trouble with microdrive

On my last 2 dives I've lost some or all my photos on my microdrive. The 1st time, I ran out of battery power during the dive, but I'm not sure if the drive was writing at the time. The second time all photos seemed OK, the battery may have died while downloading to my computer. Each time I had to reformat the drive.

Is the media really this fragile, or do I have a defective drive? If this is normal, I'll need to go back to a CF card.

I'm not sure in either case whether the power loss was during the read/write process. Would that cause severe damage to the data?

Kasey

I've never lost power during a write, but that could definitely be problematic. When the drive failed, did you try moving the drive to a computer, or did you just try it in the camera? I really like the PCMCIA option with the MD just because you don't have to worry about (and are not draining) the camera batteries during download.

I have lost power while downloading and it never harmed the drive, but the computer has to be rebooted (Win 98).

Another case for fresh batteries on every dive!

Richard

I did start with fresh batteries, but when I do shallow dives, or rebreather dives no batteries will last. Most computer hard drives autopark if they lose power while reading or writing. Does the microdrive do this?

I will really suck to have to worry about squeezing in that last picture and putting the entire dive's images at stake.

Kasey

I've shot about 3,000 pix with my microdrive and never had any problems - but then again, I have never let my camera run out of batteries.

Something sounds fishy with yours Kasey. You might be able to save your pix off that failed write using something called "Image Rescue" or similar name.

Not to mention, your camera shouldn't run out of batteries on a dive - what's up with that???

Cheers

James

I agree with James, batteries should last thru a dive.

You say it doesn't on shallow or rebreather dives... how long are you talking about?

How many shots?

btw, are we talking about the 1GB MD? I've read that the 348MB model was a power hog.

Richard

I've had similar problems. If the camera battery is low and I take a picture, I sometimes get error message "could not read cf card" and the picture is lost. Usually I can continue taking photos by powering off and on the camera.

CP5000 standard battery does not last for very long in cold waters (10-14 C), usually I get around 50-70 photos before the battery goes flat.

Sami

My 1800 niMh batteries last me 70 - 90 min. When we do pier dives in 30ft, we sometimes stay down 120 - 150 min depending on what we find. Should my E-20 last that long?

I am using the 1Gb card.

When the drive failed, it said that the card was unformatted. about half the pix were lost each time.

Kasey

oh yeah, I rarely shoot more than 40 pix on a dive. Sometimes my batteries die after only 70min. I always shoot in TIFF mode, maybe using lower rez would save battery power, never thought about that!

I usually dive solo, so without a group of bubble blowers around me my 80cf tank can outlast my batteries, even on 100 ft multilevel dives. It hasn't been a big problem up until now, though, because with my CF the only file I could lose was the one writing while the battery died.

Kasey

TIFF mode would certainly make a diff, as your files are three times larger than jpegs and 40% larger than RAW.

Are you leaving the LCD on all the time?

I will try to run a dry land test simulating your settings to see what kind of battery life I get, but it will be next week before I can get to it.

Richard

I keep the LCD on auto so I review each picture as it is taken.

Kasey

Hi!

I had some bad experience using a 1GB MD. Usually, I take pictures on a 128MB SM in 1:8 JPEG (max. 84 images per dive). When back, I copy to the MD as a backup. I tipped over the camera standing on the lense (to get better access to the buttons) on a soft floor with a carpet.

The MD died of shock and had a head crash. All images were lost. A professional recovery was too expensive compared to the value of the images in question. IBM replaced the drive for free.

As stated on the data sheet, the MD should last quite strong shock and vibration but there seem to be weak points.

I am using my Oly E-20 with 1800mAh and 1900mAh NMH batteries. Without using the LCD, I am able to do at least 2 dives (usually >= 1 hr, around 60 pictures per dive) with one set of batteries.

Running low on battery therefore was never a question to me. After my bad experience I got even more careful with the MD. I'd never put it inside the camera during a dive. It'll stay my holiday-lasting backup. As a result I even bought a 512MB CF as a secondary backup.

Helge

Hmm...

I shoot with a 1GB microdrive while diving, and have never had problems with it. However, it does concern me that it has moving parts. Battery life hasn't really been an issue, but I have had it run low while underwater -- but only because I've been too lazy to swap it out between every dive.

My normal "land" media is a 512MB CF card.

Hi,

I do not have microdrive.

This is infomation only.

I saw same discussion in Japanese forum.

They sed

134M microdrive have many probrem.meny crash reports.

1G microdrive is more safety,but not perfect.