For those researching and waiting for the Seagate ST1 CF-compliant
hard drive, as-yet still unavailable in retail form, here is the
information I've amassed which should help researchers, as there is
little information available on this drive. Some peopl are ripping
them out of Rio Carbons, but those models may not be fully-CF
compatible, and of course there's no warranty there. Most are waiting
for the retail release but the info provided, especially the links,
will be of help to those considering busting open their Carbons.

I have had a few email exchanges with Seagate (see belos) regarding
product availability and other things (such as noise), and these are
the highlights. Bottom line is that Seagate itself (at least the ones
who have contact with real people) appears to be rather unclear about
availability and details about the drive.

Here is what I have been able to gather on the ST1 so far:
- Type II CF-compatible. The (as-yet-to-be-released retail version
will be fully CF-compliant. It is unknown whether the current OEM
versions are fully CF-compliant, but it is doubtful as the "CF" logo
does not appear on the OEM drives, which is typical for any flash-type
memory made custom for an OEM. On the other hand, people seem to be
having A LOT more success with the ripped-out OEM ST1's than with the
OEM Hitachi Microdrives.

- Acoustics rating: "2 bels (typical)" No mention of distance from the
drive on that measurement. Seagate's regular 7200rpm hard drives are
rated at 2 to 2.5 bels in idle spinning, for a reference, which is
audible in a quiet room, judging from my own. I don't know how much
noise the Hitachi Microdrive produces, but the ST1 will probably
(hopefully) be quieter whatever the case. I have never heard anyone
complain about the noise from Microdrives, even those who take movies
using them, but this is a big concern for me, and unlike solid-state
CF cards, they can't possibly be silent, obviously due to moving
parts. To me, any noise is the biggest apparent downside to the ST1
and any CF hard drive, as cameras with mics are likely to pick up hard
drive noise from the housing, even if inaudible in person. Seagate
makes the world's quietest hard drives (the main reason I am a Seagate
fan), so they are the best people to make a CF hard drive.

- 2MB buffer (far bigger than the 128K of other 1" hard drives)

- Full name: "Seagate ST1 Compact Flash Photo Hard Drive". How
ridiculous. I emailed a corporate communications exec, John Paulsen
(see below), at Seagate and made a comment offering to help them redo
this horrific name, noting amongst other things that there was no such
thing as "Flash", however there is a standard called CompactFlash (no
space), and that this was likely to confuse people. Although the
letter was nice and moderately helpful, he didn't take ownership of my
comment and said he had nothing to do with the name and didn't put me
in contact with anyone else, and tried to explain if not justify that
ridiculous name. They weren't allowed to use the trademarked
Microdrive name, but weren't smart enough to come up with their own
creative noun, so instead used a lot of modifiers before "hard drive".

- There are two sizes currently being made: 2.5GB and 5GB. They are
both called ST1, differentiated only by their size. The 5GB is
currently being used in the Rio Carbon, whereas the 2.5GB is
apparently being used in Seagate's Portable USB 2.0 Storage device.

- Seagate is satiating all all the OEM's who want a crack at it before
releasing it retail to the public. That means that those who are
really desperate for one are gonna have to crack open a Rio Carbon or
buy one which has already been ripped out off of Ebay, with all
caveats and risks.

- The capacity specifications are using the "GB" size as used with
regular hard drives and flash media: in other words, smaller than the
"Windows" definition of GB. So a 2.5GB card will really format as
something closer to 2.38GB by my estimations. This is good for those
disappointed at Hitachi's release of 2GB cards, which aren't really
2GB so there is a little space which could be available before the
card is maxed out. FAT (FAT16) formatting is limited to 2GB (Windows
definition). The 5-giggers will be able to be formatted in FAT16, but
most of the space will be wasted; however, they are somewhat easily
re-formattable.

My take on Seagate: Seagate makes not only the quietest hard drives in
the world, but also (in my opinion) the best (quieter=higher quality).
Just as noteworthy, Seagate continues to use American customer service
and tech support!!!! (If this ever changes, let me know.) Their
customer service did very right by me in a difficult situation once
when I got screwed-over by a disreputable Ebay seller who was selling
a Barracuda 7200rpm IDE drive without mentioning that it was an
Apple-spec drive, and not only that, that it was just out of warranty.
The two ladies I dealt with were very kind and went the extra mile for
me, slightly bending the rules as is sometimes necessary in customer
service. Since it was two people, it seems that good customer service
is a pattern and that my good experience apparently wasn't just luck.
Seagate surely lost money on that--in the short run, but won a
customer for life who other people go to for computer equipment,
advice, & repair. I believe good things resonate back to those who put
it out. When you can have the best products combined with the best
service, that is something, and though times are slim in the cutthroat
hard drive business, Seagate appears to have a big winner with the
ST1, tapping into what they were head-shakingly surprised as being an
overwhelming demand.

