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

Cockpit Colin wrote:
"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?


I'm a part time microdrive destroyer (now retired), I've destroyed two 2Gb MD. The first one fell out of my shirt pocket while hanging out of a car window. The second fell out of my shirt pocket while climbing a tree. Admittedly, neither event occured while my feet were firmly planted on the ground. I have not a clue whether a MD has the same insides as other hard drives, nor whether the heads were doing the reseek dance while they bounced about, but my guess is my hammer is bigger than yours. :)

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jer
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