2.2 GB Microdrive for $254.50 USD

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GS1022C-N' target='_blank'>http://www.compgeeks.com/details.as...nvtid=GS1022C-N</a><br /><br /></div>It looks like the first of the next-generation Microdrives are being released - 2.2 GB for $254.50 USD is 11.6 cents per MB on paper. Not bad at all! I had my IBM Microdrive go bad on me one month after the one year warranty was up, so I'm not sure I'd want to invest in another spinning hard disk. Still, 2.2 GB is a lot of storage for only $254.50 USD...<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/RAM-GS1022C-N-unit.jpg" /><br /><br />"When CompactFlash cards first came into the market, they were pretty good. You could get up to 256 megs of storage on something the size of a big postage stamp. Then came "The MicroDrives" -- even better -- more capacity in the same space. Well you haven't seen anything until you've seen the new Magicstor 2.2 gigabyte MicroDrive. You get more then DOUBLE the storage capacity for a comparably priced IBM MicroDrive! Great for Digital Cameras, PDA's or MP3 player's!! <br /><br />The Magicstor drive provides 2.2 gigabytes of high-capacity, high-performance removable storage in a one-inch square MicroDrive form factor. You'll be amazed that they can put so much into so little of space!!! This Magicstor MicroDrive integrates with a variety of handheld devices through use of the industry-standard CF+ Type II (Microdrive format. Plus, its so small you can literally take it almost anywhere!! Geeks everywhere would love to have this high capacity MicroDrive, so be the first on your block with it!!! The Magicstor 2.2 gigabyte MicroDrive - get yours today!"

[cybrwulf]

I have heard some bad stories over on brigthhand boards about this drive from people that bought it already. The worst being that it takes nearly 60 SECONDS to spin up....

Here is the quick review... from Brighthand thread...

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87044&highlight=Magicstor

"Well, I received this device today. After a few hours of evaluation, it is being returned. Why? Reason: The CF-hard drive takes a full minute to spin up, so whenever you turn on your PDA, it sits there a full minute waiting for the Magicstor to hit operational speed.

I thought it might have been insufficient iPaq battery power, but the unit behaves the same way while plugged into my desktop PC's card-bus PCMCIA slot.

Neither my IBM 1-gig microdrive nor my 5-gig CMS PC-card has this serious start-up deficiency. It also gets VERY hot furing this time and discharges 10% of total extended battery capacity in that time frame. Holy smokes!

I either have a bad unit, or this microdrive isn't quite ready for general use."

[Jason Dunn]

I have heard some bad stories over on brigthhand boards about this drive from people that bought it already. The worst being that it takes nearly 60 SECONDS to spin up....

60 seconds?!? 8O

[DualShock]

This model isn't made by Hitachi, is it? (Hitachi bought out IBM's hard drive business about 1.5 yrs ago, BTW...)

[Jason Dunn]

This model isn't made by Hitachi, is it? (Hitachi bought out IBM's hard drive business about 1.5 yrs ago, BTW...)

No, it's made by a company in China from what I can tell. I was going to try and request a review unit, but I can't even figure out who to get in touch with. 8O

[gunner6666]

60 seconds sounds way to long, that cant be right

[isilver]

How does this connect to the Pocket PC. Can you plug it into a standard Compact Flash or Secure digital slot?

[gunner6666]

This Magicstor MicroDrive integrates with a variety of handheld devices through use of the industry-standard CF+ Type II (Microdrive format. Plus, its so small you can literally take it almost anywhere!!

[griffin911]

What kind of battery drain will this have?

[sheltem]

How does this connect to the Pocket PC. Can you plug it into a standard Compact Flash or Secure digital slot?

Plugs into a CF Card Type II slot, which the 2210 has.

[Diane Dumas]

Here's the page with spec's for the HD microdrive. They also make a 2.4GB model.

http://www.gs-magicstor.com/english/products-E/cpgg.htm

[GoldKey]

What kind of battery drain will this have?

Probably pretty heavy. My PC Card drive just chews through the battery, this should be better than that though.

[caywen]

1. Slooow transfer rate
2. Slooow spinup time
3. Don't drop it or you'll bust it
4. Increased battery drain

If someone can make a 1.5 Gb solid state drive with high transfer rate (5MB/s) then I'd be a happy dude.

[Christian]

I'm not entirely sure where everyone has gathered that a Microdrive will self-destruct through minor shock. I have been using a 1 GB IBM Microdrive almost daily for well over a year, carrying it with me on trips and occasionally dropping it as well. I have never had any problem with it. During that time, I have had two solid-state CF cards die on me. My Microdrive has been one of the most reliable pieces of hardware I've used, and on my digital camera at least produces faster performance than CF cards as well. I'm not denying that the device has moving parts that are susceptible to shock, but I don't want others to get the idea that Microdrives are dangerously error prone.

[danmanmayer]

I think you must have just been un lucky with your microdrive. I have a 340mb micro drive that is still alive and kicking 3 years later... I haven't had any problems with it except battery consumption.. hehe

[T-Will]

I used a 1 GB IBM MD for over a year and dropped it a few times, I think it even went through the washer once :jawdrop: and it still worked up until the day I sold it. :way to go:

[NeilE]

ARGH. I just bought a 1GB microdrive for $181 two weeks ago! *sigh*.

