Muvo2 4gb Hard Drive Extraction
WARNING: READ THIS FIRST This link talks about why this trick may no longer work!
Would you like a Hitachi 4gb type II CF Microdrive for your digital camera for $200?
Thanks to the insane vagaries of retail
pricing, you can buy a retail packaged Hitachi Microdrive for around $500.
Yeah, right.
OR
You can buy a Creative Muvo2 4gb MP3 player, which contains said microdrive
for only $200.
Why the insane price difference? Retail supply and demand. A 4gb microdrive for $200 is dirt cheap for digital camera storage. But it's about right when wrapped inside -- and sold as -- an MP3 player. The muvo2 was previously $300, but Creative couldn't sell them. They dropped the price to $200 and about that time someone figured out they could remove the microdrive. Ahhh... Had creative only waited...
I'm not taking credit for the discovery -- I believe a fellow named Andy Mack made this discovery. Props to Andy for thinking outside the box -- quite literally in this case!
So, I bought a Muvo2 (waited two weeks to get it) and proceeded to extract the microdrive. I'm a part-time electronics tech so I'm quite comfortable ripping into electronic devices. I've put together this reasonably comprehensive explanation as an aid to those that are a bit more concerned about the surgery involved.
Use care! Your Muvo does have some value (check ebay) even without the drive, making your already bargain-priced microdrive cheaper still! You'll want to reassemble it and sell it on eBay if you have no other use for it.
Required Tools:
Using a static grounding strap is a very good idea. Lacking one, you can ground yourself using a length of wire. Strip the insulation from the ends and tape one end to your wrist and the other end to your work surface. If your work environment isn't prone to static discharge, then you should be ok. But if it is, you really ought to take steps to mitigate static discharge during this procedure.
Here's what you're starting with.
Extract the two screws shown
below. The shaft of your screwdriver had
better be small to reach these countersunk screws.
Open the battery compartment and
remove these two screws. The four
screws you've removed at this point are identical. Place them aside.
Carefully separate the two halves.
The bottom half will lift right off.
FYI, the four circles shows where the case screws held down the circuit
board. These were the first four screws you removed.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
Lifting out the circuit board is
much easier if you do it from the correct
end. Using your flathead screwdriver, gently insert the tip between the
case and the USB port then lift the circuit board up. The screwdriver tip
should go in and lift
up
very easily.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
Let's put the soldered-drive rumour to rest, shall we? The drive is not
soldered! Ignore the cheesy photo that's going around showing a huge
line of solder. It's not true. The only solder you'll see connects
the ground
shielding to the drive shielding. It does not touch the drive.
Remove the three black
screws only. The silver screw shown on the
upper-left needs to be loosened one turn, but don't remove it. The metal
drive shield has a slotted tab at this anchor point, so it'll slip out when you
loosen the screw.
The screw on the upper-right
corner in this
image was covered by a piece
of black tape. Peel back this tape.
Don't
lose it because it covers the tiny
battery. Place the screws aside,
separate from the four case screws.
Your done removing screws now.
The green arrow shows the solder.
Big deal, huh?
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
When you lift up the drive
shielding assembly, you'll see the drive sitting
right below, upside down.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
Carefully lift the circuit board
from the case front and flip the entire
assembly over, as shown.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
Starting on one end of the pin
array, gently pry the pin array upward using
your flathead screwdriver. Don't pry it all at once before scooting the
blade
along. Pry about half way up as you move across, then sweep back across
prying it off completely. It's not a tight fit, it should pry off easily.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
This is just another view of the
prying operation.
Click image for a 1000pix wide close-up
You have the treasure!
Formatting the microdrive
Put the microdrive into your CF reader and start up your disk management software on your computer.
For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, here's what to do:
Right Click on "My Computer".
Select "Manage".
You should see the "Computer Management" window.
Click on "Disk Management". You might need to click "Storage" to make it appear.
Look for a removable device with approximately 3.81 GB space. This is your microdrive.
Right Click in the shared area showing the drive space.
Select "Format".
Type in a volume label if you want. I used "Hitachi 4gb".
Select "FAT-32" as the file system.
Select "default" for the allocation unit size.
I unchecked the quick format box. Maybe a quick format will work, but for the first format, I wanted to make sure. A long format takes about 20 minutes or so. Do not enable file and folder compression. Your camera won't understand Microsoft compression.
Click OK.
I tried formatting mine using FAT with 64K allocation units. It would not format. A FAT-16 volume cannot utilize 64K clusters. You'll want to select FAT-32. There's been some mention on dpreview.com that FAT-32 will result in poorer performance. Depending on your camera, your mileage may vary.
I'm using the Canon 300D / Digital Rebel. I've noticed no performance penalty using the Hitachi microdrive formatted using FAT-32 vs. a Sandisk card. Granted, they both finished at the bottom on Rob Golbraith's review.
If you are shooting in a situation where really fast write times are required, like a sporting event, then you'll want to review Rob Golbraith's memory card reviews to find the right card for your camera.