Microdrive vs CF Card

[Murahachibu]

Help.

Nice to meet you guys. I\'m a new user of a Zaurus Sl-c860.  I\'m using my Z primarily for J <-> E dictionaries because I\'m a professional translator.  I need to up my storage space beyond my current 256MB SD card to add some more dictionaries, so here are my questions:

1.  Is anyone out there using an IBM or Hitachi microdrive?  I know the IBM works with the SL-C860, how about the hitachi (or other brands)? How is the speed?  Speed is very important to me because I often need to get to my dictionary quickly if I\'m interpretting.  Any major problems?  An overall review of any good points/bad points would be nice.

2. Any advice concerning 512 MB CF cards?  Are any brands recommended or discouraged?  What specs should I be looking for regarding speed/reliability?  I don\'t know much about this media, but I noticed that some are graded higher than others (i.e. Hagiwara (maybe) makes two versions of its cards a V series and a Z series).  If you have any recommendations, please include model number if possible.

Thanks for any help you can give me, and I look forward to reading/posting on the forum.


- Murahachibu

[VeeDubb]

1.  The hitachi ARE IBM.  IBM sold all their rights to the big H and stopped making microdrives.

2.  Seek time much lower but transfer times are comparable.  So, the effect on speed depends on what you are doing.

3.  I reccomend Lexar.  Period.  They are great.  Others are all abou the same.  Don\'t buy SanDisk.  The same goes for SD cards.

4.  Speed is measured the same as CDrom drives.  Not sure what current cards run.  I have a 4x lexar (only 64mb though)

The CF standard is apretty simple standard.  It\'s compatible with ATA harddrives.  In fact, the Z recognizes it as an ATA fixed disk.  THere\'s two main types of of CF cards.  Type1 and Type2.  They arethe same standard but type 2 is thicker.  Type 1 fits in any slot, type2 only fits in type2.  Any other format should be avoided like the plague because it\'s


Anything beyond that has ben discussed on this forum half a billion times and you should do a search for CF

[Murahachibu]

Vee Dub,

Thanks for the great info.!  I did a search for microdrives on the site, but not for CF.  I\'ll definitely do that.

Regards,

Murahachibu

[x86Daddy]

Also, if you\'re looking for the best $$/MB deal, and can wait a few weeks, people discovered a 4GB Hitachi microdrive inside the new Creative Muvo2...  currently out of stock, but worth checking out.
http://www.andymack.com/mylog/pivot/entry....id=standard-868
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...message=7308713

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried the 4 GB MD (extracted from the Muvo) in a Sl-Cxxx zaurus yet ?

Sounds interesting.  I\'m afraid of ending up with 300 bucks worth of junk though if I screw up.  

[Foxdie]

Has anyone tried the 4 GB MD (extracted from the Muvo) in a Sl-Cxxx zaurus yet ?

Sounds interesting.  I\'m afraid of ending up with 300 bucks worth of junk though if I screw up.  

It should probably work (CF is more versatile than SD anyway) but if you\'re going to keep it bootable you\'ll need to keep it as 2 x 2GB FAT16 partitions (or at least make the first partition FAT16, doesn\'t matter on it\'s size).

I would love a 4GB MD but it\'d chew my battery life I bet, I\'m already noticing my zaurus\'s battery isn\'t lasting so long and I\'ve only had it about 3 months. Time to invest in an external battery pack! Also because no one has tested for SDIO support on the 5600 and above (using the XSCALE CPU, there\'s a strong chance that the C series and 5600 support SDIO but no one has done any testing for it and the drivers can\'t be made under the GNU as far as I know, no one wants to pay the SDIO steering group) I would have to keep switching between a CF storage card and a CF communications card. So no finding open AP\'s and downloading big files off huge bandwidth corporate connections  :?