6GB Microdrive?

[Char Jackson]

Does a 6 Gigabyte microdrive have a role to play on a Win 7 system?

Newegg link
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145575>

In the user review section, this guy says "Huge amount of space, I
bought 5 of these for all of my high end computers, very fast speed,
huge amount of space, so much that I doubt I will EVER use all of the
space."

Am I missing something? These things are only $5 with free shipping,
so if they're good for anything I'll order a few dozen.

 

[John Williamson]

Does a 6 Gigabyte microdrive have a role to play on a Win 7 system?

Maybe as a swap drive.

I've seen systems with more RAM than this.

Newegg link
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145575>

In the user review section, this guy says "Huge amount of space, I
bought 5 of these for all of my high end computers, very fast speed,
huge amount of space, so much that I doubt I will EVER use all of the
space."

In 1990, 6 Gig was, indeed, a vast amount of space. I've got files on my
system now that wouldn't fit on it, especially if it were formatted as
FAT32. The Windows 7 "Windows" folder would need three of them to hold
it, or two if it were compressed.

Am I missing something? These things are only $5 with free shipping,
so if they're good for anything I'll order a few dozen.

Not forgetting the special connection cables you'll also need.

 

[SC Tom]

Does a 6 Gigabyte microdrive have a role to play on a Win 7 system?

Newegg link
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145575>

In the user review section, this guy says "Huge amount of space, I
bought 5 of these for all of my high end computers, very fast speed,
huge amount of space, so much that I doubt I will EVER use all of the
space."

Am I missing something? These things are only $5 with free shipping,
so if they're good for anything I'll order a few dozen.

Don't know what good they would be in a PC setup, but they're the type of drive that was in my Creative Zen Touch MP3
player (20GB in it, but same style of drive). It quit on me, and I never could get it to work right again (not the
drive's fault, I don't think; I needed a WinXP SP1 IE6 box to reload the firmware/software). I bought one of the USB to
IDE/SATA adaptors and was able to access the drive, but I don't see any advantage of having one or more of those hooked
up to a PC for anything. Seems to me it would be better to just use a 6GB pen drive, although I'm sure they're more than
$5. But if you add the $5 for the drive and $26 for the adaptor
( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VS4HDM/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details )
then you're way behind.

 

[Bob I]

Piece of crap, see below.

Performance

Interface IDE Ultra ATA33 / ATA-4
Capacity 6GB
RPM 3600 RPM
Cache 128KB

Compare to:

Recertified: Maxtor HDMXDX4R160L0 160GB 5400 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 /
ATA-7 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -

160GB
5400 RPM 2MB Cache
IDE Ultra ATA133 / ATA-7...

Was: $59.99
$24.99


If you were building some ultra mini-computer for installing in a robot
or miniature autonomous vehicle then maybe. But for use in a real
computer, you would spend too much in adapters and it is pretty much
useless for performance enhancement.

 

[Char Jackson]

Don't know what good they would be in a PC setup, but they're the type of drive that was in my Creative Zen Touch MP3
player (20GB in it, but same style of drive). It quit on me, and I never could get it to work right again (not the
drive's fault, I don't think; I needed a WinXP SP1 IE6 box to reload the firmware/software). I bought one of the USB to
IDE/SATA adaptors and was able to access the drive, but I don't see any advantage of having one or more of those hooked
up to a PC for anything. Seems to me it would be better to just use a 6GB pen drive, although I'm sure they're more than
$5. But if you add the $5 for the drive and $26 for the adaptor
( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VS4HDM/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details )
then you're way behind.

Thanks, everyone. I thought I had fallen into the wayback machine,
where 6GB at 3600 RPM was something worth sneezing at. The mp3 player
suggestion makes some sense to me.

 

[Vic RR Garcia]

Does a 6 Gigabyte microdrive have a role to play on a Win 7 system?

Newegg link
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145575>

In the user review section, this guy says "Huge amount of space, I
bought 5 of these for all of my high end computers, very fast speed,
huge amount of space, so much that I doubt I will EVER use all of the
space."

Am I missing something? These things are only $5 with free shipping,
so if they're good for anything I'll order a few dozen.

