4GB Microdrive by the Fall of 2003

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.hgst.com/about/news/20030106-5.html' target='_blank'>http://www.hgst.com/about/news/20030106-5.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced plans to squeeze four gigabytes of data onto the 1-inch Microdrive, the world's smallest hard disk drive. With considerable advances in miniaturization technology, Hitachi engineers have overcome numerous magnetic recording challenges associated with developing hard disk drives of this size. The 4GB Microdrive is expected to be available in the Fall of 2003."<br /><br />I was beginning to think the development of the microdrive had been abandoned. Nothing much has happened since the 1GB drive was released in 2000. It uses so-called Pixie Dust, which IBM developed last year. Hitachi and IBM have pooled their hard drive technologies into a <a href="http://www-916.ibm.com/press/prnews.nsf/jan/611ED0C59F8ABBF285256C83004ED2DE">joint venture under the Hitachi name</a>.

[Mike Temporale]

4 GB MicroDrive!!! I think I just wet myself. :oops:

I wonder how this will impact battery life....

[Pony99CA]

Let's hope we also see larger PC Card drives. The Toshiba 5 GB has been out for a long time.

Yes, maybe not many people have PC Card capabilities on their Pocket PCs, but almost all laptops have them, and my 20 GB drive is getting full. Putting all of my MP3 and MPEG files on a drive I could share with my iPAQ 3870 would be great. :-)

Steve

[Iain]

I'm going to sound like a very ignorant muppet here...

So much so I've figured it out, sorry people.

[Fzara]

I've heard numerous bad remarks with the 1gb Microdrive, for ex., too much battery consumption, skipping, less stable, etc etc. This is one of the reasons I am looking for a 512mb CF Card atm.

Ed, do you think this will plague the 4gb Microdrive as well?

[handheldplanet]

Okay, I was going to switch completely over to SD, but since there's no SDIO and now a humongous microdrive I guess I have no choice but to stay with my current mixture of CF and SD. Now I just have to decide which device I'm going to stick to (since this basically rules out the sleek 1910 and the convenient T-Mobile PPCPE).

[vincentsiaw]

well, cpacity problem now might be 4 GB but how about the power consumption, getting lesser or consume even more ?

[Delta737]

Well, I hope it will be a good card, which doesn't drain so much power as the 1GB. But I think it's great that we will get more memory. I'm curious about the price though... :?

[don dre]

I have the one gig drive and jog with it. I don;t have any skkipping problems. Moreover, since abandoning my 3630 for a 3955 I have no issues with battery life. Personally, I find the price tag of $225 for 1 Gb too good to pass up. 4 gb is nice but I too am curious as to what the price will be.

[ryanmjones]

Are the moicrodrives as fast as CF cards? I think I heard somewhere that they are slower. Would this pose any problems to movie viewing? I asssume the 4GB would be even slower than the 1GB ? ? ?

[shawnc]

I have the one gig drive and jog with it. I don;t have any skkipping problems. Moreover, since abandoning my 3630 for a 3955 I have no issues with battery life. Personally, I find the price tag of $225 for 1 Gb too good to pass up. 4 gb is nice but I too am curious as to what the price will be.

Don dre,

This is encouraging since I just ordered the 1G MD on Friday and was thinking about cancelling based on some of these comments. My biggest concern was power-drain. I have a 340MB MD and had heard that the 1G uses less power (a big factor in my deciding to order). I also had a 3630 but have recently stepped up to the new Dell. Just to confirm, you have not noticed a appreciable battery drain with the 1G? Do you leave the MD in your Ipaq all the time or only when accessing data stored on the MD?

Thanx,

[ricksfiona]

If the throughput difference between SD & the 4GB MD, then it's really a price issue. Good for consumers.

Personally, I don't want to spend any more than $150 on any memory upgrade.

