PD7X problems...

Hi,

I just received my PD7X today and plopped in my 40gigger hd, a former Mac laptop hd. The hd worked fine in my Mac laptop but I'm having trouble getting it to work in the PD7X. I know the Mac hd formatting doesn't work, but I thought the unit itself could do the FAT 32 formatting... but apparently not.

I tried formatting the hd with my PC from within the PD7X unit by using disk management (W2K pro). Every time I try to format the drive in FAT 32, I get this error message: "The volume is too big". I have a USB 2.0 PCI card in my PC and built-in USB-1.1 ports on my computer. I tried the formatting using both ports but no go either way.

I managed to format the hd in the other format available under Disk Management ("NTFS" format) but not in FAT 32 as required by the PD7X unit.

Anyone have any clue how I can format my laptop hd in FAT 32 format?

(I can format it without any problem if I connect the PD7X unit to my Mac's USB connector but I don't think Mac OS X can format a disk in FAT 32... or can it?)

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

Marc P.

Tipit008 wrote:
You need the special format utility from the manufacturer. You can find it here.

http://www.3hdigital.com/CDFormater.zip

Under WIN XP you cannot format any drive larger than 32GB as anything other than NTFS. The PD7X does not know what a NFTS partition is.

If the format utility does not work you will need to remove the drive from your PD7X and connect it directly to your PC IDE controller via a 44 to 40 pin adaptor. Then, use a WIN 98 SE boot disk with fdisk on it to remove the existing partition. Then you might be able to get it formatted with the utility listed above.

Good luck.

Tipit008 said:

Hi,

I just received my PD7X today and plopped in my 40gigger hd, a
former Mac laptop hd. The hd worked fine in my Mac laptop but I'm
having trouble getting it to work in the PD7X. I know the Mac hd
formatting doesn't work, but I thought the unit itself could do the
FAT 32 formatting... but apparently not.

I tried formatting the hd with my PC from within the PD7X unit by
using disk management (W2K pro). Every time I try to format the
drive in FAT 32, I get this error message: "The volume is too big".
I have a USB 2.0 PCI card in my PC and built-in USB-1.1 ports on my
computer. I tried the formatting using both ports but no go either
way.

I managed to format the hd in the other format available under Disk
Management ("NTFS" format) but not in FAT 32 as required by the
PD7X unit.

Anyone have any clue how I can format my laptop hd in FAT 32 format?
(I can format it without any problem if I connect the PD7X unit to
my Mac's USB connector but I don't think Mac OS X can format a disk
in FAT 32... or can it?)

Any help/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

Marc P.

Click to expand...

--
CDL

See Profile for gear stuff
Pbase Supporter

Thanks for the tip. I've downloaded the apps and everything is fine.

Just one thing, though. I charged the batteries in the unit all night (I don't have an external charger) and I was just able to download one 2gig card this morning. When I tried to download it a second time, it did the auto shutdown about midway. Is this normal?

Marc P.

Dennis Lathem said:

Tipit008 wrote:

You need the special format utility from the manufacturer. You can
find it here.

http://www.3hdigital.com/CDFormater.zip

Click to expand...

Tipit008 said:

Thanks for the tip. I've downloaded the apps and everything is fine.

Just one thing, though. I charged the batteries in the unit all
night (I don't have an external charger) and I was just able to
download one 2gig card this morning. When I tried to download it a
second time, it did the auto shutdown about midway. Is this normal?

Marc P.

Click to expand...

My PD7X (which I no longer have!) had a variety of showstopping problems, one of which was that it would not charge the batteries.

Apparently, when the batteries are fully charged the energy in the carging circuit is diverted to the case as heat (I cannot offer corroboration as mine never got that far!)). Did the case get at all warm when you charged the batteries? If not then maybe the charging circuit is dead?

--
Cheers,

Dave

'Third one from the left — Konica Minolta 7D Adoption Society'

What do you have now?

Tremint said:

What do you have now?

Click to expand...

Nothing!

I'm disillusioned with this whole class of devices (yes, the PD7X truly was that bad!) so I don't know whether I'll get another one or just buy a few more CF cards.

For the price of a P2000 I can get 7gb of flash cards... and they're a lot more durable and reliable.

