Microdrives

milou

milou

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David
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I've been given a 2.2gb microdrive. Loads of space obviously but when it's in camera, it seems to be constantly whirring etc even when the camera is switched off i.e. 5 mins after switching off, I can still hear it whirring (and it's not images still being written). Is this normal for a microdrive? If I take it out and whack it back in again, it stops.

Cheers
 
I saw some microdrvies on offer for £49.99, 2.2gb, i was thinking of getting one, are they any good, worth the money?
 
A guy I know has had 2 - 2 gig microdrives fail on him in rapid succession and he swears he's sticking with CF cards from now on. They're susceptible to rough handling, and having moving parts they have to be more likely to fail I would think.
 
I have the 4gig MD. This has been dropped on a few occassions and bounced across the floor, it still works flawlessly.
I no longer use this drive now, it lives in the daughters camera.

I would suggest going with CF, the microdrive uses more battery power, takes longer to write too, and I don't think they are fully compatable with the newer range of digi SLR's.
 
Milou, I think it might be down to the camera, I don't think when you switch the camera off (350D, 20D) it actually shuts down.
I think it goes into a standby mode, this is how Canon have got around the start up time issue.

Have you formated the microdrive yet?
If not pop it into your card reader, goto control panel> administrative tools> computer management> disk management.
Select the microdrive (by right clicking on it) from the listed drives> format.
The suggested format configeration for use in Canon cameras is:

File system: FAT32
Allocation unit size: 32K

This is supposed to make the write times a little faster, its also supposed to stop the camera crashing/ERR when using these cards.
 
Cheers Matt - will try it. I've only formated it in ze camera.

The microdrive was, apparently, £60 for a 2.2.

Now formated - it's quicker writing shots but still whirls away. Gets warm too so it'll be a handy hand-warmer in winter snowball
 
Sorry to bump an oldie but I had forgotten about this card and hadn't used it since. Just sold it on eBay for 40 quid - gave it a test run in the camera and all seems ok. Think I'll stick with CF cards though.
 
The fact that it is 2.2gb makes me think Magicstore. Made in China - if one looks around reports are that the reliability and compatibility is very questionable. I nearly bought one but am extremely glad I bought Hitachi.

regards
 
I'm guessing that the price difference between that and CF cards are now small enough to stick with CF cards?
 
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