I like SD for it's durability and size, but you gotta pay extra for it. I know 4GB SD is on track, I got a feeling though it's going to cost $1000. :cry:

[ukexpat]

Don't forget that for devices like digital cameras etc, their OS has to be compatible with drives larger than 1GB -- not all are.

[GregWard]

Is a 4gb CF format hard drive that attractive given the size of CF solid state these days? Ok - I accept it might depend on pricing - but how much would a 4gb CF card be by the time the new MicroDrive is out?

When the 1gb MD came out (from memory) it offered way more capacity than the solid state alternative - so it's shortcomings were pretty irrelevant. But surely any hard drive technology has got to be both slower and offer worse battery life?

[rbrome]

What about the 1GB SD card Panasonic is unveiling this week? Why fiddle with a microdrive when you can stay solid-state? I think four SD cards take up about as much space as one CF card. Actually, the four SD cards are probably smaller, since we're talking about a Type II CF card...

[rbrome]

PS: Here's a link mentioning the 1GB SD card:

Yahoo! News story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=562&ncid=738&e=7&u=/ap/20030106/ap_on_hi_te/tech_exposition)

[Daniel]

Are the moicrodrives as fast as CF cards? I think I heard somewhere that they are slower. Would this pose any problems to movie viewing? I asssume the 4GB would be even slower than the 1GB ? ? ?
The Microdrives are slower then CF. For example, you can take burst photos on a digital camera for longer (or at all) with CF as opposed to a MD. The read/write times are slower but not so that you can't use it to play MP3s. I have never personally tested movies running off it on PPC but I don't think that it would be a big problem (Someone correct me if I'm wrong please).

I have a 512MB MD that I use in my Canon G1, I can't take too many burst photos but I can take movies.

Daniel

[Daniel]

What about the 1GB SD card Panasonic is unveiling this week? Why fiddle with a microdrive when you can stay solid-state? I think four SD cards take up about as much space as one CF card. Actually, the four SD cards are probably smaller, since we're talking about a Type II CF card...

Not to mention probably at least 4 times the price! :)

Daniel

[ECOslin]

Novelty item, I'll stick with my CFs and SDs.

Maybe these microdrives are meant to be within equipment like the new Cable boxes to store customer preferences and advertising polls. An exploration in cheaper storage for consumer electronics.

[Christian]

The Microdrives are slower then CF. For example, you can take burst photos on a digital camera for longer (or at all) with CF as opposed to a MD. The read/write times are slower but not so that you can't use it to play MP3s. I have never personally tested movies running off it on PPC but I don't think that it would be a big problem (Someone correct me if I'm wrong please).

I have a 512MB MD that I use in my Canon G1, I can't take too many burst photos but I can take movies.

Daniel

I have used the 1 GB Microdrive with several newer digital cameras, currently the Minolta Dimage 7i. There is no measurable difference in battery consumption or write speed between it and CF in my experience. Also, quantitative tests at review sites (such as dpreview.com) have shown than the 1 GB Microdrive is on par or better in read and write speeds than most CF cards. Since it is a rotating disk, continuous read/write will be comparatively faster than many small files.

[Jonathan1]

Again I'm nervous of the density of these devices. 1GB microdrives are known to go bad and that's only 1GB. Then again they may have increased the quality as well.

[Green Dragon]

I'd like to see a PDA with one of those 1.8" Toshiba hard drive the iPod uses. 20GB anyone? :twisted:

[don dre]

I sue my 1 gig MD when listenign to music mostly but there is no noticeable battery drain. I think most PDA's had battery issues to begin with when it first came out. I have had mine only for a year but haven;t ahd any problems. Solid state is great but the price is high. MD's offer an excellent and affordable alternative, at least for the near term.

[sponge]

For the people all wondering about the battery life, power consumption etc, think about this way. Does an 80GB HD take much more juice than a 20GB? Not really.

