Toshiba 15GB PC Card Hard Drive

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobileplanet.com/private/pocketpcthoughts/product.asp?dept%5Fid=1420&pf%5Fid=MP530507&listing=1' target='_blank'>http://www.mobileplanet.com/private...30507&listing=1</a><br /><br /></div>Wow. Imagine 15GB of storage on your Pocket PC. Now stop imagining. 8O<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20030625-Toshiba-15GB.gif" /><br /><br />"Toshiba's 1.8-inch HDD 15GB Type II PC Card hard disk drive packs high capacity into a PC Card format, providing additional portable storage and increased mobility for notebook PC users. The 15GB PC Card offers mobile computer users the highest capacity available and the most cost effective solution - especially when compared to other small-footprint HDDs. It's powerful, lightweight design make it an ideal "bridge" device for sharing data between systems such as two notebooks, a notebook and digital camera or other mobile gear. The drive also functions as an external hard disk drive with robust back-up storage capacities for large multimedia files and presentations, holding as much information as 3,472 floppy disks or more than 7 CDs."<br /><br />MobilePlanet [affiliate] is listing a July 15th ship date. The only problem is that it's a little pricy at $499 -- one could get a 30GB iPod for the same price. On the other hand, I can't play movies or Ogg files on an iPod. :)

[suhit]

C'mon Janak, you know you want to get me one of those for my birthday :D

Suhit

[sponge]

What about the battery life?

I'd rather have an iPod though, that and it's a FAST portable hard drive.

[Janak Parekh]

What about the battery life?
You'd definitely need a unit with a second battery, like an iPAQ with a PC sleeve (or PC Plus sleeve).

I'd rather have an iPod though, that and it's a FAST portable hard drive.
I'd imagine this to be decently fast too - the PC card interface is not that slow.

--janak

[gorkon280]

"Toshiba's 1.8-inch HDD 15GB Type II PC Card hard disk drive packs

Again, too bad I won't be able to get one.....never buying Toshiba again. Even if they do offer an upgrade.

:grumble: :grumble: :grumble:

[Janak Parekh]

Again, too bad I won't be able to get one.....never buying Toshiba again. Even if they do offer an upgrade.
Hmm... you do realize that they're completely different departments of Toshiba, right? For example, I'm pretty sure the iPods use Toshiba 1.8" hard drives. Does this mean you should stop buying iPods too? ;)

--janak

[cam87513]

Don't care. As soon as I found out about the upgrade I cancelled my order for a 42" Toshiba Big Screen I had ordered from best buy saturday. I'm not buying anything Toshiba again.

[Kati Compton]

I think that Janak is pointing out that even if you buy non-Toshiba devices, you may end up with Toshiba components *inside* them that you didn't know about. Like in the case of buying an iPod from Apple, but it has a Toshiba hard drive inside.

[aviator]

Didn't Toshiba announce 10Gb and 20Gb 1.8" drives last year? whatever happened to those?

[cam87513]

Oh well, at least we're getting support from apple and not toshiba. Their customer support sucks all around. I was transferred four times to get a replacement "e" key for my Satellite notebook's keyboard, and I still didn't get it!

[Enderet]

MMM wasnt there a PPC out there that had a slot like the one necessary for this device? But im guessing that even if it did... the battery would be sucked dry really fast. 0X

[Janak Parekh]

MMM wasnt there a PPC out there that had a slot like the one necessary for this device? But im guessing that even if it did... the battery would be sucked dry really fast. 0X
The @migo PD-600C had a built-in PC card slot. It also had an extra-capacity battery to manage it. However, it's outdated technology now -- it never really sold due to logistical problems with the reseller and the unit was merely average in its other features.

--janak

[Gremmie]

Don't care. As soon as I found out about the upgrade I cancelled my order for a 42" Toshiba Big Screen I had ordered from best buy saturday. I'm not buying anything Toshiba again.

