Hitachi 4 gig microdrive, how to make it work

[Muze]

I just got one for my e800. I assume I have to format it somehow to work with the PPC. How do I do that? When I turn on the PPC, I get the message "Enter the name of the device driver for this card. For information, see the card manufacturer's documentation." Please help.

[wocket]

What I did with mine was to format it with a PC and a card reader. In windows XP right click on My Computer and select the manage option then select disk Management find the drive letter for your microdrive right click and format it.

If it still fails then there could be a problem with your microdrive.

[Muze]

I don't have a card reader. Is there an easier way? I heard there's some software for your PPC to do this. I have a PCMIA adapter (that came with it) but no laptop.

[newst]

If the PPC OS doesn't recognize the device I don't see how you will get any software loaded on the PPC to access it either.

The truth is that USB CF card readers are pretty cheap, particularly as compared to the cost of a 4GB Microdrive. In addition, if you need a 4GB drive you are either transferring LOTS of files to the PPC or some very large files. You will be amazed by how much faster those file transfers can be accomplished using a card reader than by moving them through Activesync.

[Muze]

I've read on these forums and elsewhere that Hitachi microdrives were recommended to work with the e800, yet I couldn't find any posts having trouble getting them to work. That would lead me to assume that those who purchased them, got them to work. Maybe it's defective, I'll contact the store for support.

As far as getting a USB CF reader, I don't want to ever take the microdrive out if I can help it once I get it to work.

[Janak Parekh]

As far as getting a USB CF reader, I don't want to ever take the microdrive out if I can help it once I get it to work.
Nevertheless, they are cheap and useful at times -- if not with your Pocket PC, then with cameras.

--janak

[Muze]

I haven't been able to get this microdrive to be recognized. I tried reading it with the CF adapter on two laptops with WinXP. One laptop didn't find anything at all, the other found a PCMCIA device but couldn't install it. Does this mean I have a bad microdrive? Is there some kind of software/driver I need to install on the laptop to get it to recognize the device? I assume that it should just show up as a hard drive, like a digital camera, with no extra software/drivers needed.

[Steven Cedrone]

Yup, it sounds like you have a bad one. The only other thing you can try is a card reader (not a PCMCIA adapter)..

Steve

[Muze]

Thanks for your replies, I've since had the microdrive replaced and now it is working. The interesting thing is that I put it right into the e800 and it seems to just work already has a storage device. Since this is the case, is it really necessary to format anyways?

[wocket]

If it's a new (as in not extracted out of some sort of mp3 player) microdrive then you should'nt have to format it. But if you are worried then use somthing like "flash format (http://www.cnetx.com/format/)" (supports up to 5GB microdrives) to check the drive anyway or run scandisk on your desktop/laptop to check it.