Microdrive

Introduction

Microdrives are miniature hard drives built for use in many larger digital cameras. These Compactflash type-II cards provide high capacities for relatively low prices. Originally designed and sold soully by IBM, these cards are now manufactured by both Hitachi and Seagate.
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Compatibility

Microdrives fit within the Compactflash type II specifications and will work with any device supporting that standard. As such, they are indistinguishable from solid-state cards as far as the device using them is concerned.
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Performance

As Microdrives rely on moving parts, it takes time for these devices to respond to commands. When first released, those overheads were made up for by faster transfer rates - however solid-state technology has evolved since that point and now outpaces Microdrives in most areas. As such, most modern solid-state memory devices will function at significantly higher speeds than modern Microdrives.
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Power Consumption

Microdrives typically have significantly higher power consumption than solid-state memory cards. Components like the motor that drives the main platter can consume significant ammounts of energy, even when the drive is not in use. Asside from decreasing the battery life of the device these cards are installed in, this can also lead to excessive heat production.
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Reliability

Microdrives contain a number of mechanical components, so they are more sensitive to certain types of impact. Newer designs have sought to address these issues and are much better than older revisions, however solid-state cards are still generally better able to deal with hostile environments.
With that said however, if handled carefully, Microdrives will often outlive solid-state memory cards. Most flash memory technologies have a limited number of read-write cycles before memory cells begin to fail. Microdrives, on the other hand, are generally more robust in heavy use and will often last much longer under ideal conditions.
As such, each user should evaluate the requirements that their work will place on memory cards and decide which is more significant.
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See Also

• Compactflash - The card format used by Microdrives.

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External Links

• Rob Galbraith's CF/SD Performance Database - Comprehensive database comparing the performance of many different memory cards in both cameras and computers.