Portable HDD ...?

Bard · 07-01-2003 2:50pm #1

Curious ... Does such a thing exist as a portable hard drive - say 5 or 10 Gb, that I can connect to a PC via a USB or USB2 connection? ... and if it does exist, what can I get one for?

hussey · 07-01-2003 2:57pm

seen them around somewhere, can remeber anything bout them sorry

.. but remember seeing them in blanch shopping centre .. so prob pc world out there

oh under harddrive->usb on komplett.ie
(they dont have any listings .. as this group wasn't there a while ago) but this could mean they will be getting them in??

Typedef · 07-01-2003 3:01pm

Don't buy maxtor.

Get segate or quantum, fujutisu or IBM, but not Maxtor.
Bloody things break like no-body's business.

Bard · 07-01-2003 3:02pm

BTW... good transfer speeds are most definitely an issue. I would want to be able to, for example, play an mp3 file from the usb drive with minimal delay between double-clicking or hitting enter and the sound starting...

leeroybrown · 07-01-2003 3:03pm

You could also look towards some of the HDD based mp3 players. To the best of my knowledge some of them facilitate usage as a storage device via USB(2).

That said an application specific external HDD would probably be better (and more reliable) for the job.

spongebob · 07-01-2003 3:06pm

Originally posted by Bard
BTW... good transfer speeds are most definitely an issue. I would want to be able to, for example, play an mp3 file from the usb drive with minimal delay between double-clicking or hitting enter and the sound starting...

'Good transfer speeds' and 'USB' are an oxmoronic concept.

USB2 and Firewire capability are what you need I suspect. ISTR that USB 2 is 240 Times faster than USB....Firewire is similarly fast.

sceptre · 07-01-2003 3:11pm

Just out of laziness I've taken two listings from Peats without checking anywhere else:

Iomega 20GB USB2 drive

Selection of external Maxtor deives
(just as an example - I might well agree with Typedef's comments re Maxtors, my second drive is dying as I type)

(as far as I remember Komplett don't have any USB drives, only Firewire and they're pretty expensive)

strat · 07-01-2003 3:13pm

www.archos.com

had a jukebox recorder 20 which was a classy mp3 player and usb2 portable hard drive, didnt even need drivers under 2k/xp just plug it in and bam, instant 20 gig hd when i was transfering files it was as fast as a ide hard drive imo

recently upgraded to the multimedia 20 - same story cept this can play divx's

Typedef · 07-01-2003 3:14pm

(just as an example - I might well agree with Typedef's comments re Maxtors, my second drive is dying as I type)

There you go, I think that entire range of internal Maxtor hard disks are pants.

I've had occasion to work with three new (out of the box) versions from maxtor. Two of which have died and one of which looks like it might be next.

Thats 0 for 3.

strat · 07-01-2003 3:15pm

Originally posted by Muck
'Good transfer speeds' and 'USB' are an oxmoronic concept.

USB2 and Firewire capability are what you need I suspect. ISTR that USB 2 is 240 Times faster than USB....Firewire is similarly fast.

usb1.1 = 12 mbit a sec
usb2.0 = 480 mbit a sec
firewire = 400 mbit a sec

hussey · 07-01-2003 3:18pm

hey strat

what is the archos mp3 like??

just how big is it??
I've been thinking about getting one for a while now

*****

and maxtor .. if I only had a stick and a maxtor rep!!

I have a HD here, was having bad clustors problem
looked up info bout warrenty,
it said need to get code from some prog called

powermax, downloaded it .. tried to install it didn't work

tried install on another comp worked fine

ran the prog (created a bootable disk with diagnostic prog on it)

said 'no errors etc', it had a option for deleting all data
ran that .. told me bad sectors!!

Bard · 07-01-2003 3:33pm

Originally posted by sceptre
Just out of laziness I've taken two listings from Peats without checking anywhere else:

Iomega 20GB USB2 drive

Looks like a decent piece of kit... and Amazon have it for €16 less [£149.99stg = €231.00] (and they'll deliver to my door

)

It needs an external power cable though, which is a bit of a pity...

Can anyone recommend this (or another) unit?

Oh, and does anyone know if I would have to upgrade the hardware in my laptop (Toshiba Satellite 1110 with WinXP Pro SP1) to handle USB2?

spongebob · 07-01-2003 4:28pm

Try This track , the posts seem to indicate an improvement albeit not on the scale of a 'real' USB 2 port on your laptop....which is probably unobtainable.