One thing has really interested me about storage - capacity gets larger while physical size remains the same. A scratch on a 4GB DVD will affect a LOT more data than on a 700MB CD. Here's hoping where we'll use storage that isn't capable of being scratched like CDs are.

[amcat]

If anyone's interested, the 1GB Microdrive is at HP's site for $199-- pretty good deal, comes with PC card adapter... Here's the link:

http://www.smb.compaq.com/dstore/option.asp?supercategoryid=33&CategoryId=1259&ComponentId=8351

[Tari Akpodiete]

regarding the comment that one gig microdrives are "known to go bad"...

okay, known by whom? under what conditions (cameras, pocket pcs)? would that be the IBM ones or the branded Iomega ones? some stats/urls to back up this assertion would be most helpful and informative.

i have a one gig IBM microdrive and have had zero problems with it. and i use it heavily every day. i know at least 75 people with one, and only know of one person who had a problem, and as i recall, he dropped his onto a hard surface, from a height.

now, i also have a 340 meg IBM microdrive, and it is indeed one of the earlier models that did suck juice. the subsequent 340s improved.

i'd love a 4 or 6 gig, or even bigger microdrive, or even a CF card if it was a reasonable price. then again, i'm a movie watcher. and i like to put my music on it too.

[handheldplanet]

I saw this today too:

A 3GB CFI Card! (http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C1357/)

Of course $2500 is a little steep :wink:

[shawnc]

regarding the comment that one gig microdrives are "known to go bad"...

Yeah, I found that comment to be kind of strange myself. Everything I heard about the 1G MD was that they were very reliable. My biggest concern was about battery drain. Did some research and it turns out that the 1G actually uses LESS power than some of the older 340MB units. That and some of the comments in this thread was enough for me. Ordered mine a couple of days ago. :D

[Jonathan1]

"Known to go bad." I'm not saying they all do but I have a 340 that has gone bad. I have a fellow iPaq user with a 1Gb that has gone through 2. Jason has commented on the reliability. And that is with a lower density then on a 3GB drive. I have concerns.

[Pony99CA]

PS: Here's a link mentioning the 1GB SD card:

Yahoo! News story (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=562&ncid=738&e=7&u=/ap/20030106/ap_on_hi_te/tech_exposition)
I liked this quote in the story:


The portable storage seen in the audio cassette has morphed into many forms, including the Secure Digital card, the size of a U.S. quarter. Panasonic will announce a new one that holds a gigabyte of digital data — roughly the same as a 90-minute analog cassette.

1 GB is about 90 minutes of music? Maybe if you rip WAV files. With 128 kbps MP3 encoding, a 1 GB card should hold almost 1000 minutes of music, and probably at higher quality than music on a cassette (128 kbps is often called "near-CD quality").

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

For the people all wondering about the battery life, power consumption etc, think about this way. Does an 80GB HD take much more juice than a 20GB? Not really.
Well I don't think the concern rotates around the size of the new MicroDrive... the concern is around the fact that it is in fact a hard drive as opposed to solid state (e.g. CF/SD).

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Also, quantitative tests at review sites (such as dpreview.com) have shown than the 1 GB Microdrive is on par or better in read and write speeds than most CF cards. Since it is a rotating disk, continuous read/write will be comparatively faster than many small files.
Yeah, that was my understanding as well. While MicroDrives consume more battery, they do perform better than their solid-state competitors.

[Janak Parekh]

1 GB is about 90 minutes of music? Maybe if you rip WAV files. With 128 kbps encoding, a 1 GB card should hold almost 1000 minutes of music, and probably at higher quality than music on a cassette (128 kbps is often called "near-CD quality").
Well, you'd store about 90 minutes of 16bit 44KHz uncompressed PCM audio. Of course, no sane person would do such a thing on a device as expensive on a 1GB SD. People do WAV rips of CD's on 120GB hard drives, though.

I for one can't wait to get a 4GB Microdrive. I've maxed out 1GB for years with my music. :)

--janak