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CF or microdrive?
differences between compact flash or microdrives

New MessageCF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) sinned
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greetings all:

i am trying to decide between using a compact flash card or microdrive. as i have nothing that needs either of these accessories, i am stuck having to buy them outright for use in a 1a-1. costs work out to be about the same for larger 128mb cf cards and 340mb md's. about $150 for cf or md and usb adaptor.

i have not been able to figure out what tradeoffs there are between the two different devices.

as the prices are so similar, what things should one consider in deciding? which one has faster i/o? how does the cf deal with spanning file structures like dos? i have read some posts regarding heat buildup on microdrives. is this a real issue or limited to a few individuals?

thanks in advance.

02-11-2002 12:50:07

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) wildwildwes
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You can get a generic 128 mb compact flash card for $43 at newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=list&catalog=68&DEPA=1

02-11-2002 13:38:51

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) GRISHNAKH
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iomega has the 340meg microdrive on sale for $129.95 plus tax. free ground shipping
http://www.iomega.com/microdrive/microdrive_340.html
and $179 for the 1gig
http://www.iomega.com/microdrive/microdrive_1gb.html

From what I understand they are just rebranded IBM drives.
There's also a coupon for 20% off if you look around. I'm not sure if it has expired yet or not but I got my 340 meg for $110 shipped. Should get here tomorrow :D

And they both come with PC card adapters.

02-11-2002 14:34:48

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) uberpeon
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Well, today only (the 11th), you can get a 256 MB Viking CF at Buy.com: http://www.us.buy.com/retail/DOTD/DOTD.asp?sku=70004273&loc=13166

(It's the "Price Mistake of the Day")

02-11-2002 18:07:25

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) wildwildwes
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I think the microdrives are extremely cool, and I read that they're significantly faster than CF, but I think I like the solid state nature of regular CF. In theory, I think the microdrives can be written more, but I don't know that I trust something so tiny and mechanical. I really don't know much about them though. I'd read some reviews online before buying something expensive like that.
02-12-2002 09:26:11

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) Piscus
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Greetings, Sinned!

In cost per-megabyte, Compact Flash and a microdrive are pretty similar, but on a per-unit basis the CF has an obvious edge. Since you don't currently have anything else which uses either, the ability to purchase two or three CFs for less than the cost of one microdrive might be an advantage -- you could use one for experimenting with different software, for example, and another "stable" CF for "serious" work, or one for yourself and one for when others will be using the IA-1.

The other side of the equation is size, of course; if you want Windows, or a fairly robust Linux distro, 128 megs may not be enough. But for most uses, I'd go with the CF.

Liberator of Magic Smoke
02-12-2002 17:38:47

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) Musicman38
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Does anyone know the warranty on one of those little IBM Microdrives ?

I also thought someone said they get really hot and may overheat when used for long periods.

Anyone have some experiance using the little drive on the iA-1 ?

02-12-2002 21:14:01

New MessageRE:CF or microdrive? (modified 0 times) GRISHNAKH
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Oh just a side note. The sandisk SDDR-31 compact flash reader does not work with this drive. It was acting very flakey on my win2k system and diskprobe even crashed windows. Blah. Iomega tech support confirmed that it wasn't compatible.
I'm getting a zio! reader as soon as I can.
02-13-2002 10:47:25

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