Customer Reviews

IBM 1 GB Microdrive CompactFlash with PC Card Adapter

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased the 1gb IBM microdrive for use with Nikon's new D100 digital SLR and have been quite amazed at its power. Even at the maximum setting on TIFFs, I can get 54 images at 17.4 mb a piece. This is of major concern to me as I want the images to be the highest quality for archival purposes. When you set the camera to take Jpgs, you can get literally thousands of pictures onto the disk.

The transfer rate has been equal to that of my other memory card, which is a standard Compact Flash 256mb Type I card.

There were concerns over compatibility after some of the earlier Nikon digital SLRs had problems with microdrives (I've read articles about the D1 and th D1x/h having issues). I've been using the card for over a month now and have not had a single problem with it so far on the D100.

The only thing to bear in mind is that it is a very small hard drive in there. Everywhere I've read warns about dropping it or even bumping it. That said, being careful as I am, I've not had any problem with it. As you can download from the camera without removing the card, I surmise it would be possible to leave the card in the camera forever and never have to worry about bumping it.

That said, I do, in fact, exchange cards quite often, and have yet to have any problems with the normal day-to-day handling of the the card.

For use with the Nikon D100, I highly recommend this microdrive. Just handle with care!

I have a Nikon D1 and a IBM 340MB microdrive. Before I took a three week trip to China, I bought this 1GB microdrive despite some people's comments that D1 may have problem with this drive. After intensive use during the trip and month afterwards, it still works flawlessly. I found it will be warm and sometimes a bit hot to the touch after heavy use like short interval slideshow which is normal as mentioned in the manual, but this drive just works whenever I needed and has not yet failed once. Just be a little more careful than you would handling the compact flash card since it does have moving parts in it. If battery is not too critical in your shooting, it's a better deal than the 512MB compact flash or the same size cards. It is slightly slower than CF, but D1 has a 21 frame buffer which is not a problem with this drive. If your shooting does not require one shot right after another, then you will be fine.

When I bought the 1G Microdrive, it had the highest capacity of all memory card, not to mention the biggest bang for the buck. A year and thousand of pictures later, this is still largely true, though the new 1G CF cards may prove to be the better deal. A big concern for hard drives is, of course, durability. My Microdrive has taken a lot of bangs and jars, and has even been dropped a few times, but comes through unscathed. The other concern is speed. When compared to a CF card, there's no noticeable slowdown after taking pictures, but retrieving files from the Microdrive takes just a little longer. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this purchase.

After pioneering miniature hard drive technology with its 340 MB Microdrive, IBM answered the eternal call for "More space!" with its winning 1 GB drive. I have owned and used my 1 GB IBM Microdrive for over 2 years in conditions ranging from normal office and home use to camping and hiking trips in Big Bend National Park and the Texas coast. My Microdrive once spent most of its time in a Casio Cassiopeia E-115 Pocket PC PDA serving as file storage, but now does full-time duty as the primary storage media for my Canon D60 digital camera. This is must-have storage for serious digital photographers, offering you the freedom to shoot high res and RAW images without fretting about running out of storage space quickly.

Using a standard USB CF card reader, the Microdrive works equally well in my Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 laptop using the
included PCMCIA card adapter as it does in our desktop PCs.

This is a fantastic buy, especially since the price has come down due to its popularity. And the warnings about Microdrives being fragile? Just treat it with the same care you treat your PDA, digital camera or laptop, and you should be fine. As I mentioned, my Microdrive's done dual use in a Pocket PC PDA and several digital cameras, and it's no worse for the wear. The only time you should treat it with exceptional care is when it's formatting or when you're removing/inserting it into a device (avoid squeezing it; hold it from the edges, instead.)

Enjoy!

So I loved these when they first came out, and we used them in the D60 for several projects. During one of the events the drive developed a strange noise and shortly died mid-shoot. Not a good time. The noise was rather like an old turboprop plane starting up, speeding up and slowing down. We were unable to salvage any data off it.

We got that one replaced under warranty and the new one arrived and worked fine for about 6 shoots before succombing to an early death just like the last.

We currenty have the third one in and it is working fine but we now have three 1 gig Lexar's in spare because we can't count on these on critical applications.

As random storage I suspect this is probably OK, but if you NEED to not lose the data, look elsewhere.

I purchased mine and it failed after 10 months. I had never dropped it or abused it. I have sent it in for service, and have been waiting for about 6 weeks now. Their support keeps pushing the return date back due to constraints.
It may have a one year warantee, but don't count on ever seeing a replacment, I am definately not impressed with the service. I would recommend using larger compact flash cards 256/512mb in its place. It may cost more but it will be more reliable.
That will be the last 1GB IBM Microdrive that I will purchase.

This is so cool---a tiny card that carries a gig, extends your camera memory... It also lets you replace Iomega zip drives with something really big and easy to carry. NB: shop around for better pricing.

I chuckle a little reading the ten year old reviews on these. At the time a microdrive seemed a good choice compared to compact flash--big flash cards then were 128MB, and the higher cost was offset by the greater data capacity.

Today; well, even 32GB flash cards are common, and microdrives have all but disappeared, their last refuge being portable music players and a few camcorders.

There's a lot of things that counted against the microdrives; they need a type II slot, had a higher power consumption, and the firmware of whatever device they were inserted into had to recognize them. They put out heat, and like all hard drives were susceptible to vibration and motion. a 3600RPM spindle meant the data rate was never very good, and unlike flash they had to spin up to read/write while flash went immediately.

So, today I wouldn't recommend one at all because of the quirks in using them; in addition the market is changing over to the various SD card formats and compact flash really only continues for "professional" equipment.

I knew the reviews before buying one...I enjoyed the huge memory space...It worked flawlessly, right up until suddenly it started making a bad noise. The only thing worse than losing an image, is losing hundreds of them. It worked for a little over a year, being used on a sporatic basis. I wouldn't recommend anyone buys them ever.

I owned a 1GB IBM Microdrive for just about 3 and a half years when just yesterday it died on me. Granted, that's a long time to have a microdrive, and I used it HARD for that long without any problems. I had no complaints during its lifespan. But truth be told, their reputation for unreliability precedes them. I completely expected it to fry a lot sooner, and lived in constant fear of something happening. When you're taking pictures, you want them to be SECURE, something this microdrive can't guarantee you. I was lucky, and didn't lose any pictures. I was lucky, and enjoyed a lengthy life with my microdrive. But don't rely on luck, which is what you're forced to do when you buy one.