[cybrwulf]

Here is a quote from the Brighthand thread/review -

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87044&highlight=Magicstor

"Well, I received this device today. After a few hours of evaluation, it is being returned. Why? Reason: The CF-hard drive takes a full minute to spin up, so whenever you turn on your PDA, it sits there a full minute waiting for the Magicstor to hit operational speed.

I thought it might have been insufficient iPaq battery power, but the unit behaves the same way while plugged into my desktop PC's card-bus PCMCIA slot.

Neither my IBM 1-gig microdrive nor my 5-gig CMS PC-card has this serious start-up deficiency. It also gets VERY hot furing this time and discharges 10% of total extended battery capacity in that time frame. Holy smokes!

I either have a bad unit, or this microdrive isn't quite ready for general use."

[T-Will]

Um...I'm almost 100% sure that that's a bad MD unit...

There's no way this would get through R&D performing this way... :?

[Gremmie]

Agreed. I've dropped my Microdrive several times with no problems, they are built to be mobile and thus abused. When you think about it, the heads are probably too small to do serious damage to the platters.

I don't know about this 60 second time spin-up rate, definatly not this long on my Microdrive--maybe it's a simple case of an unwise product release.

[maximus]

I have heard some bad stories over on brigthhand boards about this drive from people that bought it already. The worst being that it takes nearly 60 SECONDS to spin up....


Perhaps that person got a faulty unit. There is no way a company will release a device that powers up in 60 seconds and targetted it for digital camera users. Waiting for 60 seconds after hitting the shutter button is simply silly.

[kevdawg2003]

my microdrive misteriously died while i was doing some yard work cutting branches off trees for my neighbor....

.... i was listening to music with my ipaq at the time...

[draklava]

On a side note - does anyone know what I can do for a corrupted compact flash card? I bought a 256mb card from amazon a couple months ago somehow corrupted it in my digital camera.

When I stick it in my PocketPC it says "Unrecognized Card" Enter the name of the device driver for this card...

Is there anyway to reformat the card or is it toast?

[Gremmie]

On a side note - does anyone know what I can do for a corrupted compact flash card? I bought a 256mb card from amazon a couple months ago somehow corrupted it in my digital camera.

When I stick it in my PocketPC it says "Unrecognized Card" Enter the name of the device driver for this card...

Is there anyway to reformat the card or is it toast?

:nonono: :devilboy: -jk, try flash format, it might be in an ad on top of the screen now. They allow a trial of their program which would allow you to format your card to give it a try.

[mpiquet]

I just bought the 2.2GB Magistor. I put it in my brand new Axim X5 factory-shipped with Windows Mobile 2003 and it just froze. I tried it in my friends X5 with Windows Mobile 2002 and it works just great (no 60-second spinup, by the way, it was almost instantaneous). Has anyone else run into this or have any suggestions? Thanks.

Marcus Piquet
[email protected]

[Askani]

I saw this the other day and thought about getting it. Does anyone know how this compares to a 1 gb Kingston CF card (in terms of speed, battery, etc)?

[bhaverkamp]

I have had my 1gb microdrive for a few years now and have had no issues with it. I move it between my camera and pocketPC as required. On my pocket pc it give me a lovely mp3 player with lots of hours of playtime...

It looks like the first of the next-generation Microdrives are being released - 2.2 GB for $254.50 USD is 11.6 cents per MB on paper. Not bad at all! I had my IBM Microdrive go bad on me one month after the one year warranty was up, so I'm not sure I'd want to invest in another spinning hard disk. Still, 2.2 GB is a lot of storage for only $254.50 USD...

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/RAM-GS1022C-N-unit.jpg

"When CompactFlash cards first came into the market, they were pretty good. You could get up to 256 megs of storage on something the size of a big postage stamp. Then came "The MicroDrives" -- even better -- more capacity in the same space. Well you haven't seen anything until you've seen the new Magicstor 2.2 gigabyte MicroDrive. You get more then DOUBLE the storage capacity for a comparably priced IBM MicroDrive! Great for Digital Cameras, PDA's or MP3 player's!!

The Magicstor drive provides 2.2 gigabytes of high-capacity, high-performance removable storage in a one-inch square MicroDrive form factor. You'll be amazed that they can put so much into so little of space!!! This Magicstor MicroDrive integrates with a variety of handheld devices through use of the industry-standard CF+ Type II (Microdrive format. Plus, its so small you can literally take it almost anywhere!! Geeks everywhere would love to have this high capacity MicroDrive, so be the first on your block with it!!! The Magicstor 2.2 gigabyte MicroDrive - get yours today!"

[The PocketTV Team]

I'm not entirely sure where everyone has gathered that a Microdrive will self-destruct through minor shock. I have been using a 1 GB IBM Microdrive almost daily for well over a year, carrying it with me on trips and occasionally dropping it as well. I have never had any problem with it. During that time, I have had two solid-state CF cards die on me. My Microdrive has been one of the most reliable pieces of hardware I've used, and on my digital camera at least produces faster performance than CF cards as well. I'm not denying that the device has moving parts that are susceptible to shock, but I don't want others to get the idea that Microdrives are dangerously error prone.
Same here. I dropped my IBM 1GB Microdrives on the floor several times, and have been using them for several years, and never got any problem. I'm sure the head is parked when not in use, so they can take shocks with no problem. You should certainely avoid dropping a device on the floor (when using the Microdrive or not) :)