Customer Reviews

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3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although this drive is a great buy and performs well, this particular microdrive will not function well in any of the Canon digital cameras.

I purchased this drive for use in a 20D. The drive worked for about 3 days and then I got CF errors on the camera. Then two days later the drive worked in the camera again. I tested the drive using a CF reader via USB port and the drive always worked.

After doing some more research on the web at several digital camera related sites, I discovered more users with the exact same issue with this drive and Canon Digital Cameras.

No one seems to know or understand the issue with this particular drive and Canon.

The drive for any other use is a great buy.

I have two of these Magicstor 2.2gb CF +type II microdrives.

One is used in a digital camera and the other in a handheld computer. They perform excellently and are a superior value.

Because they are small (micro) harddrives with movable internal parts they require more battery power than the "regular" 2gb (ram only) compact flash cards. They are also a bit more delicate than the regular compact flash cards and require some additional care to prevent dropping or bending. Otherwise, they provide massive storage for portable devices that accommodate them and they are a snap to use! With a compact USB flash reader (very inexpensive) they also can be integrated effortlessly into your computer system and show up as an additional external harddrive which saves 100% of your time downloading images from your digital camera, etc.

Highly recommended!

The drive is nice, but I have a couple of surprising problems with it. First: unlike other CF cards I've used, it doesn't have a little tab at the back for pulling it out. (Admittedly, my sample size is small: I have only two other CF cards, both of them from the same manufacturer, Viking.) Instead, it has a couple of grip points on the side. This would be fine, except that, when the card is in my Zaurus 6000, these grip points are nearly inaccessible; to get the card out, I had to pry it out with my thumbnails (which won't work next time, since one of said thumbnails got ripped up in the process). I think I can make do by carrying around a little screwdriver to lever the grip points out (they're actual indentations in the metal case), but it's annoying.

Second problem: the drive is slow. It's more than fast enough for playing back music and (I think) video, but the problem comes when you need to read or write a lot of data (and, if you don't, then you don't need a microdrive). I copied a large body of music files onto it (about 1.6G), and it took 83 minutes; it worked out to 300KB/s. It also meant slow responsiveness just on browsing around the filesystem.

I bought the Magicstor plus 2.2G drive for my Maxxum 7D and it does not recognize it. Be sure your device or camera is compatable. Do something I didn't, Google this card and see how many people are having problems with it. I wish I did that before buying it.

I have had my 2.2GB Magicstor for just under a year now. I initially used it in my iPaq 2215. I could use it to store music files or documents that I opened occasionally, but I could not use it as an install point for programs (caused instability, lock-ups, etc.). A couple months later I purchased an Olympus C8080 Wide Zoom and at first the card performed poorly in the camera. This was resolved by formatting the card from within the camera and for a time, things were good. I was recently doing a still life project over a weekend and when I was downloading the images from the camera (pretty much filled the card), I got a quarter of the way through the download and I received a read error. I restarted the download and the error happened after only a couple of pictures downloaded. On the third attempt, the card was not even being recognized by the system or the camera. The card can be seen by the OS, but it cannot mount it or read data on it. It's spinning up (you can hear it) and it sounds like it is trying to do something, but alas, I fear it is a lost cause!

If you need a cheap card with lots of storage and you can't afford a solid state CF card, then it's worth it to buy this card, but do so with the realization that you could have problems with it at any time.