CF Compatible

[Lynx^]

Hey guys, I know this forum's about dead, but my Toshy is only 2 years old - to me at least lol - so it's still new ... quick question... I had a cf card scare today and had to let the pda reformat it (PC was going to but rob me of over a gb off of my 4gb card... not happening) and it got me looking into cheap but decent bigger cf cards. It seems I'm always outgrowing them LMAO. I'm looking at this one on ebay but wonder if it's compatible... I have tried looking for the specs for the toshy with no luck. Can anyone tell me if it'll work and link me to a website with DETAILED specs so I can figure it out myself next time? ;-) thanks!

[kevinpwhite]

Lynx,

The spec appears to specifically state Compact Flash Type II interface. If that is the case then it should work fine with an e8xx. However I would strongly recommend checking with the vendor first and also for return agreement in event of non-compatibility.

I have previously used various microdrives including the Seagate orange label type marked Compact Flash Photo hard Drive. They are also marked ST1.2 on the back. The niggle is the marking on the one you identified that says 'embedded applications only' - some MDs have different formatting that makes them incompatible.

Sorry can't be more definitive.

If you are going for a bigger CF - you might like to think about a larger solid state flash drive - I happily ran the Sandisk 16GB for a while and have now gone over to a Transcend 32GB which I am really pleased with. The cost is higher than the MDs but 4x the capacity is very useful, esp. for storing DVD video and 1:1 .wav file music albums at ca. 600MB a time !

Best regards,

Kevin

[Adama D. Brown]

Lynx, I'd avoid that. It's not actually a CompactFlash memory card, but a miniature hard drive. They're easier to damage, more power hungry, and less compatible than real solid state memory cards. You can get a regular card for only a few bucks more: it's worth it.

[Lynx^]

but could the pda handle 16gb cf without totally lagging it out or otherwise screwing up the pda?

[Adama D. Brown]

I don't see why not. Memory cards aren't resource-intensive, and the ATA interface used by CompactFlash cards is pretty laid back as far as requirements go.

[kevinpwhite]

Lynx,

The e8xx PDAs work absolutely fine with either 16GB or 32GB Compact Flash cards.

You can run music or video or anything else for that matter off them without any issue. Big file sizes cease to be an issue when you have similar capacity on board your PDA to many laptops.

Regards,

Kevin

[Lynx^]

Now next question, with that part being answered... I know brand at least sorta matters... and with the fraudulent sandisk cards out there (I think mine's one of 'em, but it works, so it stays put for now), I want to buy one that's going to be reliable and stable but cheap. I've learned my lesson with Transcend, their 2gb card has already started to crap out on me after only a year, and thus my 4gb. So is kingston any good? Or should I avoid it too?

[follick]

I've been using my e800 with a generic 16GB CF for a long time now with no problems.

[kevinpwhite]

....and I have 5 of the Transcend 4GB SD cards + the latest 32GB CF Card and have experienced absolutely no issues at all....

....likewise the Sandisk Extreme III 16GB I was using previously.


Regards,

Kevin

[mknewman]

I am using a Transcend 8gb but have almost filled it up, so I'm looking at a 32gb which are down to about $125 on the 'bay. I can't imagine filling that up. I'll use the 8gb in my Nikon D100 which will give me about 900 uncompressed NEF images at 9mb each. Double that if I go compressed NEF, which is slower. That's totally stupid, I'll never use that many shots.

Marc

....and I have 5 of the Transcend 4GB SD cards + the latest 32GB CF Card and have experienced absolutely no issues at all....

....likewise the Sandisk Extreme III 16GB I was using previously.


Regards,

Kevin