4gb hitachi microdrive compatible with ibm microdrive? will it work in the z50?

Rory O"C wrote:
> nick thompson wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>>  I went to compusa to get a cf card for my new z50,
and I noticed that 
>> they carry a 4gb hitachi microdrive. First of all,
is it compatible 
>> with the ibm microdrives? It looks to be the same,
cf II or whatever. 
>> Do these cards take any more battery than a regular
cf card?
>>
>> thanks
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> "All unix, all the time."
>>
>> http://npt.ath.cx
>>
> Hitachi bought IBM's disk drive operation, inluding
the microdrives.
> However, those bigger ones (over 1 GB) could be
problematic - I have 
> one, and it is very weird in how it is recognized (or
not) by various 
> computers I have, including a Mobile Pro 790 that does
not see it at all 
> with its WinCe software in the CF slot.  A MoPro 800,
that I got running 
> for a little while with NetBSD 3.0 could
"see" it when attached via USB 
> flash card reader, but got errors.
> 
> HTH,
> Rory
> 
Wow. Now I see there are 4 gig cf II and 8 gig cards that
might be cf 
III if there is such a thing. I mean, obviously I would like
as much 
storage as I can get, but I don't want to spend more money
just to find 
out that 2 gigs is the highest the z50 can work with. Anyone
have any 
thoughts? And, does a microdrive take more battery than a
regular cf card?

Nick

"All unix, all the time."

http://npt.ath.cx

On 16 Aug 2006, at 01:07, nick thompson wrote:

> And, does a microdrive take more battery than a regular
cf card?

I would assume so, as it has moving parts, there's a tiny
spindle to  
keep spinning.

Matt

On 8/15/06, nick thompson <nicholas.thompson1mchsi.com> wrote:
> Wow. Now I see there are 4 gig cf II and 8 gig cards
that might be cf
> III if there is such a thing. I mean, obviously I would
like as much
> storage as I can get, but I don't want to spend more
money just to find
> out that 2 gigs is the highest the z50 can work with.
Anyone have any
> thoughts? And, does a microdrive take more battery than
a regular cf card?

If it's advertised to be CF II, then there's no reason why
it
shouldn't work. I'm using a 2 gig microdrive in my NEC
Mobilepro 880
with no problems. If it doesn't work, then it's a problem
with the IBM
machine and not the drive. As far as I know, if it's
labeled CF II,
then the drive will work. Question is if it will be able to
use all of
it under CE. Should be able to use all of it under NetBSD
though,
unless the controller can't handle it. The limitations on
CF cards is
usually the filesystem used natively by the device (some
form of FAT
usually), not necessarily anything else.

They do draw a lot more battery power. Quite noticeably
shorter
battery life on my NEC.

Andy