2215/2210 & Microdrive

[drrusa]

Hello,

I am new to this group, but have done some archive searching and such. My question pertains to the microdrives used with the 2215.

The primary function of this drive would be to listen to a large music collection. I realize that the microdrives are prone to an early death, and consumes more power; however $200 for a 2GB microdrive compared to $400 for a 2GB CF type 1 card is more beneficial to me. I'd be willing to buy a 2GB microdrive expecting it to die in a year, and then purchase a 2GB CF type 1 card at that time for $200(hopefully).

Anyhow, my question concerns more the power consumption rather than reliability and length of life. Does anyone in this group actually have a microdrive with a 2215 and has used it for continuous music? If so, I'd GREATLY appreciate your experience! Thank you!

[Janak Parekh]

Not with a 2215, but I used a 1GB Microdrive with an original 3650 and a 3870.

I have a few suggestions/comments:

1. Consider getting a 3600mah battery for your 2215 if you want to listen for a sustained time period. Anecdotally, with WMP on an original 3650 I got maybe 1-2 hours of battery life.

2. Consider getting a music player that supports Microdrive caching. That is, it'll read one song into memory, let the Microdrive shut off, and play back the song. I think both Pocket Music and Pocket Player (do a search) support it, as do some others. It should increase the battery life substantially even with the small battery.

3. One annoying aspect of a Microdrive is that it takes time to wake up -- so whenever you do things like launch File Explorer, you have to wait a second or two.

If you absolutely need the space, then go for it. Otherwise, I suggest you get a 1GB CF flash card and live with it.

--janak