Cannot get Hitachi 4GB microdrive to work

Hi... I'm having some real problems with a microdrive. I bought a Hitachi 4 GB microdrive (CFII size) off of EBay to use in my NECMP900C. It was recognized on my XP machine in my USB card reader and I transferred some files to test out the drive in the handheld. But when I inserted it into the NEC, it didn't recognize the card, asked for a driver, but it should have been recognized immediately. I plugged it back into the USB card reader on my XP machine and it said it was FAT format. I decide to reformat it to FAT32.

However, when it is over 99% formatted, it suddenly stops and says "Windows cannot complete the formatting." I tried this several times, even from within the device manager. I even tried reformatting it to FAT (16k allocation size), and I got the same mistake. I talked to my technician at my university and he suggested I delete the partition since it's a microdrive in case there is a virus, was Linux formatted, etc., but it does not allow me to delete. I even tried formatting it using my Canon digital camera, but no luck either.

According to everything I see on the web, this card should be FAT32 formattable, but at the moment, I can't use it for anything, let alone my NEC.

Any help would be really appreciated.

when the nec asks for a driver that means a bad thing: card is no good... i have a 256mb cf here, that doesn't work reliably in some machines (psion s7), does in other machines (jornada 720) and the nec 900 asks for a driver... jornada wanted to format it right away. i said OK and it formatted it in 1 sec. impressive anyway, it worked OK then, in the j720. but i don't trust that card...

Thanks cmonex. I figured you would know more than just about anybody else. Ach... not good I guess for my situation. I'm going to see if the EBay seller is willing to refund me.

nah, nah it was just my experience, i'm certainly not the one who knows the most about these things. just had a lot of cards

but it is really the most likely that you need to get a refund

I think you have a MD that's locked in IDE mode. Best to ask for a refund.