Formatting MicroDrives

[Joe Butts]

I have just had an IBM 1GB MicroDrive go south on me during a session.
According to the frame counter on my D60, I had only 3 exposures left. I know I hadn't taken that many pictures even though I was shooting RAW mode. I turned the camera off, waited several seconds and removed the drive. Yep, it's a 1 gig. I put it back in and received a CFerr message. So, I removed it, replaced it with a 340 MicroDrive and continued.
Upon returning to my office, I fired up a file recovery software program that seemed to recover the files. However, when trying to convert the files with Canon's RAW file converter 2, it didn't recognize the files. They're apparantly lost. So, I called IBM for help. They'll replace the drive, no problem. However, they suggested that after recovering my files try re-formatting the drive with my PC (not a MAC). Their claim is that these MicroDrives don't like the camera formatting system because they are not a true FAT16 system. The computer is. I reformatted using the computer and the drive seems to be working fine.
Any of you have similar experiences? What did you do? Were you able to recover your files? What about the formatting procedures. They suggest that formatting several times in-camera will cause problems at some point in time. Sure did!
Joe

[mrchips]

I sure have. I had a one year old 1gb microdrive that started to be unreadable. I treated it like a real Hard drive in a PC (fdisk, format) then moved to the camera and reformated in the camera. it has worked fine since. Although I have that minor distrussed in the back of my mind that it might fail again when full of pictures.

[Rafael]

I will not get a 1 gig microdrive for reason of possibly losing all the data when it's full. I think it's better to have several smaller drives or compact flash units instead. Just my thought...

[DoctorMoth]

I also have experienced data loss on an IBM microdrive, now I format the card each time I "empty" the images for storage. By formatting on your PC you actual wipe clean old data much more completely than formatting using your camera software I've noticed, just check you storage capacity after doing it both ways, the PC way brings you back up to slightly more than 1 gig. I note that there are now 2 gig microdrives on the market now or very shortly (according to the new issue of "OutDoor Photographer"), so I think they are here to stay. I don't have any intention of going that route though, I think the 512 solid state compact flash cards are probably better, they aren't as delicate as the microdrives, they still hold tons of data, and you also don't risk quite as much image loss if something terrible happens. I've heard some pretty horrible stories about people sitting on the microdrives or dropping them and ruining them. Although I am sure it can happen, I've yet to hear of someone destroying a flashcard by accident.

[DoctorMoth]

Here's a little update, I noticed today in this month's (August cover date) American Photo magazine, that SanDisk now has available a 1 gig Compact FlashCard (not a microdrive!) that is solid state type 1 card (fits in even old digital cameras). That sounds like the perfect situation, has "no working parts" so to speak, and tons of storage space. It's lists at $700 but I would imagine street price to be half to 60 percent of that. That would seem to be the best of both worlds.

[mrchips]

I have found it at 3 mail order sites, the best price is PC Connection and B&H at 699.00. I checked with Ingram Micro and they show the SRP at 1059.00. The magazine may have had there prices wrong. If you can find it for 500 or less let me know it would be worth buying.

Thanks
Denny

[gudac]

I just lost use of my Microdrive. I had downloaded about 100 photos from it to my Desktop G4 and removed the drive from the reader. Later that night I tried to download the files to a Digital Wallet and the Digital Wallet Locked up. Tried to then download the files from the Microdrive to my G4 Laptop and the drive doesn't mount. Tried to reformat in a Canon D30 and get and error! Have tried to reformat on a Windows ME system, but no luck. Going to call IBM for assistance. Have had the drive for about 5 months with no problems until now. Have had at least 4000 photos on it and have reformatted in the D30 with no problems.

Second point I will make is that using more cards can be an asset. I did loose over 400 photos one day because of my impatience on the computer and accidentally deleted the photos. Had I been using cards the worse case would have been just one card lost instead of all. Going to stick with cards from now on.