The ST1 will hopefully make the MicroDrive a thing of the past, as
IBM/Hitachi (and then Sony rebranding) kept the prices on the retail
versions ridiculously high, while not improving the robustness or
quality of their product in a major way for a long time now.
MicroDrives have a reputation of breaking after falling, sometimes
even onto carpet. I don't know about you, but I have dropped CF cards
multiple times, which is why I resisted the Microdrive. (I think I
should also mention that the Microdrive will apparently self-destruct
or at least not work if used above a 5,000 ft elevation.) Hitachi
implicitly admitted their unreasonable Microdrive cost when they
slashed prices around the time the ST1 was supposed to be introduced,
and introduced big rebates on top of that. Hitachi obviously sees the
writing on the wall. The problem is that the moment I read about the
ST1 in the summer of '04, I fully decided against the Microdrive to
wait, but I am still waiting.



Here are some links which searchers may find helpful:

A good computer-oriented review of the ST1 below, comparing it against
its Hitachi and MagicStor competitors--pretty cool. The reviewer did
not test acoustics or put ratings in card speeds (i.e. 40x), but
perhaps we could suggest it on his promised upcoming secondary review.
From this review, this drive tentatively seems like a real winner.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/sto...e-st1-5gb.html

Here is a search of dpreview forums for 'Seagate ST1' (some threads
include camera compatibility experiences with those who have ripped
out the OEM version from the Rio Carbon):
http://search.dpreview.com/forums/se...all&fields=all

Here is a forum thread which includes, amongst many other things,
hard-to-come-by info about ST1 battery drain and buffer experience:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/foru...=asc&sta rt=0

Steves-digicams experience on ripping out the ST1 from the Rio Carbon,
and John Paulsen's official Seagate stance/disclaimer on this
practice:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/microdrive.html#carbon

Steves-digicams forum thread on the same thing:
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...jump_to=182118

Super-long thread on 5GB Rio Carbon ST1 removal/compatibility
experiences (post below might be of more help than a link at the
beginning of the thread):
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=10291574



And, despite the third link above, this is a reply from Seagate
Pre-Sales (via web form, the only way I saw to get in touch with
them):

You ask " When will the long-promised ST1 be available in CF
(CompactFlash) format? "

We wish we could answer this question. The dates keep being pushed
out as manufacturers are contracting for our full capacity. We can't
make these ST-1 variants fast enough.

It looks like March - April at the earliest.

Thank you for your inquiry. We appreciate your consideration of
Seagate products for your storage solutions.

[name removed; impressive that included a name in the email--a rare
thing nowadays from email support]
Disc Presales


[Note: The way Seagate explained (or didn't explain) availability to
me means that they will continue to sell to OEM's at full capacity,
and will not begin to sell retail models until OEM demand falls below
their full output capacity. This could be awhile, especially
considered the first availability date of October '04, which was true,
only for Rio for the Carbon. Seagate pre-sales, by the way is reached
for further questions via the below url:
http://www.seagate.com/contact/sales/human/index.html ]




-----------------------------------------------



This is my 2nd Reply from John Paulsen (1st was an "I'll get back to
you", where he never got back to me):

[snip greeting]
Forgive me for failing to get back to you -- I came up empty on any
additional specs. Retail availability is murky but I would guess
you'll have to wait til at least February. So sorry about that. [Note:
see above letter from Seagate pre-sales further purshing back the
date.]

While I have nothing to do with product naming and can't do much to
influence it myself, I appreciate your input on the naming. It's
always a difficult issue. Seagate has a naming standard now in place
that dictates we use descriptive names, which often make the names
long. A goal of this standard is to focus on the name Seagate, and
simply describe the product. I think the decision to include "Photo"
in the descriptive name results from the camera market being
essentially the entire market for this product. While we may invite
some other uses of the product, I guess the reality is that non-camera
applications are a miniscule percent of the target. So "Photo" is
designed to make it very clear to camera consumers that's what this
product is for.

[Note: If Mr. Paulsen's comment here is true, then Seagate marketing
(not Seagate design/mfr'ing/support, mind you) is truly clueless
about their products and the way they will be likely to be used, so no
wonder the crappy name, it being developed by people who don't even
know their customers. How about portable media players? The ST1's
make music-only players obsolete! The ST1 can revolutionize Pocket
PC's, allowing them them to be nearly as powerful as a laptop, and in
many ways more versatile! The ST1 will allow Microsoft to produce a
much-expanded PPC Windows, and now we see on the horizon, PPC's being
able to load full versions of Windows. Portable storage was the big
obstacle holding everything back! WTF "Photo" Hard Drive! The ST1 also
is the link which will finally make solid-state camdorders a truly
superior competitor to tape! Putting "Photo" in the official name is
idiotic if they think the product will be around for more than a
year!]

Including "Hard Drive" is a tough call also, but again part of our
naming standard dictates that all our retail products use that phrase.
One can of course debate whether the standard will be effective in
meeting its goals.

You're right about the phrase "Compact Flash" and I believe the actual
product materials and packaging will say CompactFlash.

Some of your questions below I just don't have answers for -- probably
you should connect with Seagate pre-sales support.
http://www.seagate.com/contact/sales/human/index.html


Next quarter


It will just list the capacity -- the name will be the same.


I don't know what tests have been done. These specifications wouldn't
be final until the product is released.


I don't know. There is a 2MB buffer on the ST1 Series hard drive upon
which this product is based, but I don't know if the CF drive will be
different. These specifications may not be final until the product is
released.


is released.


Noise is always considered. It is also always balanced against other
performance parameters that may affect it, such as read/write speed.