Re: 2GB CF card vs. 4GB Microdrive....


"Jer" <gdunn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:11m6nenl7t2db5e@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> If you ever drop a microdrive onto concrete, picking it up is a pointless
> act of wishful thinking.

I think you'd be surprised. Assuming that the platter wasn't rotating at the
time, I doubt it would do any damage. The biggest vulnerability with any
hard drive is the delicate gap between the heads and the surfaces of the
platter(s) - if the unit has powered down then the heads are already in
contact with the platters in a reserved area, and are held against the
surface with a force that might surprise you. Additionally, even though
dropping the drive onto a hard surface might sound quite extreme, you need
to remember that the heads have bugger-all mass to begin with, so in
absolute terms they have bugger-all enertia.

In summary the platters are relatively light and secured by their bearings -
the head is light and is already safely out the way - the electronics don't
give a damn - what's going to break? Sure - CF cards have no moving parts
and are always going to win any competition if things get extreme enough,
but I think the question should be not "which is tougher", but "does the
evidence suggest that the microdrive is tough enough"?

Tell you an interesting story (I'm a full time computer engineer by the
way): One day we had an old hard drive in the workshop and I decided to see
just how much punishment one could withstand. So while it was rotating I
tried tapping it - lightly at first, and not so lightly as the test
progressed. In the end I was slamming it against a metal surface, and
hitting it on it's side with a hammer (with a force that would have have
split your thumb open if you'd stuck it there). Guess what? - I couldn't
make the drive fail. It certainly made it reseek each time, but at the end
of all these brutal insults (while it was running) it didn't lose any data,
and wasn't damaged in any way. Was certainly food for thought in my eyes.

Having said all that, if you're taking so many shots that you can't fit them
on a 2GB card then I'd be worried that my camera battery (even in a double
config in a grip) was going to last the distance if powering a microdrive.
And if you buy a pair of spare batteries then you may just as well have
added the $$$ you spent to the cost of a 2GB CF card and got a 4GB in the
first place?



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