20D and Seagate 4GB Microdrive (terribly slow)

I just got a 4GB Seagate Microdrive at Fry's for $23. I wanted the extra space for shooting Large+Raw. The problem is that it is terribly slow in my 20D takes what seems forever to write a burst and then forget about previewing with it.

Anyone else have this kind of issue with the Seagates?

Microdrives are inherently slow, regardless of manufacturer. The penalty of having moving parts, I guess.

A microdrive used to be a viable option when you needed lots of space cheap, but flash memory costs are so low now that they are obsolete. I'm sure some would argue for their place in a low budget photographers kit or studio situations where speed is not necessary - I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole though. Just my 2 cents.

I tried Seagate 8Gb and it worked like a charm on the 20D, even after it gone past the 5gb Mark,,,however my 10d, it slowed to a crawl and hanged intermittently ( only after 5gb )

Seagate claimed canon's fault and canon pointed at Seagate
Now, ,,,no more seagate CF cards..........everyon​e on flash type CF .

i paid $20 after rebate for my 2gb cf. i've seen 4gb cf for $35 after rebate recently. not sure why you'd want to put up with micro-drives.

i also have a buddy that used one for a few years and it finally crapped out on him (with pictures on it!). seagate replaced it, but now he only uses it as emergency storage.

Yeah, those things are freakin awful. Completely useless is probably more accurate actually

I have a micro drive sitting on a shelf somewhere. The spin motor died with the pics of the day on it... You can tell that I will never use a mechanical drive in a dslr again!

I just sold mine to raise the funds for my flash bracket or flash cord or new lens and it worked fine i my XT, I never did bursts, just a shot here and there, no problems.

Raphael Emond wrote in post #3248990
I have a micro drive sitting on a shelf somewhere. The spin motor died with the pics of the day on it... You can tell that I will never use a mechanical drive in a dslr again!

I have two CF cards that died, taking the stored pictures with them. All of my microdrives are still running although on 4 gb Sony got so slow it is not useable. I have had better luck with my IBM and Hitachi microdrives.

I carry redundant CF cards with me for most use and also a few microdrives to ensure I have lots of excess storage in case I need it. This saved my trip one time when both my hard drives died and I had to shoot the rest of the trip on my CF cards and microdrives. I had barely enough storage to complete the shooting for the trip, but the seldom used microdrives more than earned their keep.