my first ever CF type card, I don't know how a actual CF card is to remove but I am sure it's similar. I recommend two pieces of regular CLEAR tape, not the fuzzy stuff, joined on top to make a tiny pull strip to easily yank it out. And also it adds a bit more weight to your device.

Froogle around. Search for "8gb cf card" and you can find a flash one for about $180. I paid $200 for my 8GB Microdrive. The reason I went 8GB instead of 4GB is because the price per GB ratio was better. A 4GB MD in my local computer store was $150 FYI.

My cons: Slow 1 or 2 second startup, adds more weight, hard to remove, drains battery somewhat more then flash, not 100% noiseless but hardly noticeable
pros: coolness (amaze your friends with probably the worlds smallest hard drive), good price per GB at the time of my purchase, fast reading and writing, metal casing

My exact MD 8gb (not a link to buy + also it says photo drive but I used it for everything but and it works good): http://www.seagate.com/products/retail/flash

I have the same Microdrive as glennosmond and am getting the same results that he is. The tape idea is a good one, otherwise it is kind of hard to get out. Ordinary CF cards do have an edge that you can hook your fingernail on to help easily pull it out.

If I remember right, I purchased my microdrive from Amazon, for much less than 200USD. Seems like there was a special & rebate at the time and that there have been other sites since having similar deals. I would check around first before buying, to get the best deal.

[rlarson_mn]

I have had my CF micro 8gb Seagate drive for almost 9 months now with no issues. It does take more power but thats a trade off for having available that much capacity. I store large files on it (movies, pdf, excel, non pocketpc related files). The tape for ease of removal is a MUST. There are some threads with actual pictures on how to do this. Today I would get a non-micro drive CF card over the micro drive but at the time I got my drive the largest capacity CF card was 2gb. My reasons for the CF card vs drive would be power usage and solid state vs an actual drive.

I have the same Microdrive as glennosmond and am getting the same results that he is. The tape idea is a good one, otherwise it is kind of hard to get out. Ordinary CF cards do have an edge that you can hook your fingernail on to help easily pull it out.

If I remember right, I purchased my microdrive from Amazon, for much less than 200USD. Seems like there was a special & rebate at the time and that there have been other sites since having similar deals. I would check around first before buying, to get the best deal.

I also bought it the first day it came out, which would explain why it cost me so much :(

Amazon has it for about $146 (free shipping and no taxes :)
oh... and now I remember: I bought it from buy.com because amazon didn't have it yet and I just had to have it. Then like a day after I got it, amazon had it for super cheap, about this price I believe.

[beepbeep]

just make sure it's retail version and not some OEM "For embedded application only" varieties.

[Nezter]

actually, if you buy one that is oem, just make sure it's designed for cameras. I picked up an 8GB seagate microdrive OEM (for embedded applicatioins only) and was quite happy to find it work in my x51v, however, it would not run in the x51 I had purchased because it was mistitled as an x51v by the seller. another contributing factor could be that the x51v I purchased came preflashed with the a12 rom by dell. I was considering flashing the x51 to a12, but didn't want to brick it before I returned it to the seller.

my 8GB seagate works fine in my x51.

[rlarson_mn]

My 8gb Seagate CF micro drive works fine with my X51V also. Has for the last nine months.

[new.Style]

Thanks for all the responses!

[Half Decaf]

I have a 4 GB Hitachi that works like a champ.