Magicstore 2.2 GB Microdrives - Yes, No, or Maybe?

[johnnybfan]

I was just on bobatkins.com and happened to check out his comments about CF & Microdrives. He says that a caution he would offer would "concern the Magicstore 2.2 GB CFII (and II+) microdrive. These can be found for under &100, sometimes even under $80, which is a great price. However there have been quite a few reports of problems with these drives in some cameras. For example the II isn't compatable with the 300D (though Magicstore claims the II+ is).
Could I get your thoughts on this? Is this true? 'Cause if it is someone is going to have to tell the one that's in my 300D that it's not supposed to work as well as it does! :confused: Or is this a problem that has been solved?
Anyway, your comments will be appreciated. :lol:

[blackviolet]

all of the 2.2 gig microdrives are pretty much not to be trusted. they have a non standard interpretation of ata and this has had catastrophic results for some people... there are a few threads on this board and several others regarding the magicstore. avoid them!

[alan sh]

There seem to be two versions - the early ones work fine - the later ones have a changed BIOS which may cause issues. I have no idea how to tell the difference. Mine works fine but I bought it about 9 months ago.

[gasrocks]

You get what you pay for. I have had 3 different students get one (against my advice.) None worked properly. Lots of lost pix and so forth.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Magicstor are the work of the DEVIL! http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2hdzu/pics/FIREdevil.gif

NEVER never ever ever ever ever get one!

[roebuck]

No way for me too!

I was one of lucky ones I was able to swap it for IGB IBM Microdrive when it wouldn't work with the 300D and the guy who I swapped it with couldn't get to work either and after two replacements he gave up too!

[Mr. Pickles]

back in the 1GB days, MagicStore was one to AVOID like the plague. Never heard anything to convince me they had improved tremndously, so I won't get one. My IBM/Toshiba one works fine, and still works fine even after my much less used Lexar CF died the big death. It was replaced by Lexar with no issues though.

[rokclimbertx]

hmmm, i have one of these and have been using it in my 20D... had a coupla shots at different times that were corrupted but other than that all's well... i s'pose if you take care of it, moving parts and all, it should be fine... but 99% isn't good enough when that shot you need is in the remaining 1%...

[CyberDyneSystems]

rok,..

taking care of it makes no difference,. 90% of these fail right out of the box..
If you have one and use one then you are simply throwing photos away. Its not worth it.

You have allready lost images to the curse of the MagicStor,.. babying oit will make no difference,. you will lose more images. Period.

this has nothing to do hith it's being an MD drive witth moving parts,. Hitachi and IBM drives have nearly perfect functioning records untill damage is done to them,. the magicstor simply fails,. usually right out of the box. Almost 100% of the time.

Run a search of the forum and see for yourself,.
100% failure rate. Yours is part of that number as it too has allready failed.

Send it back if you can,.
If not throw it out or use it for something other than your photos,. something you have a back up of on another hard drive.

[CyberDyneSystems]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/search.php?searchid=129684
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/search.php?searchid=129690

[johnnybfan]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Looks like I'd better get something different. Anybody in the market for a 2.2GB Magicstore Microdrive?????????????? lol

[Dante King]

eBay it. Quickly! Or you could use it as a table leg leveling shim.

[robertwgross]

A year or two ago, or whenever those things were around, I had a theory that the compatibility problem was in power. Then the microdrive was trying to "spin up" it was drawing too much current for the camera's battery or power circuits to the CF interface. I don't have any proof of it. That would also account for why it seemed to fail miserably on some cameras and it would work intermittently on others.

---Bob Gross---

[VegasGeorge]

I wish I had read this thread BEFORE I bought! My Magicstor 2.2 failed tonight. Fortunately for me there was only one image on it at the time, and even that I don't need for anything.

Even a wise old owl like me gets a little too greedy every now and then!