Iomega 31650 Microdrive 340 MB

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Product Details

Supplementary Guide [80kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005897P
• Item model number: 31650
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #211,644 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 13, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

You can never have enough memory in your MP3 player, digital camera, or PDA. Iomega's 340 MB Microdrive offers a relatively inexpensive way to dramatically increase your device's storage capabilities. The drive even plugs into your laptop for fast data transfer and backup.

The Microdrive is a technological marvel. Within its matchbook-size case (half an ounce and 1.68 by 1.43 by 0.19 inches), the Microdrive uses the same technology--spinning platter and all--as the hard drive in your home computer. A shock-resistant design ensures maximum reliability in portable devices.

The drive requires a CompactFlash + Type II slot to work with an MP3 player, digital camera, or PDA. The Type II slot is slightly thicker than the standard CompactFlash slot, and if your device is only designed to accept standard CompactFlash cards, the Microdrive won't fit. When we installed it in our portable devices, it didn't require any setup; we just plugged it in and had 340 MB more of storage--enough for over five albums of CD quality music or hundreds of high-resolution photos. The drive only spins when in use and includes other advanced techniques to conserve power. However, when we used it with a battery-powered MP3 player, it drained the batteries more quickly than a standard flash memory card.

The drive comes with a PC Card adapter, which is a sort of sleeve into which you insert the drive for use with your laptop's PC Card Type II slot. When we inserted the card into our laptop, Windows automatically recognized it and loaded drivers from the installation CD. The drive then appeared in Windows Explorer as a standard hard drive. We could then copy files back and forth between our hard drive and the Microdrive faster than a typical portable device's serial or USB connection. In our testing, we achieved transfer rates of over 1 MB/second. The drive also came in handy for transporting large files or backing up data.

Iomega includes some useful software with the drive. MusicMatch JukeBox Plus is one of the best applications available for creating and managing MP3 files. Iomega's QuikSync 2 automatically backs up important files, and Adobe ActiveShare is an easy-to-use application for touching up and sharing your digital photos.

Both the drive itself and the sleeve are relatively delicate devices, so Iomega has included hard plastic cases with shock-absorbing gel inserts for transportation and storage. Iomega backs the product with a one-year warranty and offers toll-free technical support.

If your portable device has a CompactFlash + Type II slot, the Iomega's 340 MB Microdrive offers a lot of storage relatively inexpensively. It's an even more compelling solution for laptop Users, who can use their PC Card adapter for quick and easy data transfers. --Ken Feinstein

Pros:

• Extremely small and light
• Included adapter works with laptops
• Relatively inexpensive
• Shockproof

Cons:

• Uses more power than a standard flash memory card
• Less rugged than a standard (solid state) CompactFlash card
• Incompatible with CompactFlash Type I devices

Product Description

Less expensive per megabyte than CompactFlash, Iomega's Microdrive 340MB delivers high-performance removable storage for laptops, digital cameras, PDAs, and printers. Now mobile professionals and digital camera enthusiasts can enjoy the freedom of expanded storage capacity in CompactFlash+ Type II and PC Card Type II devices.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Works but worries me., October 24, 2001

By	wleee "WE" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

I've had this microdrive for about six months. I use it with a Canon Pro90, and I have a USB Card Reader (for my desktop) and plug the adapter directly into a powerbook via the PCMCIA slot.
When I shoot, I often go for a full weekend, but sometimes take the powerbook with me. I'll fill this up with large superfine images in a full afternoon of shooting. I use a couple 64 MB compact flash cards as backup for when I run out of room.

What I like about it: it's larger than my compact flash cards.

What I don't like about it: it does run very hot, both in computer and in the camera. there's been a couple times when it was so hot that it alarmed me.

a couple corrupted data files have appeared on the drive. i'm not sure whether they are related to the pro90, or whether they are results of a drive malfunction. i can't get rid of them (they pretend to take up some TERAbytes of space, but don't really). the drive is still usable, but whenever this happens i get a drive error, and i can't take any more pictures, even if there's clearly space left on the drive until i fix things via computer. one of the times that this happend, the drive was running very very hot. i'm not sure whether i'm inappropriately attributing a cause effect relationship, but it seems like the two things may be related.

because it is a drive it seems to be vulnerable to rough handling. i do take it out of camera while out taking shots because i run out of room, but i do not like worrying about how gingerly i have to handle it. if it were to stay in camera, i'd probably be less worried.

also, it is slower than the compact flash cards, and this is a bit of a pain.

because of my worries and the loss of speed, i've recently purchased a 256 MB compact flash card in hopes of putting my mind at ease.

my suggestion: at this size (350 MB), it might be better to stick with flash memory. at 1 GB, however, the extra memory
and saved dough would probably far outweigh the concerns.

summary: it has worked fine for me for 6 months. i've lost
pictures because of it only once or twice, and potential pictures, not pictures on the drive. if flash memory were available for the same price and in sufficient bulk, i'd choose flash.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Pocket PC - but not for real life, May 26, 2001

By	T. Rourke "T J Rourke" (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was running out of room with MP3s and eBooks on my iPaq and plugged this thing in. It works great, though it does use up the battery a little more. I use the adapter with other compact flash cards and it works like a charm on my laptop in Windows 2000. The only problem with the adapter is that you can't just pull out the card and replace it without stopping and removing the PC Card adapter with it. And in Win 2K each insertion seems to use a new drive letter. But that's a problem with all the adapters.

I'd give it 5 stars, except for one thing. I'd hoped to use it in my Kodak 4800 digital camera, but it was too thick for that. I could blame that on Kodak because their product info and documentation don't mention any size limit to the cards the camera accepts, but Iomega didn't mention it either.

**Update: Six months later, I dropped this thing once. My iPaq no longer recognizes it and the PC adapter doesn't either. Iomega's support site directs the user to pages that do not offer any help for MicroDrives. They have a page for data recovery services (necessary for their products), but the service cost more than the drive and there is nothing on the page about MicroDrives (the same goes for the merchandise return page)

Durability is very poor, so I dropped my review to 2 stars. I'm sticking with Compact Flash memory cards - they're a lot cheaper and more durable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Read if you use a portable digital audio player!, April 3, 2002

By	PeoplePhobic (Jasper, GA USA) - See all my reviews

I have the 1GB Microdrive (you can get it way cheaper from Iomega.com) and I thought it was cool at first but now I know just how bad it really is. I don't use it in my digital camera cause I never take that many pics at a time. I tried to use it in my LYRA 2 player. It works fine if your not moving. Because it has moving parts it skips a lot and creates a ton more heat than a real compacflash card. DO NOT USE IN A PORTABLE DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYER! It skips every time you move. If your're going to put up with skips you might as well use CD-R's for 50 cents each with an MP3 cd player.

If you want more space get one of those Archos jukebox recorder things with 20 gigs that work as hard drives too. You don't have to convert MP3's into anything (like mpx on most "mp3" players) and you'll have as much space as most laptops do.