If it'll ease your mind, I just popped off 141 sequential shots on the *ist D to the 4 GB Microdrive, then stuck it in my notebook PC. All is working fine.
Custom hardware (ie a modified CompactFlash connector pinout) would run counter to Hitachi and Creative's low cost aspirations, which are enabled by high volume efficiencies of one hardware spin spread across multiple customers and systems. Custom firmware is possible, and is sometimes done by HDD manufacturers for their consumer electronics customers, but in this case the alterations are usually fairly modest; an unaccessable portion of the platter (for security IDs, etc...think ReplayTV, TiVo, cable settop boxes, Xbox, etc) or finetuned access algorithms to reflect non-PC-like read and write profiles, enable lower power consumption and lower noise, etc. Worst case, with altered firmware the drive just wouldn't function. Minimally, you'd see slightly faster, or slower, reads and writes than with an off-the-shelf drive, coupled perhaps with being unable to use the entire media. But I can't brainstorm a scenario under which custom firmware would damage the host system (ie the camera). I cover HDDs as part of my editorial 'beat', and have an extensive electrical engineering background, so I know a bit of what I speak of. Here's the DPreview thread; I see no mention of any issues: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1023&message=7308713 Have emailed Creative again for clarification. I really do think that anything the Hitachi folks on the 1-800 line would tell you would be to cover their bums in the unlikely case there's a problem (which may or may not be related to the drive) down the road ============================== Brian Dipert Technical Editor: Mass Storage, Memory, Multimedia, PC Core Logic and Peripherals, and Programmable Logic EDN Magazine: http://www.edn.com 5000 V Street Sacramento, CA 95817 (916) 454-5242 (voice), (617) 558-4470 (fax) mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit me at http://www.bdipert.com
