What Do I Need To Connect An External Hdd?

[DAXP]

I was told I could do this before ordering the GP2X, so I didn't order any SD cards or anything. Apparently that guy was wrong..so, what do I need? I have 6 small HDDs, ranging from 15 to 80 GBs, that can be connected via USB to a PC or other things. Most of them are laptop HDDs, one being a Pocketec Datastor Mini. The plug in for the HDDs looks almost exactly like the one on the GP2X, but I cannot confirm this because I don't have mine yet. The cords do work with iRivers, PSPs, and Razr phones, though (. I have a few strange cords that may work, such as a cord that plugs into the USB 1.1 Host slot of an iRiver and into the slot on the HDDs/PSP/iRiver/Razr, and one that plugs into the iRiver that allows for USB connections (no idea if it can power HDDs). Here's a picture of it, courtesy of iRiver's site. Don't know if either of those could be used for anything. I'm willing to try to make a custom cord, if needed, or get the developer's BoB, as the connector for the HDDs is just a circuit board as well. Would that work fine?

And one other thing. If I can connect a USB HDD in some way, perferablly without having to plug it into a wall, would it need to use the EXT3/FAT/FAT32/etc.,.. filesystems, or can the GP2X use NTFS? I know normal Linux can at least read NTFS, but I'd need it to be able to write to it too..

EDIT: Forgot something, the HDDs can be USB powered or powered by external sources. I don't know what kind of cord I'd need to do that, but I can look around my house for one..I have tons of cords lying around..

EDIT 2: Decided to go ahead and look, and found two cords that work with the USB HDDs. Dunno if I need those cords, but oh well.

 

[Shikaku]

Can't help with anything else, but let me tell you: USING NTFS WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN WINDOWS IS DANGEROUS TO THE FILES!!!

 

[DAXP]

Alright, thanks. Guess I'll make whichever one I use FAT32 then, so Windows and the GP2X can use it.

That one is fine, right? >_>

 

[Loubear]

Whao whao, remember that you can't format partitions larger than 32 gb in fat32.

 

[DAXP]

Oh, really? Hm, that makes things more troublesome. What about EXT3? I think there are some drivers for that that lets Windows use them, somewhere.

 

[Paradox]

oh that sucks..there goes my hopes of a 200gb hard drive connected to my bob.

 

[Loubear]

Hm...the thing is, what's so dangerous about using ntfs with a gp2x?

 

[LordFu]

FAT32 refers to the file allocation table size, not the capacity limit of the drive. FAT32 does have limits, but it's fine for your average hard drive.

NTFS is dangerous because operating systems other than Windows tend to corrupt the data.

 

[DAXP]

No clue, I don't know too much about file systems.


That's what I had been told before.

 

[mrsnature]

oh that sucks..there goes my hopes of a 200gb hard drive connected to my bob.

nah, just partition it

 

[Loubear]

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/...

hm..?

 

[yaustar]

Whao whao, remember that you can't format partitions larger than 32 gb in fat32.

My 200gig FAT32 partition says otherwise. AFAIR, the 32 limit is when Windows trys to format, otherwise it reads and writes just fine.

 

[Emu&Co]

http://mitglied.lycos.de/reimerdaniel/jpg/usb/

THIS is what you need My GP2X and my USB HDD

 

[nubie]

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/...

hm..?

A fuse module: You can now mount your NTFS volume with FUSE. This means more features (YES, WRITE SUPPORT IS HERE) on the expense of speed and stability. I use it on my own (backuped) data, but it is still experimental so beware. Read more ...

Not very confidence inspiring.

On Topic: You need to connect a USB hub to the EXT port, see my sig, it involves soldering an adaptor and esuring that the signal is clean (use an oscilliscope to check on that, or just go ahead and build the filtering circuit on the wiki), or buying a BoB (break out box) wich includes USB.

I would really buy an SD were I you, Newegg.com has many, A-Data 4GB 150x are $85.99 for example, 50x and 66x 1GB cards are $19.99, $24.99 for the 150x 1GB cards.

Rarely will even eBay beat deals like that, I think an SD is necessary, even a 1GB will help you immensely.

Edit:

http://mitglied.lycos.de/reimerdaniel/jpg/usb/

THIS is what you need My GP2X and my USB HDD

What this guy said, you just need to connect and power the USB with the proper 5volts + and filter the data lines, if the hub already has a filtering circuit it may be allright without the circuit, and a powered hub will take care of the power too.

 

[LordFu]

Yeah, I'm waiting for a BoB, and not the developers version. I'm waiting for something enclosed.

 

[DAXP]

Alright, so if I were to get the BoB (I think the Dev. version would be fitting, considering most of the HDDs have no casing) and used the HDDs external power thing, it would work? If so, I guess I'll go ahead and order one. Which means I'll have to wait a bit longer to get it all working..but oh well. And I'll probably get an SD card soon. I have to go looking for a cord for my laptop soon, probably get one then.

 

[Shikaku]

Actually you can format with FAT32 up to 2 TB, but just not from Windows that support NTFS (which could actually be better, but it's proprietary).

 

[torpor]

Been there, Done that ..

(Answer to your Question: You need to make your own cable .. or get the BoB which has recently been announced..)

 

[aapje89]

http://www.linux-ntfs.org/...

hm..?

A fuse module: You can now mount your NTFS volume with FUSE. This means more features (YES, WRITE SUPPORT IS HERE) on the expense of speed and stability. I use it on my own (backuped) data, but it is still experimental so beware. Read more ...

Not very confidence inspiring.

When the comments say that something is refused then this means that directories in NTFS are balanced trees and there are a lot of cases to support however not all of them are implemented yet. Refusal to do an operation does not mean that the volume will be corrupted! Actually it means just the opposite: it’s a guarantee that your data is always safe (If you have any problems then please tell us and we’ll fix ntfsmount so it will not ever happen again.)

Here are some test results with CVS ntfsmount (February 6, 2006) and fuse 2.5.2.

On a random, average looking 40 GB NTFS image, on which 10411 MB was used, and had 109781 files and 4540 dirs. Recursively tring to delete everything, depth-search resulted in:
Before After Success Corruption
Space in use (MB) 10411 930 90% 0%
Directories 4540 2542 45% 0%
Ordinary files 109781 11500 90% 0%
Total files 114321 14042 78% 0%

The image was still consistent.

I use ntfsmount everyday, never had 1 single corruption.

 

[Troy the Great]

I currently have a archos420 mp3 player/portable hardrive(20gb). Is there anyway I can just connect it to my gp2x directly or just with some kind of cord(since it is self powered). I have not recieved my gp2x yet, so I do not know much about this matter. Any ideas?