M

Bard · 07-01-2003 4:39pm

Yep... according to Toshiba's support people in the UK ("A.D.P."), I'll have to get a PCMCIA-slot USB2 add on card for the laptop to be able to make proper use of a USB2 device - the laptop itself can't be upgraded to use USB2. According to Tosh themselves, all their laptops are USB1.1 compliant.

That link is very helpful, Muck, thanks... I'll look into getting a BusLink USB 2.0 card.

Rolo Tomasi · 07-01-2003 4:41pm

Hi Bard,

If you have a credit card then take a look at ebay.com. Here you can buy a 40 GB 2.5" external harddrive for around €220 including delivery. Looks like like a nice piece kit and its double the size of the iomega. I'll post a link in a minute.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3757&item=2086512084

strat · 07-01-2003 4:41pm

Originally posted by hussey
hey strat

what is the archos mp3 like??

just how big is it??
I've been thinking about getting one for a while now

Its a fantastic device, great quality sound, good battery life, but still a bit expensive i suppose. as regards size, its hard ri desrribe

- its pocket size if you have decent size pockets

hussey · 07-01-2003 4:46pm

here
was looking at that mp3 thing strat was talkin bout and found this

150e 10Gb 1.1 usb

Bard · 07-01-2003 5:27pm

Originally posted by Rolo Tomasi
Hi Bard,

If you have a credit card then take a look at ebay.com. Here you can buy a 40 GB 2.5" external harddrive for around €220 including delivery. Looks like like a nice piece kit and its double the size of the iomega. I'll post a link in a minute.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3757&item=2086512084

Thanks Rolo... I whipped out the ould Visa and ordered it from them (InsideComputer)

yellum · 07-01-2003 5:50pm

I have the USB 1.1 version of the Iomega hd and its painfully slow. Go for USB 2.0 or Firewire

Rolo Tomasi · 07-01-2003 5:57pm

Cool, If you can left us know how you get on with it.

Bard · 15-01-2003 2:52pm

Originally posted by Rolo Tomasi
Cool, If you can left us know how you get on with it.

FedEx delivered fairly quick. Ordered Friday from the California based company and it was here on Sunday. I wasn't at home when they came to deliver on Monday or yesterday so instead of waiting another day and getting them to deliver it to work, I picked it up on my way home yesterday in FedEx's Santry depot.

I have to say it's an impressive piece of kit. Decent capacity (40Gb) and fairly fast too (6Megs a second transfer over USB2.0 apparently). A similar drive with half the capacity (20Gb) was going for about £160stg on Amazon UK whereas this cost me only US$199 from InsideComputer. Plug and play can be a little fiddly at times but once the drive has been recognised (doesn't take terribly long usually) it seems to work absolutely perfectly.

There isn't enough power in the USB hub (the cardbus) to power the hard drive so I had to use an external power source - which - as regards clutter, etc., is unfortunate. As there's no PS1 port on my laptop, I couldn't use the cable that came with it, but a cheap adapter that I had (one of the multi plug-head/multi-volt setting ones you can get for about a tenner in Maplin) set to 6V that I have (or, it seems, a standard Nokia phone charger!) does the job nicely.

Setup was a doddle. It was simply a case of plug it in, Windows goes "oh look what you've plugged in!" ... and it just starts working. Nice. Plus I've a spare USB2 port now on the cardbus... not sure what I can use it for... but... eh... great

I'm happy with it. Nice to be able to fit 40Gb of information in my trouser pocket

(It's about the same size and weight as my Sony Clié... which is fairly small, really)

Nice one.

Many thanks for the reference, Rolo Tomassi !!!

hussey · 15-01-2003 3:23pm

can you tell me how much $199 turned out to be on your credit card

(ie how much with shipping, vat etc)

Bard · 15-01-2003 4:40pm

can you tell me how much $199 turned out to be on your credit card

(ie how much with shipping, vat etc)

I don't know exactly until I get my next credit card statement in just under 1 month's time, but going by the current exchange rates I would say it was somewhere between 189 and 199 euros... which is over 30 euros cheaper than the 20Gb model on sale on Amazon UK.

Shipping was $40.00.

VAT... was avoided.

Portable HDD ...?

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