For the price of the PD7X I can get 4GB - but I'm not sure how much storage I'll need for a 2 week summer holiday - which is likely to be the biggest memory demand I'll face. I want to shoot RAW+JPG, in which case I need more capacity. If I go for just JPG then another 4gb will do me just fine.

I'm contemplating 4gb of CF cards and a cheap laptop at the moment, as the laptop would have other uses at home.

--
Cheers,

Dave

'Third one from the left — Konica Minolta 7D Adoption Society'

Dave Farmer said:

Tremint said:

What do you have now?

Click to expand...

Nothing!

I'm disillusioned with this whole class of devices (yes, the PD7X
truly was that bad!) so I don't know whether I'll get another one
or just buy a few more CF cards.

For the price of a P2000 I can get 7gb of flash cards... and
they're a lot more durable and reliable.
For the price of the PD7X I can get 4GB - but I'm not sure how much
storage I'll need for a 2 week summer holiday - which is likely to
be the biggest memory demand I'll face. I want to shoot RAW+JPG, in
which case I need more capacity. If I go for just JPG then another
4gb will do me just fine.

I'm contemplating 4gb of CF cards and a cheap laptop at the moment,
as the laptop would have other uses at home.

Click to expand...

For holidays I found the laptop solution was the best. That way you get to see a 13" review screen and can do a little editing at night to see if the camera needs further "tuning" as you go.

In my case I found a used Toshiba Portege 7020CT which is P2 366 MHz and two piece in that the slim and light portable bit splits from the base with the CD etc in it. It slips into a custom made thin plywood case with a custom made cotton carry bag so is quite small to carry.

I changed the drive to 30 gigs and upped the memory to its max of 192meg, then loaded WinXP and all the usual photo programs I use. The disk is NTFS formatted for better reliability. PCMCIA cards are there for CF and SD cards plus an adapter to do xD via the CF card slot. Very neat. Lately I bought a 60gig drive and put Win2000 on it for speedier performance, so some time soon it will be changed over to Win2000.

In fact this is my current online computer that I'm using right now. Sure it's slow, but so far it has been entirely reliable (touch wood!) and is all I need in the field to download the day's cards in the evening at the motel or in the tent. I back the files up to a Vosonics VP2060 "blind" storage thing, that also can be used during the day to unload a card if I don't feel like getting the laptop out. On a normal car trip I take a small inverter so I don't have to worry about battery life.

If I wanted to travel even lighter I would probably buy the Vosonics VP6210 that does have a little review screen for reassurance.

Regards............... Guy

Tipit008 said:

Thanks for the tip. I've downloaded the apps and everything is fine.

Just one thing, though. I charged the batteries in the unit all
night (I don't have an external charger) and I was just able to
download one 2gig card this morning. When I tried to download it a
second time, it did the auto shutdown about midway. Is this normal?

Click to expand...

I never found the PD7X built in charger to be very good. The batteries that came with my unit were of substandard quality and did not hold a charge.

Buy you a good set of 2500 mAH batteries and a good charger. I like the Rip Van 4000 charger. It is small and fast and cheep. I like MAHA nickle metal hi batteries from Thomas Distributing.

You should get much more than 2GB worth of dumpage from one charge even if they are 1200 mAH batteries.

Tipit008 said:

Marc P.

Dennis Lathem said:

Tipit008 wrote:

You need the special format utility from the manufacturer. You can
find it here.

http://www.3hdigital.com/CDFormater.zip

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
CDL

See Profile for gear stuff
Pbase Supporter

7.2 volts you can get as high as 3300Mah probably good for 40GB microdrive transfers or many more if using CF. I have 2250Mah external good for 28GB of 4GB MD transfers.

Tipit008 said:

Just one thing, though. I charged the batteries in the unit all
night (I don't have an external charger) and I was just able to
download one 2gig card this morning. When I tried to download it a
second time, it did the auto shutdown about midway. Is this normal?

Marc P.

Dennis Lathem said:

Tipit008 wrote:

You need the special format utility from the manufacturer. You can
find it here.

http://www.3hdigital.com/CDFormater.zip

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Eugene

Canon is the best when it is working. Sigma is the same way now.

