Portable HardDrive question.

[Eisner]

Would there be any problems connecting a USB power portable harddrive like the Iomega eGo to the Pandora ?
Would there need to be Linux drivers out there in order to support the Pandora recognizing an external hard drive ?

These drives are so small and thin that having one along with my Pandora is a possible option for large storage when traveling.

Sorry if this has been asked but I could not find such a topic.

D)

 

[mindlord]

In short, Yes.

But! Spinning a hard drive is a power sapping task and will likely drain your battery pretty quick. So, it's not something you'd want to leave connected for long periods of time.

There exists rechargeable battery packs that work perfectly for powering a portable hard drive like the eGo. Alternatively you can get a self-powered enclosure and not have to worry about draining the Pandora.

As a third option you can only connect the harddrive long enough to grab a few things off of it and the put it away. This is the method I will most likely use. I also plan on taking advantage of the Wifi to grab files off my home server when I'm in a hotspot.

Additionally, yes, this question has been asked before, multiple times on the other forum.

 

[cobaltage]

I just posted some of this in another thread, but in answer to your question, every portable HD I've seen requires 2 USB ports (or 1 Firewire port) if it is a 2.5" HD. 1.8" HDD seem to do fine from 1 USB port. However, 1.8" HDD are not very cost effective compared to 2.5" HDD and have limited capacity; while compared to flash memory, 1.8" HDD draw more power, in part because they have to spin, but also because the rotation speed is so slow that large file transfers take a very long time. The 1.8" HD market is very limited, and there aren't numerous external enclosures etc. for users to build something easily.

I personally think HDD are too power hungry to use in portable devices unless those devices have very limited functions (like mp3 players) and/or have large capacity batteries. If you wanted to maintain a library of media files and carry it with you, maybe you could get a DAP or PMP which allows you to access it as a mass storage device. The problem with that idea is hard-drive based PMPs are kind of hard to find now that they've all gone with flash memory. But something like the old Cowon XL5 60GB or A2 would work for something like that. Because they have their own internal battery, a PMP would run just fine as external storage for a while, although it would of course drain full USB power from the Pandora in order to charge its own battery.

1.8" HDD run at 30GB, 60GB, and probably up to 100 or 120GB by now. If you go with a 2.5" HD because of the price point or the capacity, you can get a split power cable and usually power it from two USB ports, or one USB port and one USB power device (like a wall plug, a USB battery, etc.). Check the Addonics site for the split USB cable.

edit: this 240GB HD appears to be the new upper limit of 1.8" drives, and it's not even out yet.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/toshib ... ,6348.html

This 120GB external 1.8" HD gets good reviews; there's a 160GB model that is out of stock but listed at $250.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822161006

 

[Eisner]

Thanks for the info. Sorry I missed the thread on the other forum. I am really liking the Aegis Mini except for the price range but for size and portability, this might work for me.

D)

 

[km2783]

I've got a 2.5" portable drive that will operate off one usb port just fine as long as the port supplies the entire 500mA. Ironically, it worked off one usb port on my laptop but not my desktop lol. but yeah, I'd imagine it would put a good drain on the pandora's battery if it was run often

It's... a... honestly I forget the brand but they're out there, and it's really, really slim. it's just housed in a basic aluminum case just big enough to stuff the drive in.

 

[jati]

most of the better brands of USB 2.5 in HDD enclosures should be able to work with just one USB port (provided the USB port able to supply the full 500mA power). Pandora should work fine with just one cable powering a HDD enclosure, but no more than that I guess.

 

[gruso]

If I wanted a HDD for Pandora I'd go for one of these: http://www.jaldigital.com.au/catalog/di ... p-480.html

Self powered, all manner of card slots, very cool. But, I'll probably just spend the money on a 32GB SDHC. The SD card costs more per GB, but weighs a fair bit less.

 

[PSyMastR]

I've got a Western Digital 120gb 2.5 inch and it uses only 1 usb port and works fine.

 

[eksasol]

I think the larger sized 2.5" hdd might required more power than just one usb, base on my personal experience and reviews I read, or maybe I'm just wrong. I have a WD 320gb 2.5" Sata hdd and it needed two usb ports to be powered. Sometimes I have to use the 5v adaptor/battery pack. Safe to say these bigger sized one drains will drain battery.

Gotta wait until those 1.8" hdd gets cheaper to be practical for me.

 

[htl2001]

I have a portable HD that has no option of adding a second USB connection (IOGEAR, 80GB)

Then again, I've noticed my laptop can supply it with enough power to run even when I connect it through the passthrough thing that comes with my cooling pad, which states that it uses .45A (450mA) so I bet my laptop can supply more than 500mA per port...

Also, I think speed matters much more than size in this case. I saw drives when I bought this portable that came with an additional port to connect more power (not the cable though, had to buy that separate) and they were the same size but had faster read/write speeds

 

[mindlord]

The reason some drives come with cords that have dual USB ends on them is so you can (In the above case involving a desktop) where one port couldn't supply enough power you can use two to get the extra oomph you need. Additionally, USB 1.1 doesn't quite supply enough juice, so using 2 ports gives you enough. It really doesn't have anything to do with the speed of the drive.

 

[htl2001]

I realize the 2nd port is just for power, not some sort of parallel USB transfer :wacko:

to conserve power... drive speed can be reduced, among other things to reduce power

 

[Wonslung]

instead of a hard drive or anything like that why not just use a networked samba drive? i build a file server based on ubuntu server for my network and i run webmin on it for all admin stuff and have torrentflux on it....it's great because my brother and i do a lot of torrent downloads but now we don't need to have 2-3 computers running at all times to do them...also we can access our torrent client from anywhere in the world via the internet. i watch movies via wireless g all the time from the samba share so it should be fast enough for most things you'd want to do. i already have a massive amount of roms and such on the server and play them over the network...i'm betting it will work with the pandora as well..i bet we could even set it up to automount such a share if it has an fstab file like most other versions of linux.

a lot of it depends on the speed of the wireless but 54 Mbits/sec should be enough for most everything i can think of.

 

[Yamara]

instead of a hard drive or anything like that why not just use a networked samba drive?

That wouldn't work well on a plane, for instance, or on a bus/train without wi-fi or cell connection, or while visiting cities without open wireless/network access.

I hope to use my existing portable hard drive in some of those situations, if I need that much additional storage (for instance if I can't afford a shiny new SDHC card). I have a Western Digital Passport drive, which is driven off a single USB connection. I'll report whether it works on the wiki whenever Pandora comes knocking on my door.

 

[bakawhite]

I've a WD passport too, except mine isn't working on any of my computers now and the Windows that it did work on gave me the blue screen. I'm screwed until I get my Pandora, basically!