: :boohoo: roll:

[cam87513]

What, you wanna see the receipt? :roll: yourself

[Janak Parekh]

What, you wanna see the receipt? :roll: yourself
No, I think Gremmie's point is more that a large percent of consumer electronics and computer devices have Toshiba components in them -- be it integrated circuits (ICs), hard drives, CD/DVD drives, etc. Banning all things Toshiba is going to be very, very difficult. They're a very large company with tremendous reach. If you want to avoid all consumer Toshiba products, that's up to you -- but to say you're going to boycott all things Toshiba is problematic.

--janak

[shindullin]

I, like Gremmie, got a Tosh e550g and therefore never expected any support but I feel for those who got hosed on the upgrade issue by Toshiba. I think that they only way companies can be made more responsive to customer needs is if we vote with our MONEY and thus think that it's great for dissastified customers to boycott certain companies. Just bc they still end up buying other brands w.Tosh components does not change the fact that Tosh is still losing market share bc of their lack of customer service. If everyone did this, it would make them want to provide more service in the future or die as a company.

[gorkon280]

Hmm... you do realize that they're completely different departments of Toshiba, right? For example, I'm pretty sure the iPods use Toshiba 1.8" hard drives. Does this mean you should stop buying iPods too? ;)


iPods are over priced. I would never buy one anyway. Creative's are cheaper. So far as parts go, well, that's ok so long as I never have to talk to a Toshiba customer service agent again and none of my money goes directly to them. I am sorry. This e740 thing has really gotten me ticked. I thought I would have a decent pocket pc for 2 years. Now I have to live with bugs that will never get fixed.

I would love to have this much storage on a PPC but really 2-4 gigs would be more than enough for me. CF and SD are approching that now. One less HD I have to carry (one in notebook and one in Creative Nomad.

[sponge]

Janak: By harddrive I meant your more likely to find a PC (and guaranteed on a Mac) with firewire than a PCMCIA adapter. Though I suppose one could carry around a PCMCIA-USB adapter that recognizes it as a mass storage device. This doesn't seem like it'll be useful for a lot of people though, I guess that's the problem you run into when a storage device is pretty close in size to the device itself :P

And yes, Toshiba's hard drives are popular in portable devices.

[cam87513]

iPods are over priced. I would never buy one anyway. Creative's are cheaper. So far as parts go, well, that's ok so long as I never have to talk to a Toshiba customer service agent again and none of my money goes directly to them. I am sorry. This e740 thing has really gotten me ticked. I thought I would have a decent pocket pc for 2 years. Now I have to live with bugs that will never get fixed.

I would love to have this much storage on a PPC but really 2-4 gigs would be more than enough for me. CF and SD are approching that now. One less HD I have to carry (one in notebook and one in Creative Nomad.

That's mainly what I meant by my first comment

[Bob Anderson]

I think that they only way companies can be made more responsive to customer needs is if we vote with our MONEY and thus think that it's great for dissastified customers to boycott certain companies. Just bc they still end up buying other brands w.Tosh components does not change the fact that Tosh is still losing market share bc of their lack of customer service. If everyone did this, it would make them want to provide more service in the future or die as a company.

Perfectly said. Sure the HD division is different than the PPC division. But when all divisions feel the pain of one division's stupidity, trust me, it can make a difference. The problem is that until and unless the boycott reaches a massive size, the companies don't really see an impact. But, we, as consumers need to start somewhere.

Now, I'm facing an ethical dilemma... I don't like Toshiba's upgrade and support policy, but on the flip side, I REALLY want a 15GB portable drive to share between my iPaq and my laptop!!! YIKES, what to do, go with my conscience or my desires!!!! :devilboy:

[ricksfiona]

$500? If you REALLY need 15GB on a P.C. Card, then the price is right. I agree with an earlier post, 2 - 4GB SD/CF would be fine. I can totally live with 1GB SD for a year or two. Hopefully THAT price will be right.

