Why is it so easy for someone to speak in absolutes as if they have factual data to back in up? More and more like dpreview every day.
a) For what its worth - I still shoot with a IBM 320 microdrive in a Kodak 760c and it has never failed. Probably older than most are to the concept of digital photography.
b) The imagebank is a rugged device IMO that is as dependable as modern portable drives. Use an auto parking 3.5" drive with high MTBF if it makes you feel better.
c) Formatting a larger/new capacity drive to the back is not difficult once you see the instructions...
d) Send me all useless DBs due to failed drives please.
I think I had one customer who experienced failure with the ImageBank the years that I sold the iExpress products. Any hard drive is likely bound to fail at some point, but
"soon" was an odd way to put it.
And my understanding was that the ImageBank was pre-sectored, meaning each capture had a space set aside for it, rather than files or bits of files being dispersed all over the drive. And as a result, one could shoot continuously and the drives were perhaps more reliable (or the integrity of the data more secure at least) as a result.
Still, I typically recommended having a second on hand because if the ImageBank did fail, you were SOL at that moment.
More encounters occurred with the interface port becoming loose for the ImageBank than drive failures, in my experience. Having a backup resolved that situation as well, although back then spending $1,950 on a solution that one might never need wasn't always palatable for my customers. But that was their choice.
At any rate, I'm sure they're significantly more affordable today, in fact some of my customers may still have some extra Imagebanks hanging around they no longer need, since they've upgraded.
Steve Hendrix