Muvo2 microdrives no longer work in cameras

Looks like Creative Labs has changed the Microdrive used in the Muvo2 so that it no longer works in digital cameras. I'm guessing it probably now uses the same drive configuration that's found in the iPod Mini.

I'm sure that Hitachi was the reason for this as Creative was selling Muvo2's far faster then they could make them. I bought two and pulled the 4GB microdrives out of them, thankfully just before they changed them. I replaced the 4GB drives with 256MB compact flash cards and restored them as MP3 players. It's too bad for Creative Labs as the only redeeming quality of the Muvo2 was that you could pull the drive. It's really a quite crappy MP3 player. Typical no thought given to usability kind of thing. It works, but it's not at all pleasant to use.

The good news of all this is that Muvo2 sales are going to fall through the floor so maybe Hitachi will be able to shift more production to enable filling the channel for iPod Minis. I just hope Creative hadn't fooled themselves into thinking that people were actually buying the Muvo2 because they thought it was a good MP3 player.

Here's what the new packaging looks like. The old packaging was more like an oval tube.

Of course the other good news is that CF prices are supposed to drop so the 4GB Microdrive will have less and less value going forward. I know I'd definitely rather have that storage in flash cards then in tiny spinning harddrives. Especially since I've dropped flash cards three times in the last two days.

Posted by Kimbro Staken