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Home / Other I-Appliances / MSN Companion external usb hard drive case at compgeeks

external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) ranman Profile I bought one of these from compgeeks. Just put in a 2.5" HD and you have external storage that works well (but not perfectly) with the IA-1. The only problem it seems to have is that copying large files to it while connected to the IA-1 causes write errors and system hangs sometimes. However, connected to my winME computer, it writes the same files no problem, but quite slowly (limitation of USB and not HD). The IA-1 fully powers the unit so that no external adapter is needed. One is NOT included by the way. http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=VE-007NHD Since it is a geek special, the MC EXCLUSIVES code for 10% off won't work. ranman 11-14-2001 22:34:24

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email damndamndamn..... i just blew 59 bucks not including shipping for a the same type of thing.... and supposedly this one needs to be powered.... anyway... just got mine today... the screen had a nasty artifact on it.... called compaq directly and they are shipping out a new one... good thing too.. my friend called tigerdirect... no more ia-1's... ever... the flyingbuttmonkeys image booted near flawlessly..... after tripping the reset.... funny thing.. i opened it, saw that massive heatsink and full-length heat sheild and decided to be lazy..... i shorted the middle pin to the heat shield with a small piece up wire..... when it started smoking i stopped.. but it had reset.. is one supposed to trip with the unit on, or off? (in other words, is the backup battery all the juice needed to trip it?) i hoped to remove the heatsink, shield, put in a k6-2 450+, embed that usb drive in there, and then work on a custom jailbait linux with SYMBOL cf 802.11b wireless modules.... man... im pissed about paying double for a usb case.... -B 11-14-2001 23:23:35

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) bballctaulbee Profile thanks for the tip... i've purchased from them before, but it took several weeks to receive my order (a 16-hour LiIon battery and AA battery adapter for my IBM Z50 WorkPad [which runs NetBSD])... i purchased the external USB drive and will test it under Linux i also purchased their $3.95 2.5"->IDE adapter... i'm going to attempt some installs to get different OSs on the USB drive... (disk activity won't be an issue)... also, since i have an older box with a PCMCIA ISA adapter, i'm going to try an install of Linux on one of my microdrives... (part of the conundrum is installing the boot loader...) i'll post reports on the Linux on the IA-1 thread... 11-15-2001 08:35:18

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email got my usb drive... very small, very embeddable... and it does powerup fine from the usb cable.... you can see it here: http://www.basoncomputer.com/%5Cspecification%5CCASE2IUSB.htm they have 3.2 gig 2.5" usb drive for 79 bucks: http://www.basoncomputer.com/%5Cspecification%5CHD3GBUSB24.htm anyway... redhat 7.2 on my laptop recognized it as a scsi drive automatically... the usb mass-storage driver was used... question ranman, did your ipaq actually detect it as a bootable device, or are you just using it for storage? It looks to me like im gonna end up making the 16 meg flash /boot and the usb drive root... -S 11-15-2001 19:42:13

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) ranman Profile Wa_bacchus, No, unfortunately it did not detect the drive as a bootable device, and there is no option in the IA-1 to boot from a USB drive. However, there is the option (I haven't not personally seen it though) to boot from a USB drive on the emachines device. Sure would be nice if we could do that from the IA-1, but I think it would be unbelievably slow. Also, let us know if you have the same problems with copying large files to the usb drive, as I have had, and as they have had over on the i-opener. I am using it for storage mostly (for win98 cabs and other driver files). Also, I have office 97 on it (the usb hd), and you can run it directly from there without even installing it. ranman 11-15-2001 20:05:34

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email NEWS (redhat 7.2 boot images work great): I was easily able to dd a readhat pcmcia.img boot image onto a 16meg cf card and have it boot perfectly on the IA-1... It detected my usb harddrive and the internal hda.... I just finished putting the redhat 7.2 rpms on a partition of that usb drive... I'm gonna install /boot on the internal hda and the / on the usb drive.... Will let everyone know if this super-simple setup actually works... I'd really advise people to go with the USB drive either I or ranman pointed out.... it's damn easy... and cheap.... I plan to embed mine in the case once I get the install stable. -B 11-16-2001 16:09:41

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email Bacchus eats his words.. my redhat boot.img dd'd onto a 16meg flash doesnt work great... i get a kernel panic after selecting fdisk and getting a few screens about ingoring geometry on /hda and hdc... any ideas? i've tried it ALL... kernel params, text mode, no fb, mem=32, mem=30, hdc=490,2,32, bios=0x80 (is that right on lilo command line??) help.. 11-17-2001 02:29:00

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) bballctaulbee Profile perhaps i'm misreading your question, but it looks like you have installed, but cannot boot Linux? if so, is it possible that the kernel you're attempting to boot has no knowledge about USB devices? by default, USB support is loaded through modules... by rebuilding a kernel with USB support compiled in, the new kernel, when booted should recognize the device, and /etc/fstab, mounted after booting, should have the proper entries for the rest of your file system... (i assume that the swap device is going to be on the USB drive?) if you're having trouble installing Linux on the USB drive while it is attached to the IA-1, why not try installing Linux on the USB drive while attached to another computer, boot from that drive, then reconfigure LILO using proper entries for the IA-1? another approach might be the one i used to install DragonLinux on the 192MB CF... use a CF and create a DOS partition with enough room to boot to DOS, then copy LOADLIN and the RH kernel to the DOS partition... install Linux on USB drive... insert the CF into the IA-1, have it boot to DOS, then use a .bat file or use LOADLIN from the command line to boot Linux (LOADLIN allows various kernel arguments to be passed via the command line; again, the boot kernel should have USB support compiled in, and not dependant on module support (at least for external USB storage; other modules, such as for USB Ethernet devices, can be loaded after the kernel loads or after booting) i'm waiting for my external USB caddy, and have a 10GB 2.5" IBM travelstar waiting, so i'm right behind you! 11-17-2001 10:14:05

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email actually, I was trying to boot the boot.img install image on cf, while the usb drive was attached and had the redhat 7.1 iso on it. The boot.img found the usb drive, and offered /dev/sda as a place to look for the redhat iso (thats how their installs work, by loop mounting an iso image and grabbing the rpms) anyway, it mounts it, goes to second phase fine... then starts the partitioning process... i pick fdisk, it complains about hda and hdc having wierd geometry, (i've tried ignore and cancel) and as it starts to (i assume) start fdisk, it hangs, then gives me kernel panic.... unfortunately, i cant get to other consoles with the compaq keyboard... my plan was to install /boot on the internal flash, and / on the usb drive.... make sure initrd had all the scsi and usb drivers i needed... and poof.... a magical system... booting on start from the internal flash, mounting the usb drive... full, pretty system... -B R.H.C.E. 11-18-2001 04:23:20

RE:external usb hard drive case at compgeeks (modified 0 times) wa_bacchus Profile | Email updating myself here... strangely, it seems to be the usb drive causing the lockup.. i hooked up the cf card and usb drive to my laptop, and tried several installs off of the cdrom.... both had the same kernel panic.... disconnecting the usb drive stopped it.. this is REALLY strange, as i had the redhat iso ON the usb-drive and the cf card flashed with the boot.img.... it DID boot, see the usb drive, assign it to sda and started the second part install FROM the usb drive on the ia1..... im confused.... im really considering ripping the damn thing bare and seeing for myself if there are any ide contacts on the motherboard.... -B 11-18-2001 05:56:37

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