Hitachi makes a device called a "microdrive" -- a tiny hard drive that works like a compact flash memory card.

This handy gadget, originally developed by IBM, didn't take off right away because the price was too high for the target market (e.g. digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.). In fact, it's still too high -- if you try to buy a 4 GB Hitachi microdrive today, you can expect to pay about $500.

Or you could get one free inside a $250 iPod mini...

Once people figured out that Apple was using the Hitachi microdrive inside the iPod mini, some began to consider buying a mini just for the drive. (Why not, after all? For the same $500, you could get one iPod mini to use and one to rip apart!)

Interestingly, it appears that Apple may have anticipated this. According to Digital Photo Review, the scavengers have been frustrated so far, because the iPod mini microdrive does not work as a regular microdrive, even if you wipe it clean of data. Apparently, Apple has done something to "lock" the mini drive to the iPod. (Although you can rip your iPod mini apart, you can't get a working microdrive out of it.)

The next victim was Creative Labs. Bargain hunters discovered that the Creative NOMAD Muvo² music player uses the same 4GB Hitachi microdrive but does not have any hardware protection.

I assume it doesn't cost $500 for Hitachi to make a 4 GB microdrive, but I wonder who is subsidizing the price to make the drive affordable for these devices. Whoever it is, they won't be happy to find out that photographers are pulling MuVos apart to get to 'em.

Update: Readers report that Creative may have taken steps to "lock" the drive in the latest batch of Muvo² players as well.