Microdrive Cards

[sarahashleyphotos]

Do any of you know anything about these Microdrive cards? They say they were made in 2004 (at this time I was just starting photography and only shooting film). They fit in my 40D and I have no problems shooting with them. The guy that gave them to me said they did not work well with his camera (I am assuming his camera just cant handle the cards idk). Can any of you give me more information about these?

 

[sarahashleyphotos]

Nevermind. I was told that these can heat up and make your camera shut off and that they eat up your battery so I will be throwing them away.

 

[KmH]

OK!

From - CompactFlash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microdrives are tiny hard disks—about 25 mm (1 inch) wide—in a CompactFlash Type II package. The first was developed and released in 1999 by IBM, with a capacity of 170 Mbyte. IBM sold its disk drive division, including the Microdrive trademark, to Hitachi in 2002. Comparable hard disks were also made by other vendors, such as Seagate and Sony. They are available in capacities of up to 8 GB.As Microdrives are mechanical devices, they draw more current than flash memory (100 mA maximum). Early versions drew up to 500 mA, but more recent Microdrives draw under 200 mA for reads and under 300 mA for writes. (Some devices used for high speed—such as Readyboost, which has no low-power standby mode—exceed the 500 mA maximum of the Type II standard.) Microdrives are also susceptible to damage from physical shock or temperature changes. However, Microdrives typically have a longer lifespan of write cycles than flash memory.

 

[sarahashleyphotos]

OK!

From - CompactFlash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microdrives are tiny hard disks—about 25 mm (1 inch) wide—in a CompactFlash Type II package. The first was developed and released in 1999 by IBM, with a capacity of 170 Mbyte. IBM sold its disk drive division, including the Microdrive trademark, to Hitachi in 2002. Comparable hard disks were also made by other vendors, such as Seagate and Sony. They are available in capacities of up to 8 GB.As Microdrives are mechanical devices, they draw more current than flash memory (100 mA maximum). Early versions drew up to 500 mA, but more recent Microdrives draw under 200 mA for reads and under 300 mA for writes. (Some devices used for high speed—such as Readyboost, which has no low-power standby mode—exceed the 500 mA maximum of the Type II standard.) Microdrives are also susceptible to damage from physical shock or temperature changes. However, Microdrives typically have a longer lifespan of write cycles than flash memory.

What a pointless reply. That was just a bunch of gibberish to me that I could have found on my own. I was hoping to speak with people that have personal experience with these cards and not people that just google and copy and paste.

As I said someone on another website with a much better reply has told me they are useless.

 

[Derrel]

I shot tens of thousands of photos on two useless, IBM 1-gigabyte Microdrives. I used the useless things for several years. When I bought the first one, "large" storage like a 1-gigabyte Microdrive cost $400--at a discount price!!!!

 

[sarahashleyphotos]

I shot tens of thousands of photos on two useless, IBM 1-gigabyte Microdrives. I used the useless things for several years. When I bought the first one, "large" storage like a 1-gigabyte Microdrive cost $400--at a discount price!!!!

Someone told me that they would heat up and shut my camera off as well as eat up my battery life and I cant have that happen during a wedding. Is this not true then? What they cost is not relevant. I just want to know if they would be of any use to me.

 

[KmH]

What a pointless reply. That was just a bunch of gibberish to me that I could have found on my own. I was hoping to speak with people that have personal experience with these cards and not people that just google and copy and paste.

As I said someone on another website with a much better reply has told me they are useless.

But, you didn't find it on your own. Had you used that quote to explore on your own the meaning of what it was saying, you would ultimately wind up a better informed, and maybe even just better, photographer.

Obviously you got some questionable info on that other web site.

I can't help that you didn't get it, though I was trying to help.

You might also consider that many other people, some members but mostly non-members (guests), will have read my reply. It's likely at least some others understood what I quoted, and/or visited the link I provided to learn more about compact Flash memory.

In fact TPF exists way more for the non-members than for the members. Guests visiting TPF usually out number members by more than 10 to 1.

Here is another quote for you:

Minds are like parachutes, they only work when they are open.

