Micro drive or flash drive as USB memory stick???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin Larsen
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M

Martin Larsen

Hi,

The local store has a quite cheap Samsung 2 GB USB micro drive based
"memory stick" (Pleomax UHD-2G) on sale.

I know the disadvantages of using a micro drive unit instead of flash
ram: bulkier, less robust, draws more power.

But are there any *advantages* which I should take into consideration?
Such as speed perhaps?

Thanks in advance :-)

Martin
 
Martin Larsen said:
Hi,

The local store has a quite cheap Samsung 2 GB USB micro drive based
"memory stick" (Pleomax UHD-2G) on sale.

I know the disadvantages of using a micro drive unit instead of flash ram:
bulkier, less robust, draws more power.

But are there any *advantages* which I should take into consideration?
Such as speed perhaps?

Thanks in advance :-)
Click to expand...

More than likely ebay will have a 2gb flash drive cheaper.
 
Martin said:
Hi,

The local store has a quite cheap Samsung 2 GB USB micro drive based
"memory stick" (Pleomax UHD-2G) on sale.

I know the disadvantages of using a micro drive unit instead of flash
ram: bulkier, less robust, draws more power.

But are there any *advantages* which I should take into consideration?
Such as speed perhaps?

Thanks in advance :-)

Martin
Click to expand...

On the Hitachi web site, a 1" Microdrive, 3600RPM, is rated for
a 4.9 - 9.4MB/sec write rate. The 9.4MB/sec speed is at the
beginning of the disk, the 4.9MB/sec is at the end of the disk.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/micro/3k6.htm

The Microdrive is subject to mechanical wear and tear, like any
hard drive. It is fairly shock resistant as hard drives go (200G
operating shock, 2000G non-operating shock). That particular one
is rated for 300,000 load/unload cycles. If you can copy a set
of files to the device without allowing the device to stop, that uses
up 1 of 300,000 cycles. Ordinary hard drives have a 50,000
start/stop cycle rating, by comparison.

Flash memory has its own set of issues. It has excellent
shock resistance, since there are no moving parts. There is
a limit to the number of times a location in memory can be
programmed, so they do wear out. Some locations will get
written more times than others (say the directory space
of the flash). The flash probably has some sparing scheme
for bad blocks, same with the microdrive.

Psychologically, you would probably be more careful not
to drop the microdrive, knowing it is mechanical. Whereas
with the flash, it is a lot more likely to strike the floor
at some point. Depending on the cheapness of construction,
the flash might not be any more resistant to droppage, than
the microdrive.

Now, with all that being said, look at the results here.
The microdrives are at the bottom of the list. And one
microdrive was killed when dropped 2" to the desktop.
The Seagate device that died, is rated for 200G/1500G shock.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8197

It makes you stop and think.

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

Thank you for the thorough reply. Given that I would use it mainly to
backup my most important data (as a supplement to my normal backups), I
have decided to go for a flash drive. It's smaller and more durable -
both important for a backup device to be carried around always.

Martin
 
Hi,

The local store has a quite cheap Samsung 2 GB USB micro drive based
"memory stick" (Pleomax UHD-2G) on sale.

I know the disadvantages of using a micro drive unit instead of flash
ram: bulkier, less robust, draws more power.

But are there any *advantages* which I should take into consideration?
Such as speed perhaps?

Thanks in advance :-)
Click to expand...


The most common reason to choose a mechanical HDD instead of
flash memory based is to get a lower price per GB capacity
or a larger total capacity. If choosing modern high(er)
speed flash or a mechanical HDD, the flash would be my clear
choice even at a little higher cost but today 2GB flash has
dropped down to a very attractive price-point.
 
Martin said:
......... I
have decided to go for a flash drive. It's smaller and more durable
Click to expand...

Yep - I've got a couple that have been through the washing machine.
Dried them out in a warm place for a week or so and they've been fine
since. I'm not sure a Microdrive would survive that...

Alex
 
Martin said:
Well, perhaps! But that wasn't my question :-)

Thanks anyway...
Click to expand...
I have used an IBM microdrive with a
MATCHBOX PC(google for info) ,and i found
only one disadvantage, it does not tolerate
continuous write very well.
After about 20 minutes it quit(and recovered
afterwards), and was hot enough to burn your
fingers.
The write was gps and navigation data twice
per second(followed by flush command).
Buffering instead,solved the heat problem.
Be aware that flash memory takes only a
limited number of write cycles,and when you
use a FAT based disk i/o,the fat table will
be the most abused part of the flash disk,
and a microdrive might outperform the flash
disk.
Just watch temperature with a microdrive.
 
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