microdrive reliability

[cbeam2]

What is your experience with microdrive's?

chuck

[Ol'coot]

Chuck,

A lot of the member here do not like the microdrives as they make a living with their camera and a drive failure could cost them a lot more that just lost photos. The micro drives are acutal Harddrives with moving and spining parts that can fail, I personally have 3 of the IBM 1 GB microdrives and have been using one them for over 2 years with no problems. I am just an serious amateur photographer and only shoot for my own enjoyment. You can currently find the 1 GB drives for $160.00 and that is a lot of storage for the buck.

[Steve P]

Hi Chuck,

Iv'e had a few problems myself. Plain decided to stop working. I took it out, shook it with they say don't do and the thing started working again. If you listen you can here the hard drive operating when it writes. In my book cos it's mechanical it has to be less reliable.


Steve

[critter]

I have only used a microdrive on my S2 for the last 2 plus years and it is still going strong. No problems at all. Just remember to format and erase in the camera and don't use your puter to do it.

Tony

[Igor]

Mine was bad. Too many "Card Not initialized" and 1-2 second lag between turn off and "go shoot". CF has no I/O problems and almost no lag.

[GaryB]

I've had two brand new ones come up with read errors (even though they seemed to work in cameras other than the S2). As you can imagine I won't be using microdrives again!

Gary

[Tom Nolle]

I've had 3 since I got my S2 nearly 2 years ago, and all of them have performed without problems. I keep them in a padded case, protect them from vibrations or jarring, and format them or erase them only in the camera.

Tom

[VA_Shooter]

Gotta go with the no spinning parts crowd here. Tiny hard drives inside cameras that are tipped, tilted, jarred and giggled are a disaster waiting to happen. Solid state electronics are a lot more reliable. I've used one Microdrive since going digital and it failed in the first two months of use. Never again. CF cards for me.

[Linda G]

My first experience with any sort of digital camera was at the lab where we had an s1 to do copywork. We did an amazing amount for a few months and used a micro drive in it. The camera was attached to a copy stand, about 2 feet from the table's surface. I saw someone take it out, drop it on the table and that was the end.

That was enough for me! It was a two feet drop and it killed it! $300 down the table. You can go on about all your eggs in baskets and all that (and I agree with that, too, but taking the cards in and out pose their own problems) but that sold me on cf cards.

If someone were to give me a microdrive, I'd use it. I did, when we first got our S2s and had no cards that would format in them, but I'd never remove it from the camera and only use the usb or firewire cables to download the images!