Let's see:

5 or 5 years old drive.
Re-certified ... ????
From Thailand ... the Country with the huge floods ....
Slow as molasses.
Less storage than most $10 pen drives.
Non-standard interface connector.

Why does anybody in their right mind will buy one of those ????.

 

[KCB]

Thanks, everyone. I thought I had fallen into the wayback machine,
where 6GB at 3600 RPM was something worth sneezing at. The mp3 player
suggestion makes some sense to me.

I sure can't see any use in a Win7 machine, but I'm sure the user who
reviewed the device knows what he's talking about. You DID notice his
tagline, didn't you? "4w3s0m3 t3chguy"

 

[Allen Drake]

Let's see:

5 or 5 years old drive.
Re-certified ... ????
From Thailand ... the Country with the huge floods ....
Slow as molasses.
Less storage than most $10 pen drives.
Non-standard interface connector.

Why does anybody in their right mind will buy one of those ????.

Don't photographers use them in their digital cameras in place of a
compact memory card?

 

[Bob I]

Don't photographers use them in their digital cameras in place of a
compact memory card?

yes that is one of their uses, along with ipods and other MP3 players,
but the "clown" that "reviewed" them was obviously clueless. The reason
that they are "refurbs" is likely they were "pulled" from that type of
product as a warranty repair, and they have a crapload of them to unload.

 

[SC Tom]

yes that is one of their uses, along with ipods and other MP3 players, but the "clown" that "reviewed" them was
obviously clueless. The reason that they are "refurbs" is likely they were "pulled" from that type of product as a
warranty repair, and they have a crapload of them to unload.

How do they interface with a camera? I've never had one that used that sort of connection. I've had ones that use
Compact Flash, SD, SmartMedia, mini-SD, and MicroDrive (which has the same interface as the CF), but that drive doesn't
look like it would fit in any of them, much less mate with the internal pins/contacts.

 

[Roy Smith]

How do they interface with a camera? I've never had one that used that
sort of connection. I've had ones that use Compact Flash, SD,
SmartMedia, mini-SD, and MicroDrive (which has the same interface as the
CF), but that drive doesn't look like it would fit in any of them, much
less mate with the internal pins/contacts.

Well obviously the device was specifically designed to use that
particular piece of hardware.


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 9.0.1
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 9:09:47 PM

 

[choro]

How do they interface with a camera? I've never had one that used that
sort of connection. I've had ones that use Compact Flash, SD,
SmartMedia, mini-SD, and MicroDrive (which has the same interface as the
CF), but that drive doesn't look like it would fit in any of them, much
less mate with the internal pins/contacts.

It was used on top end professional cameras and camcorders. With new
cards being manufactured with over 100 GBs of capacity (the latest being
126 GB), they will have to find new uses for the micro-drives if they
want to continue selling them, that is. Money talks! And think how many
mini-drives you can fit in a suitably configured laptop? The mind
boggles. Anything for money.

But look what rotating electromechanical drives are competing against...

128 GB cards launched!
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/commun...0/lexar-ships-first-128gb-sdxc-card-10022002/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/panasonic-sd-card-worth-8-times-its-weight-in-gold/

2TB SD cards in the works?! Not even the sky's the limit these days!
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/01/two-terabyte-sd/

Incidentally micro-drives fit CF card slots in cameras etc. See...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdrive

And the sad story of unwanted microdrives...
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/help/article.php?id=286705

I expect it won't be long now before we say cheerio, adieu and goodbye
to conventional rotating HDs which are now fighting back SSHDs on price.
But how long can precision engineering keep back the advance of flash
memory that is forging ahead in leaps and bounds and getting ever cheaper?
-- choro

 

[dweebken]

Maybe as a swap drive.

I've seen systems with more RAM than this.

Like mine, I have Win 7 X64 with 8 GB RAM

 

[Allen Drake]

It was used on top end professional cameras and camcorders. With new
cards being manufactured with over 100 GBs of capacity (the latest being
126 GB), they will have to find new uses for the micro-drives if they
want to continue selling them, that is. Money talks! And think how many
mini-drives you can fit in a suitably configured laptop? The mind
boggles. Anything for money.

But look what rotating electromechanical drives are competing against...