[Kirk Stephens]

I love innovation and this drive is very cool and all...but when the heck are the higher capacity Microdrives coming out :?:

[wiljs]

and never had a problem...can quickly up/download files with a notebook or the reader...mostly use it for multimedia and books; latest backup and of course Taiyoukei and its addins...Dell did have it on sale for $147 but it is back to $214 now...

[Len M.]

Used with our PDAudio-CF S/PDIF interface, that means than an iPAQ with a dual PC Card Expansion Pack can record more than 7 hours of 24-bit/96 KS/s high resolution digital audio.

Very nice!


Len Moskowitz
Core Sound
www.core-sound.com

[Pony99CA]

$500? If you REALLY need 15GB on a P.C. Card, then the price is right. I agree with an earlier post, 2 - 4GB SD/CF would be fine. I can totally live with 1GB SD for a year or two. Hopefully THAT price will be right.
I think it's about time they put out a PC Card drive larger than 5 GB. Larger capacity iPods have been out for a while now.

As for cost, I wouldn't count on getting that 2 GB card for much less than $500 for a while. And 4 GB? Forget about it.

Steve

[Len M.]

Mobile Planet's stock number is: MK1504GAL

On Toshiba's Web page that's not a PC Card hard drive but rather an Embedded HDD Drive.

I don't see any mention of a new 1.8" PC Card hard drive on the Toshiba Web site. Might someone provide a link?


Len M.

[danmanmayer]

It is really cool but for me the sleeves for PC cards are just to big... i guess it would be cool if traveling and using that as your only music device.

[droppedd]

The drive also functions as an external hard disk drive with robust back-up storage capacities for large multimedia files and presentations, holding as much information as 3,472 floppy disks or more than 7 CDs.

uh... 7 DVDs, maybe? but that's not right either... i guess it's 6.5 low-capacity DVDs, or 21 CD-Rs, but i don't know that i'd spend $500 on an item when they can't do math :-)

actually, i suppose 21 is "more than 7," so technically they're correct :lol:

[Pony99CA]

The drive also functions as an external hard disk drive with robust back-up storage capacities for large multimedia files and presentations, holding as much information as 3,472 floppy disks or more than 7 CDs.
uh... 7 DVDs, maybe? but that's not right either... i guess it's 6.5 low-capacity DVDs, or 21 CD-Rs, but i don't know that i'd spend $500 on an item when they can't do math :-)
Damn, I didn't catch that, and I looked at it. However, I don't think it was a math error; 3472 1.44 MB floppies holds almost exactly 5 GB of data, and 7 650 MB (or even 700 MB) CDs just fits in 5 GB, too.

I think they just used the same text that was used for the 5 GB drive and didn't update the numbers.

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Perfectly said. Sure the HD division is different than the PPC division. But when all divisions feel the pain of one division's stupidity, trust me, it can make a difference. The problem is that until and unless the boycott reaches a massive size, the companies don't really see an impact. But, we, as consumers need to start somewhere.
I disagree with the effect being felt by the HD division. Perhaps 90%+ of their sales are to computer manufacturers. They're not going to feel a boycott by even a 1,000 consumers on this product. Compare this to Pocket PCs, where we have some voice.

Boycotts, as a whole, are hard to coordinate anyway. The one-click Amazon brouhaha aganist B&N drew the ire of a lot of geeks, and they attempted to boycott Amazon. It didn't work. :(

YIKES, what to do, go with my conscience or my desires!!!! :devilboy:
No conscience issues with me :) I'll probably avoid Toshiba Pocket PCs for now until I hear further, but it doesn't affect my other purchase decisions.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

I love innovation and this drive is very cool and all...but when the heck are the higher capacity Microdrives coming out :?:
Good question. I think Hitachi is dead in the water -- by the time a 4GB or 6GB Microdrive comes out, the regular flash CF cards' price will go down.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

On Toshiba's Web page that's not a PC Card hard drive but rather an Embedded HDD Drive.
8O Good point. Maybe they're consumerizing one of their embedded hard drives into the PC card form factor? I'll see if I can make any inquiries... I hope this whole discussion isn't moot. :?

