Microdrives - why would anyone want one?

The Von Matrices · May 17, 2012

I just saw this on Newegg - a 6GB 1" hard disk for $3.20 shipped after promo code.
I didn't know such drives existed, although I can imagine they were useful before flash became cheap. I have no clue why anyone would buy one today though.

Refurbished: HGST Microdrive 3K8 HMS361006M5CE00 6...

qubit · May 17, 2012

You're right, it's obsolete and worthless. Newegg is trying to get whatever they can for it.

It's not bad from a novelty point of view though.

lilhasselhoffer · May 17, 2012

The Von Matrices said:
I just saw this on Newegg - a 6GB 1" hard disk for $3.20 shipped after promo code.
I didn't know such drives existed, although I can imagine they were useful before flash became cheap. I have no clue why anyone would buy one today though.

Refurbished: HGST Microdrive 3K8 HMS361006M5CE00 6...

It isn't just novelty, though that isn't exactly far off base.

I believe the first few generations of iPod utilized microdrive, there were some answering machines that used microdrive, and higher end video recording devices often used microdrive. Flash memory options for these device don't exist, as there has been no effort to update older designs (they were replaced rather than updated).

Basically, these drives are for older tech, that by now is probably well beyond reasonably priced for repairing. It has an extremely narrow consumer base, which Newegg is trying to sell to at a substantially reduced price, before the drives are completely obsolete. Get them now, because there aren't likely to be any more produced.

lyndonguitar · May 18, 2012

The Von Matrices said:
I didn't know such drives existed

Wow. Me too. :eek:

Too bad you can get 32 GB flash drives cheap nowadays

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Microdrives - why would anyone want one?

The Von Matrices

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

lilhasselhoffer

lyndonguitar

I play games