MicroDrive

[Falstaff]

I'm thinking about buying a 2.2 GB MicroDrive (http://www.usbflashstore.com/ma2mi2cofl.html), but I wanted to make sure it would work before I spent the $200. I have a Toshiba e755 (which has CF type II) running PPC2003. Does anyone know if the MicroDrive will be compatible with my device? Also, does anyone know if the read/write speed will be good enough so that I can run movies off of it? The website linked above lists 2 speeds, one is the Media Transfer Rate (52.4-99.6 Mb/s) the other is the Transfer Rate (3.3-6.5MB/s), what is the difference? One last question, how much does the MicroDrive affect battery life? Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Song]

From everything that I have heard, the MicroDrive should work. However, be warned that your battery life will greatly suffer.

I'm guessing that the media transfer rate is the speed at which photos are stored to the card, whereas the transfer rate is the speed when you transfer from a card reader to the computer.

It should be fast enough to play movies off of, but once again, the battery life will be very short.

[Jason Dunn]

Yes, it will work. The battery life will depend on the type of player you're using - some players have Microdrive caching, which means it only spins up the drive long enough to fill up your RAM with video, then it spins it down, then back up again when the buffer is empty. This should have a positive impact on your battery life, but I have to admit that I've never tried it - my Microdrive died last year, one month over its warranty.

[Falstaff]

I just checked Pocket MVP, it has a 12 MB cache, that should be sufficient as long as I'm not watching teh entire Lord of teh Rings Trilogy on one battery charge. When I listen to music in my car with my PPC I have it plugged into the charger, so that's no problem. I don't listen to much music outside of then so that won't be a problem, but I may get the extended battery for times when I know I am going to watch movies, do presentations, etc. Has anyone seen any reviews of MicroDrives where the reviewer compared battery life with and without the drive? Thanks for the help.

[PoweriPaq]

I was using the 2.2 Gig Microdrive on my Nikon D100 Camera and then viewed the images on my ipaq 3955 with WM2003 and it was faster than the 1 Gig Microdrive. Transferring was even faster.

Say, with the 1 Gig, I was snapping shots at 2000x1600 and it took me a 25 seconds to transfer one image to my computer using activesync with my CF expansion slot.

With the 2.2 Gig, I snapped pictures at 2800x2200 and it took me 15 seconds to transfer one image using activesync.

So bigger and faster, and I did a test with my 2 hour movie. At 45 minutes of watching a movie on my ipaq using my CF slot, it was down by 10% with backlight at 50% with both Microdrive. By end of 2 hour movie, I have 40% left.

[pocketpcfox]

Hey Jason -- perhaps it's time for a "How long did your <insert brand name here> microdrive last before kicking the bucket" poll?

[Janak Parekh]

Hey Jason -- perhaps it's time for a "How long did your <insert brand name here> microdrive last before kicking the bucket" poll?
I think we've had polls/discussions on the topic in the past; you might want to try a search. :)

--janak

[Oliver Mitchell]

The website linked above lists 2 speeds, one is the Media Transfer Rate (52.4-99.6 Mb/s) the other is the Transfer Rate (3.3-6.5MB/s)

the first one is in mega bits per second and the other is mega bytes per second, (a byte being 8 bits)

[pocketpcfox]

Hey Jason -- perhaps it's time for a "How long did your <insert brand name here> microdrive last before kicking the bucket" poll?
I think we've had polls/discussions on the topic in the past; you might want to try a search. :)

--janak


Hi Janak,
Did so before suggesting the poll. We've not had one as far as I can find... in particular with regard to the thread of dying microdrives.

[Janak Parekh]

OK, I believe you. :) The problem with doing a front-pager on the subject is that only a minority of Pocket PC users have had Microdrives. If you want to create one in Just Chattin', be my guest. :) (Mine did die, for what it's worth.)

--janak

[Falstaff]

How long did yours last before it died? Is there an average lifetime of a MicroDrive. Please go ahead and do the poll, I'd be interested to see the results before I buy one.

[Janak Parekh]

How long did yours last before it died?
Two years or so? It still works, mostly, but the last 100MB or so falls on bad sectors, so I retired it.

Is there an average lifetime of a MicroDrive. Please go ahead and do the poll, I'd be interested to see the results before I buy one.
The problem is that I believe the lifetime is over the map. And you're buying a completely different product than an IBM Microdrive. Still, if you want to do it, go ahead and make one -- I don't see it as being frontpage-news though, especially now as Microdrives have become less popular.

--janak