Take advantage of the latest removable disk drive technology by adding the IBM 1GB Microdrive to your ThinkPad notebook or NetVista desktop. This new Microdrive weighs less than a... more
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Drive Transfer Rate: 13.3 MBps (external) / 7.5 MBps (internal)
Seek Time: 15 ms (average) / 19 ms (max)
Track-to-Track Seek Time: 1 ms
Spindle Speed: 3600 rpm
Configuration
Bytes per Sector: 512
Reliability
Non-Recoverable Errors: 1 per 10^13
Expansion / connectivity
Compatible Slots:
1 x CompactFlash Card - type II
1 x PC Card - type II
Miscellaneous
Package Type: Retail
Manufacturer's product description
Take advantage of the latest removable disk drive technology by adding the IBM 1GB Microdrive to your ThinkPad notebook or NetVista desktop. This new Microdrive weighs less than a AA battery, has a footprint measuring less than one square inch, and can hold almost 700 times more data or images than a diskette. The Microdrive's very small size and high performance make it ideally suited for applications needing portability and having high data/image requirements. The 1GB Microdrive uses hard disk drive (HDD) technology to store information. It has an industry standard Compact Flash Type II form factor. The Microdrive's convenient small form factor enables data to be shared among different ThinkPad notebooks and devices. Included with the Microdrive option is a CardBus adapter that lets you plug the Microdrive into a Type II PC card slot, which is standard on most currently marketed laptops and ThinkPad systems. The IBM USB CompactFlash Reader can be used with laptops and desktops for USB connection of the Microdrive. The package includes PC card adapter for use in PCMCIA Type II slot that allows you to use the drive with your ThinkPad or notebook computer and Microdrive with speedy hard drive performance and impressive reliability.
Environmental parameters
Min Operating Temperature: 0 °C
Max Operating Temperature: 65 °C
Humidity Range Operating: 8 - 90%
Shock Tolerance: 175 g @ 2ms half-sine pulse (operating)
Advantages: Cheaper than large CompactFlash modules Disadvantages: Heavier camera battery drain
...these drives are designed to be “bunged in the same ‘ole” as Compact Flash II (CF II) modules, one of the front-runners in digital picture storage, the "film" of digital cameras.
This makes them immediately useful to most people whose kit is intended for CF II memory chips. There are one or two exceptions, and it’s best to check that yours actually SAYS it’s configured for the IBM’s as well as CF II.
Of course, it’s not just digital cameras that can now benefit from the serious capacity afforded by Microdrives. Some Palmtops and PDA’s are now using them, as is my MP3 player.
THE COMPETITION
Currently, nothing else comes close to the 1.0 Gigabyte model, although I note that 512 Megabyte CF II chips can now be got. Price-wise, not a lot comes close though, since the BIG CF II chips are pretty expensive in a “pence per Megabyte” kind of way...
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Advantages: Quite a fast drive. Disadvantages: One of the "Deathstar" drives.
...complaining about their IBMdrives dying. I even had a friend with a 60 GB model whose drive died after only a year. Possibly I'm lucky my drive hasn't died yet, but also there could be a reason for it....
These models of drive, marketed by IBM as "Deskstar", soon earnt the nickname "Deathstar" on many a website. With seemingly many people's replacement drives also dying and people generally getting very annoyed that IBM had turned out rather a dodgy lot of hard disks.
A year ago IBM released a firmware update that's supposed to fix the cause of the failures, which was to do with the way the harddrive head idled. The firmware fix simply moves the head around every now and again to prevent the problem (now my harddrive might have survived because it's accessing the disk so often). I'm sure a lot of people don't know there was a firmware update...
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Advantages: Good value for money compared with other compact storage Disadvantages: Battery usage is higher than standard CF cards
...The Microdrive is a compact flash storage card. It's designed for use with digital cameras, MP3 players etc and should work with any type 2 compatible compact flash device.
Compact flash is usually a collection of memory chips that store your date. The microdrive uses a micro sized hard disk drive mounted within the same shape and size as a type 2 compact flash card. This has the advantage of allowing storage on cheaper magnetic media rather than expensive computer chips. Thus the card offers more storage for your buck.
The card really does work like any other flash card and doesn't need any special support from the devices you intend to use with it as long as you check they are cf2 compatible not just cf.
It has some disadvantages.
As the disk technology is the same as a standard hard disk, i.e. its has a spinning disk of magnetic...
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I am glad to see such a reliable brand name as Western Digital finally producing a USB Powered external hard drive - Thats right these drives require no power adapter they are powered directly through the USB cable (imagine them as very large USB memory... more
I like the ease of use of this hard drive, especially the shortcut button which allows any application to be launched with a touch of a button.
Its design means that it is a space saver and can be stored in a variety of ways - upright, on its side or... more
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