--janak

[Pony99CA]

I disagree with the effect being felt by the HD division. Perhaps 90%+ of their sales are to computer manufacturers. They're not going to feel a boycott by even a 1,000 consumers on this product. Compare this to Pocket PCs, where we have some voice.
Worse, even if a lot of people don't buy this hard disk, unless Toshiba is aware of the boycott, they may just assume nobody wanted the drive and stop making it.

So, if you are going to boycott all Toshiba products, let Toshiba know (and if you returned something, cancelled an order, bought a competitive product instead or just didn't buy something, tell Toshiba that, too).

Steve

[ctmagnus]

This and a 5550 may replace my NJB3.

How does WPM9 on Pocket PC fair with higher-bitrate files, though?

[Janak Parekh]

This and a 5550 may replace my NJB3.
That's exactly my planned setup now. :D

--janak

[Len M.]

Janak Parekh wrote:

[Begin]

Good point. Maybe they're consumerizing one of their embedded hard drives into the PC card form factor? I'll see if I can make any inquiries... I hope this whole discussion isn't moot. :?

[End]

I've asked Shant at Mobile Planet to check. He said that they'll let me know within a day or two.


Len M.

[Excalliber]

Except for the few Toshiba PPC owners that would go to unimaginable lengths because Toshiba hasn't said anything yet about an upgrade (that could still happen), the public in general will keep on buying Toshiba. The company's not going to care about a .5% temporary loss in sales... Come on people, they're a multi-billion international corporation. No division is going to feel anything major.

I'm not saying that Toshiba's silence is a good thing, but it's not going to have the sort of impact you'd hope it would. And Toshiba's not the only company that does this. They'd probably listen to a few thousand complaints more than a few thousand lost sales.

so, what to do? bombard them with thousands upon thousands of complaints! just imagine the people who have to read and respond to those. :grinning devil:

[Gremmie]

Boycotts, as a whole, are hard to coordinate anyway. The one-click Amazon brouhaha aganist B&N drew the ire of a lot of geeks, and they attempted to boycott Amazon. It didn't work. :(


Agreed. Lost consumers from boycotts are easily subsituteable or too marginal to notice. It's not a consumers market, I don't know there reasoning behind not offering upgrades, but they must have not found it cost effective (although I must say software has little marginal cost after development). I do think it is important for sites like these to post front page stories about this though and help reinforce that demand for this upgrade is more than what they think.

As far as the entire company feeling the pinch from other divisions, I don't know, I agree with Pony, if there was to be a substantial drop off of sales that divsion would be budgeted less (less production and high existing inventory). The petition is a better idea.

[maximus]

Agreed. Lost consumers from boycotts are easily subsituteable or too marginal to notice. It's not a consumers market, I don't know there reasoning behind not offering upgrades, but they must have not found it cost effective (although I must say software has little marginal cost after development). I do think it is important for sites like these to post front page stories about this though and help reinforce that demand for this upgrade is more than what they think.


All these are exactly what I was trying to tell the kids in the other thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=126604&highlight=#126604)

And those kids were wondering if I steal candy bars on my weekends. :devilboy: I guess kids will always be kids.

[maximus]

What about the battery life?

I dunno about the 15GB model, but I am using the 5GB model, I have 5+hours nonstop divx play on a single charge. A must have for fellow travellers. Combine this with a noise cancelling headphones ... those plane trips will never be the same :D

[maximus]

MMM wasnt there a PPC out there that had a slot like the one necessary for this device? But im guessing that even if it did... the battery would be sucked dry really fast. 0X
The @migo PD-600C had a built-in PC card slot. It also had an extra-capacity battery to manage it. However, it's outdated technology now -- it never really sold due to logistical problems with the reseller and the unit was merely average in its other features.