128 GB cards launched!
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/commun...0/lexar-ships-first-128gb-sdxc-card-10022002/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/panasonic-sd-card-worth-8-times-its-weight-in-gold/

2TB SD cards in the works?! Not even the sky's the limit these days!
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/01/two-terabyte-sd/

Incidentally micro-drives fit CF card slots in cameras etc. See...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdrive

And the sad story of unwanted microdrives...
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/help/article.php?id=286705

I expect it won't be long now before we say cheerio, adieu and goodbye
to conventional rotating HDs which are now fighting back SSHDs on price.
But how long can precision engineering keep back the advance of flash
memory that is forging ahead in leaps and bounds and getting ever cheaper?
-- choro

But for now here is a 1 gig micro drive for sale on Amazon for $88.00
used.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...nics&hvadid=4299202125&ref=pd_sl_7uva5xwf19_b

I use CF cards in my Nikon D-300 that is only a few years old and
cost around $1800 then. 6Gig micro drives are fine for the thousands
of photographers that have those old cameras bought way back when say
5 years ago.

Al.

 

[Bob I]

How do they interface with a camera? I've never had one that used that
sort of connection. I've had ones that use Compact Flash, SD,
SmartMedia, mini-SD, and MicroDrive (which has the same interface as the
CF), but that drive doesn't look like it would fit in any of them, much
less mate with the internal pins/contacts.

The "pins" in the image are a ZIF type design, there are adapters made
for the various products the "base drive" would be used in. But notice
that in the product sheet below that "high end computers" aren't in the
picture? So obviously the "review" is nothing but a "shill" posting.

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...00732B0C/$file/Multifaceted_Microdrive_v3.pdf

 

[SC Tom]

The "pins" in the image are a ZIF type design, there are adapters made for the various products the "base drive" would
be used in. But notice that in the product sheet below that "high end computers" aren't in the picture? So obviously
the "review" is nothing but a "shill" posting.

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...00732B0C/$file/Multifaceted_Microdrive_v3.pdf

That's what's missing from the Newegg drive, the adapter plate that's on the last page of the PDF. With that on, it now
looks like the old 1GB microdrive I had for my Fuji S602Z. Thanks for that link; now it makes sense.
And I never disputed the fact that it wasn't intended for "high end computers", as I stated in my reply to Char earlier
on in the thread And in physical size, it's smaller than the drive that was in my Zen Touch. I missed the "1 inch"
in the description :-(

 

[Bob I]

That's what's missing from the Newegg drive, the adapter plate that's on
the last page of the PDF. With that on, it now looks like the old 1GB
microdrive I had for my Fuji S602Z. Thanks for that link; now it makes
sense.
And I never disputed the fact that it wasn't intended for "high end
computers", as I stated in my reply to Char earlier on in the thread
And in physical size, it's smaller than the drive that was in my Zen
Touch. I missed the "1 inch" in the description :-(

Didn't mean to imply you said or agreed with the "review", was just
saying the "review" at Newegg was posted by a "shill", well unless he
just left off the "/sarc" ;-)

 

[SC Tom]

Didn't mean to imply you said or agreed with the "review", was just saying the "review" at Newegg was posted by a
"shill", well unless he just left off the "/sarc" ;-)

I think that's it; he left off the "/sarc" <BG>

 

[Ken1943]

Does a 6 Gigabyte microdrive have a role to play on a Win 7 system?

Newegg link
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145575>

In the user review section, this guy says "Huge amount of space, I
bought 5 of these for all of my high end computers, very fast speed,
huge amount of space, so much that I doubt I will EVER use all of the
space."

Am I missing something? These things are only $5 with free shipping,
so if they're good for anything I'll order a few dozen.

I have an old Casio Digital camera with one in it. Don't know the size,
but holds about 900 pictures.


KenW

 

[choro]

How do they interface with a camera? I've never had one that used that
sort of connection. I've had ones that use Compact Flash, SD,
SmartMedia, mini-SD, and MicroDrive (which has the same interface as the
CF), but that drive doesn't look like it would fit in any of them, much
less mate with the internal pins/contacts.

I believe they use the same interface as CF cards. Just plug it into the
card reader/writer and off you go. But why not buy a card instead of a
drive? A bit of a retro step, I'd say.
-- choro