Bad 2.2 GB CF Card...

[TonyOlsen]

I bought a Magistor 2.2 GB CF (Type II) \"microdrive\" card.  It\'s the smallest harddrive I\'ve ever bought... and also died the fastest.

http://www.gs-magicstor.com/english/produc...roduct_a_07.htm

[img]http://www.gs-magicstor.com/english/images/product/22c_plus_pic_01.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]

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fdsk.vfat /dev/hda1 -vtr

Didn\'t find any bad sectors on the harddrive surface, but the harddrive itself stops responding after a few minutes of use and the enitre Linux OS freezes up.  After waiting about 30 minutes (each time) I then pull out the battery to force a hard reboot.

Music Player usually gets about 2 minutes into a song before it freezes, and anything else I run form the CF card freezes a few minutes after it starts.

This doesn\'t happen with my other 256 MB solid state (no moving parts) CF card (I watched an enitre episode of Simpsons and Futurama on it yesterday without any problems).

Has anyone else had any problems with microdrives?  Is this a common thing?

I bought this for around $180... but I\'m going to return it and instead buy the solid state 2.0 GB CF card which costs around $350... but at least I know it won\'t crash.  I think I\'m turned off to all microdrives in the future.

Comments?  Experiences?

[Greg2]

Your 2.2 gig is too large for a fat-16 (vfat) file system, reduce the size to 2 gb

Greg

[TonyOlsen]

Yes... the FAT16/VFAT/FAR Zaurus only sees 2 GB of the 2.2 GB... but I was willing to deal with the missing 200 MB... besides I could partition that as a 2nd harddrive for when I finally get Bochs running in 640x480 running Windows98, etc..  win98 would then be able to see the 2nd partition (200 MB) and make use of that data.

[yodabob]

I\'m using that same drive in my C-860 (though I\'ve also used it in my 5600 and my 6000L) and it works fine.  It\'s formatted through Windows XP-Pro as Fat-32 and formats to 2 Gb.  I\'ve got all 4 of the Lord of the Rings extended edition movies on it, and have watched at least two of them back-to-back with no problems.  Switched in my other battery, and watched the other two.  IBM 2GB microdrive also works perfectly.  My new Hitachi 4 Gb is having some \"issues\" though.  Aaarrrggghhh !

[zautrix]

Your 2.2 gig is too large for a fat-16 (vfat) file system, reduce the size to 2 gb

Greg

1024*1024*1024*2 = 2147483648
= 2.2 GB ( for marketing people )
actually only 2 GB.

I have had such a drive as well ... it died after 2 hours or so.
I have read problems from other users in german zaurus forum as well.

=] It is better to do not buy a 2.2 Magicstore for Zaurus

z.

[Stubear]

You want to make sure that hda1 actually exists!

With a number of CF cards I\'ve come across they didn\'t create a partition but just formatted the whole drive, so that to mount on linux I had to mount /dev/hda rather than /dev/hda1. Try a fdisk -l /dev/hda - if you get a heap of partitions and warnings that partitons sizes don\'t match then it hasn\'t been partitioned properly.

If you are game you can try to repartition it and add an extra /dev/hda2 to /etc/fstab and have 2 partitons mounted. NOTE: Don\'t know if that wolud affect warranty in anyway

Stu

[amdonati]

You can partition it without problems, I did it indeed. Just be careful that, if you want VFAT and ext2 partitions, the vfat should be the first or you could have problems with windows or digital cameras.
But I was never able to modify the automount scripts to make both parititions mount correctly
And the 2.2 CF was also ejected and remoutned at every suspend, making it not feasible as for a swap partition (at least on my Z5500).

See this posts for my previous experience:

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...light=partition
http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...light=partition

Adalberto

[stnkypaperweight]

Something I thought was a wee bit interesting.. and a wee bit annoying with the Magicstor 2.2G...

Don't put/enable a swap file on the magicstor drive and then suspend the zaurus.
If you turn it back on and then browse through a filemanager to the CF mount point the device will hang and cause lots of annoying problems until you reboot.

I'm assuming this happens because the zaurus wakes up faster than the Magicstor drive does....  and trying to access the device when the zaurus thinks its ready and when it really is ready can cause some problems.

I allot a little bit of time now after I turn my zaurus back on before I use my microdrive.

Anyone else have any problems like this? Or am I the only one?

(formatted FAT 32)

 

anyway.. same issue on the 6000 as amdonati had on the 5500
( "i never learned to read" )

[stnkypaperweight]

This thing crasshes/hangs ... ALL THE TIME

I fdisk't it.. partitioned and formatted the whole thing as FAT32 and then mkfs.vfat -F 32 -f 2 /dev/hda1

I STILL have the same problems.

When its working.. it works great during continued use...

When I haven't used it for say.. a few minutes.. or if the zaurus has been off and i turn it on.. its like a 50/50 chance that I can use it.

When the drive is pretty much empty it has few problems...
When the drive has about 300MB of stuff...this problem is VERY recreatable.


Is this a sleep feature or something on the Magicstor microdrive? and is there ANY way that it can be disabled? I don't care about power usage reduction.. I just want the thing to work!

"arrrrrrrr its driving me nuts!"

 

[padishah_emperor]

IF I remember correctly, I haven't got my thinking hat or slippers on though, /dev/hda is ejected at suspend, which IF you had a swapfile on it, MAY cause a little problem...

..or a big problem..

[stnkypaperweight]

nah.. not using the swap file on it..

it does this annoying sleep thing.. or whatever.. and then hangs when u try to access it when its apparently trying to wake up

either that.. or i have a retarded microdrive

 

[Omicron]

Did you try using my LINUX/Zaurus format technique on it?

I have THREE 4GB Hitachi's and although I barely used one, but the other two have had many a movie played on them (meaning hours of run time) and not a glitch.  Eject and insert work perfect as well.

They are Hitachi 4GB white label drives extracted from MUVO's (the good old days).  I suggest trying my fdisk/format procedure and see if that helps.  If not return it and buy a hitachi white label (no warranty though) and give that a try...it will give you 4gb for the same price.

Format procedures:
FORMATTING A MICRODRIVE USING THE ZAURUS.  [/u]

PS(Before anyone asks, I do not wish to sell one of my drives...but thanks for the thought  )

[stnkypaperweight]

Unfortunately... I did try that out.. I end up with the same problems when I start at cylinder 2 as 1.

It just does this weird thing where... at first it will work great...
then after a few minutes go by of not using it (but zaurus still on).. and then using it again.. it will freeze up

then if i turn off the zaurus and turn it back on.. i have random results...
it doesn't matter if i do a software eject or not before turning it off...

If I physically take it out and put it back in then it works just fine.. until its been idle for a few minutes and then try using it again... then its back to freezing...

oy vay Magicstor...

(i can watch movies on it just fine... just after its been idle.. it'll freeze the next time I try to use it)

 

[Omicron]

Well, that is a bummer.  I do still recommend the hitachi 4gb drive.

Just make sure to get the older version that works as a true CF device

They are still pretty cheap on ebay, of course no warranty or anything, but ussually the offer non-doa.

So far it seems to wrok great for everyone in the forum (I think).

Sounds like you got a lemon, but I would hold that against MagicStop  rather than against Microdrives in general.

Certainly send it back if you can !

[madsenj37]

I never got mine to work with my 5500.  I emailed Sharp and they told me it wouldnt work, so I gave mine away.  It seems like some of you have had better luck.