 

[sarahashleyphotos]

What a pointless reply. That was just a bunch of gibberish to me that I could have found on my own. I was hoping to speak with people that have personal experience with these cards and not people that just google and copy and paste.

As I said someone on another website with a much better reply has told me they are useless.

But, you didn't find it on your own. Had you used that quote to explore on your own the meaning of what it was saying, you would ultimately wind up a better informed, and maybe even just better, photographer.

Obviously you got some questionable info on that other web site.

I can't help that you didn't get it, though I was trying to help.

You might also consider that many other people, some members but mostly non-members (guests), will have read my reply. It's likely at least some others understood what I quoted, and/or visited the link I provided to learn more about compact Flash memory.

In fact TPF exists way more for the non-members than for the members. Guests visiting TPF usually out number members by more than 10 to 1.

Here is another quote for you:

Minds are like parachutes, they only work when they are open.

Looking things up is fine but I like to discuss things with people that have had used them and had experience with them which is the purpose of a forum. This also helps for when if I have another question about the topic then I know who to ask. Simply googeling and copying and pasting is a lazy way out and a very poor response. If you have any personal experience then please share it.

Also my mind is very open... to discussion and the knowledge that others here have to share. You obviously dont have much to share which is fine. In that case don't post. You could reply to every post in the discussions here with "google it". There would not be much to this forum if everyone just googled instead of trying to start a discussion with people about a subject.

 

[bratkinson]

In their day, the micro-drive CF cards were the only way to get storage bigger than about 64K...and 128K was a major leap in solid-state technology of the day. Having lower mega-pixel cameras (2, 4, 8mps) would fit perhaps 50-100 JPG pictures on a 64K card. Having a 2 GIG micro-drive was the 'end all to end all', and as mentioned above, quite expensive. I think I paid over $100 for the 128K Sandisk CF card I used with my Canon G5. I also drooled over the micro-drives, but they were too expensive for my blood, at the time.

The micro-drive cards are nothing more than a miniature computer hard drive...very miniature. There's a motor, spinning platter, and moving read/write head(s), just like any other hard drive. And like a 'regular' hard drive, they WILL fail after a while. I'm thinking that at 8 years old like the ones the OP has, their days of 100% reliability are very limited. These days, getting an 8 or 16 Gig SD card or 2 would make sense, and relegate the micro-drive cards to a museum of outdated technology...like my Commodore-64 computer.

 

[usayit]

haha... the 6GB one in the middle... I have one laying around ..still.

Mini-HD concept that was a technology stop gap until solid state CF cards caught up in size.

 

[manaheim]

Oh don't throw those away! Those were such a neat technological advancement at the time. I mean yeah, they had issues, but the technology! Come on! Man, am I the only geek here?

 

[usayit]

Nope you are not.... why do you think I still have it?

I thought laptop hard drives were small...

 

[Village Idiot]

OK!

From - CompactFlash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microdrives are tiny hard disks—about 25 mm (1 inch) wide—in a CompactFlash Type II package. The first was developed and released in 1999 by IBM, with a capacity of 170 Mbyte. IBM sold its disk drive division, including the Microdrive trademark, to Hitachi in 2002. Comparable hard disks were also made by other vendors, such as Seagate and Sony. They are available in capacities of up to 8 GB.As Microdrives are mechanical devices, they draw more current than flash memory (100 mA maximum). Early versions drew up to 500 mA, but more recent Microdrives draw under 200 mA for reads and under 300 mA for writes. (Some devices used for high speed—such as Readyboost, which has no low-power standby mode—exceed the 500 mA maximum of the Type II standard.) Microdrives are also susceptible to damage from physical shock or temperature changes. However, Microdrives typically have a longer lifespan of write cycles than flash memory.

What a pointless reply. That was just a bunch of gibberish to me that I could have found on my own. I was hoping to speak with people that have personal experience with these cards and not people that just google and copy and paste.

As I said someone on another website with a much better reply has told me they are useless.

What an absolutely ignorant answer to someone that provided you with good information. The only reason it's gibberish to you is because you apparently have no real knowledge of computers or technology. Maybe you should just go get a point and shoot so in the future we don't provide you with some "gibberish" about aperture, noise, x syncs, or anything like that.