Got the PD7X yesterday and I dont believe it, it stopped in just 2MB of transfer from a 1GB SanDisk Ultra II CF card. I did leave the batteries in it overnight.
This is bad real bad.
I was planning to give a more detailed review of it but this has put me off

My HDD is Toshiba slimline MK4018GAP

Somewhere I read can at least transfer 12GB. Any comments

I thought the same - how much do you really need to store in a 2 week vacation.
UNTIL - I spent a total of 21 days in Greece with my Canon 1D.

I needed storage space in the range of 30GB. I had a laptop, Nixvue, IPOD, external HD. I didn't have enough space to make backups of my files.

I now carry a PD7x and a laptop with much larger drives.

Good luck

All solutions have their cons - My solution is power hungry and not very comfortable to carry around.

Dave Farmer said:

Tremint said:

What do you have now?

Click to expand...

Nothing!

I'm disillusioned with this whole class of devices (yes, the PD7X
truly was that bad!) so I don't know whether I'll get another one
or just buy a few more CF cards.

For the price of a P2000 I can get 7gb of flash cards... and
they're a lot more durable and reliable.
For the price of the PD7X I can get 4GB - but I'm not sure how much
storage I'll need for a 2 week summer holiday - which is likely to
be the biggest memory demand I'll face. I want to shoot RAW+JPG, in
which case I need more capacity. If I go for just JPG then another
4gb will do me just fine.

I'm contemplating 4gb of CF cards and a cheap laptop at the moment,
as the laptop would have other uses at home.

--
Cheers,

Dave

'Third one from the left — Konica Minolta 7D Adoption Society'

Click to expand...

How did you power your PD7X. i was able to transfer only 2GB of data from my fully charged 2300mAh NiCd battery.(4).
What is your advice?

Imagine that you don't have battery charger build in so you need external charger like MAHA 204F or something. Imagine that PD7x only works from external batteries.
Just let your imagination run wild.

You know there are always be compromises with cheap units like PD7x so you need to live with them. I just build my own external battery pack and that is it.

Tremint said:

Got the PD7X yesterday and I dont believe it, it stopped in just
2MB of transfer from a 1GB SanDisk Ultra II CF card. I did leave
the batteries in it overnight.
This is bad real bad.
I was planning to give a more detailed review of it but this has
put me off

My HDD is Toshiba slimline MK4018GAP

Somewhere I read can at least transfer 12GB. Any comments

Click to expand...

--
Eugene

Canon is the best when it is working. Sigma is the same way now.

I just saw this thread
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1023&message=12459847

Including the money spend on the HDD, I find it an expensive venture. Adding another battery pack will add another $30.

You have a problem of some sort.

My PD7x works fine using 2500ma batteries. I get about 8GB on a charge

Tremint said:

Got the PD7X yesterday and I dont believe it, it stopped in just
2MB of transfer from a 1GB SanDisk Ultra II CF card. I did leave
the batteries in it overnight.
This is bad real bad.
I was planning to give a more detailed review of it but this has
put me off

My HDD is Toshiba slimline MK4018GAP

Somewhere I read can at least transfer 12GB. Any comments

Click to expand...

--
Dave

Have you installed the new firmware. Thats the only difference. I have installed it. I have set it for strict voltage above 4.7

I also have a Tripper with internal Li-on battery and I could only transfer 3.5GB on one charge which is not enough to transfer complete 4GB MD.

So I had to build external pack for it too. The unit in the link does not have LCD and you don't know the transfer rate. The transfer rate with PD7x is the best so far.

Tremint said:

I just saw this thread
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1023&message=12459847

Click to expand...

--
Eugene

Canon is the best when it is working. Sigma is the same way now.

It cost me less than $10 including the charger. I already have all of the tools needed to build it.

Tremint said:

Including the money spend on the HDD, I find it an expensive
venture. Adding another battery pack will add another $30.

Click to expand...

--
Eugene

Canon is the best when it is working. Sigma is the same way now.

If you use CF cards set it on save batteries.

Tremint said:

Have you installed the new firmware. Thats the only difference. I
have installed it. I have set it for strict voltage above 4.7

Click to expand...

--
Eugene

Canon is the best when it is working. Sigma is the same way now.