Sony DCR-SR45 30 GB has a 40GB HDD??

[Staso]

Hi!

I'm going on a month long expedition next year to a cold place high in the mountains.

I have Sony DCR-SR45 camera which is a hybrid camera. I'm pretty sure the HDD will either freeze or will seize at that altitude and that cold, so I want to take it out of the picture.

I considered 3 options.

1. Removing the HDD, sticking Sony Memory Stick and select the latter and the media of choice. Apparently the camera will not work without HDD.

2. Removing the HDD and replacing it with ZIF SSD with the same form factor. This could be done and people have done it. It will cost me about 115 for 32GB.

3. Removing the HDD and replacing it with ZiF to CF adapter with CF card. This will cost about $75 and the card could be used anywhere else as well.

So I took the camera apart today to check the dimensions and such and discovered that the HDD that is there is Toshiba MK6014GAL, which is 40GB! In 30 GB camera! This is the same HDD that is used in HDR-SR10 that is advertised as 40GB camera!

So I'm curious why SR45 only sees 30GB? I reformatted the drive, but it didn't change a thing. Now I wonder if I stick 32GB card in it, will it see 32GB?

 

[FSMBP]

Chances are that the software of the camera has set the HDD as 30GB, so even if you put a 20GB harddrive in there, it will say it's 30GB. Of course, you can't be beyond the physical HDD size.

Also, I believe if the amount of memory the Memory Stick can hold on the camera is a hardware function of the camera. It should say in your manual what the max. size is (ex. Can read up to 16GB). But I may be wrong. Again, it also be in the software to max out the card at a specified point.