how do you format a microdrive for use in CF camera?

[ThePiston]

I've got a 4GB microdrive I just pulled from a thumb drive, but it is not recognized by my camera. I've tried formattign it fat32, and deleting the partition and letting the camera format it, but still getting errors... the camera won't even turn all the way on with it in the thing. Any ideas?

 

[Matthias99]

the camera won't even turn all the way on with it in the thing. Any ideas?

You sure the camera supports microdrives? Maybe it's pulling too much power for the battery; they use considerably more power than regular CF cards.

 

[OdiN]

Somtimes those drives pulled from flash drives will NOT work in cameras. They jack with the firmware to make them not work in there.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Somtimes those drives pulled from flash drives will NOT work in cameras. They jack with the firmware to make them not work in there.

Yep, they did this with ones used in portable audio players. 🙁

 

[ThePiston]

there must be a firware fix or another way around it...

 

[ShellGuy]

not always, you may need to just get another drive. I would say get a CF card instead of a microdrive anyways. As I know what can happen to hdds if they are droped.


Will G.

 

[Mark R]

Originally posted by: ThePiston
there must be a firware fix or another way around it...

In general, no.

Hitatchi cripple the microdrives they sell to OEMs which use the drives in another product, so that they will not work on any other product. These crippled drives are not CF compatible (they use a modified protocol) so cannot be used in a normal CF slot.

 

[ThePiston]

well crap, do'nt we have some of our top minds on this??