--janak

Alternatively, you can get one of those CF to PCMCIA cards that folds into the back of the PPC.

[Janak Parekh]

Alternatively, you can get one of those CF to PCMCIA cards that folds into the back of the PPC.
Right -- but expect battery life to be terrible -- most Pocket PCs with integrated CF are not designed for typical PC card power draws.

--janak

[Len M.]

Alternatively, you can get one of those CF to PCMCIA cards that folds into the back of the PPC.
Right -- but expect battery life to be terrible -- most Pocket PCs with integrated CF are not designed for typical PC card power draws.

--janak

The iPAQ PC Card Expansion Packs have batteries that extend operating time considerably. The Dual PC Card Expansion Pack has two batteries. And each of the batteries can be swapped out with an aftermarket battery that doubles its capacity -- four times capacity total plus the battery in the iPAQ itself.


Len M.

[Janak Parekh]

The iPAQ PC Card Expansion Packs have batteries that extend operating time considerably. The Dual PC Card Expansion Pack has two batteries. And each of the batteries can be swapped out with an aftermarket battery that doubles its capacity -- four times capacity total plus the battery in the iPAQ itself.
I know -- I own a PC sleeve, and have since they first were available in July or August of 2000 :D

I'm referring to Maximus's point that you can use a PC card in a CF-equipped Pocket PC with an adapter, such as this one (http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/cf2pccard-review.html). There are caveats with doing that. :)

--janak

[maximus]

The iPAQ PC Card Expansion Packs have batteries that extend operating time considerably. The Dual PC Card Expansion Pack has two batteries. And each of the batteries can be swapped out with an aftermarket battery that doubles its capacity -- four times capacity total plus the battery in the iPAQ itself.

How big is it ? with 2 batteries + 2 dual PC card + 2 PC card accessories. Must be huge.

.
.
.

Out of curiosity, if someone can make a CF to PCMCIA ... why not an SD to PCMCIA ?

[Pony99CA]

The iPAQ PC Card Expansion Packs have batteries that extend operating time considerably. The Dual PC Card Expansion Pack has two batteries. And each of the batteries can be swapped out with an aftermarket battery that doubles its capacity -- four times capacity total plus the battery in the iPAQ itself.
How big is it ? with 2 batteries + 2 dual PC card + 2 PC card accessories. Must be huge.

It's fairly large, but I wouldn't say "huge". I carry mine on my iPAQ almost everywhere I go (unless I'm using my GPS sleeve).

The sleeve has two batteries inside it, but they aren't user-swappable. Maybe Len M. meant some after-market company would replace the batteries.

If you want to see some pictures of it (and a review), check out this one at Pocket PC Passion (http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/iPAQ/DualSlotPC/dualslotPC.htm).

Steve

[maximus]

That is not too big. What PCMCIA device that you are using ?

[Pony99CA]

That is not too big. What PCMCIA device that you are using ?
You didn't check my Web page (http://history.svpocketpc.com), eh? :-) I describe what I have there.

But, for the short version, I have a 512 MB CF card in one slot and a PC Card WiFi card in the other. Here's what it looks like:

http://www.svpocketpc.com/svppc-logo.jpg

Steve

[Len M.]

It's fairly large, but I wouldn't say "huge". I carry mine on my iPAQ almost everywhere I go (unless I'm using my GPS sleeve).

The sleeve has two batteries inside it, but they aren't user-swappable. Maybe Len M. meant some after-market company would replace the batteries.


It's not hard to do yourself. The Dual Expansion Pack uses the same batteries as the 3100-, 3600- and 3700-series. You can get a 2000 mA battery from KingRex -- that's twice the size of the standard one. (You can find them on eBay -- search for: "ipaq battery -extender")

Len M.