File transfer with WMStorage

[paul2003]

I installed WMStorage on my HTC Touch Cruise because it can turn the PDA into a flash drive. It runs well. However, from PC I have to use Windows Explorer to manage files stored in PDA. Sometimes I need to manage files using some commands, such as robocopy. But there is not valid path in Windows for the files stored on PDA. I tried to map the device to a drive letter. But for some reason, there is no such an option for the mobile device created by WMStorage. I am wondering whether anybody in this list has a better solution to this situation. Basically, I would like to be able to run robocopy (or any similar commands) to copy some files to the storage card of the PDA when it is connected to a PC. Thanks for any help.

[frquixote]

Paul,

Curious ... I use WM5torage V 1.8 all the time and Windows always mounts the storage card in my PDA with a drive letter. The only option I have checked in WM5torage is "Removable Class" and I point it to the appropriate storage card (sometimes CF, sometimes SDHC). Are you trying to mount a storage card or storage in the PDA itself? I don't think you can do the latter.

[paul2003]

Thanks for your reply. I did exactly the same thing in WM5torage. Here is what I see in Windows Explorer in Windows Vista Business after I click Computer in Start Menu and the pc is wirely connected to the PDA: There are several catgoeries: Hard Disk Drives, Devices with Removable Storage, Network Location, and Portable Devices. My PDA is listed under the last category as "paul's HTC_P3650". Double click the name gives two drives, one for PDA memory and one for the storage card. Clicking Storage Card allows me to access files in storage card. If I click the address bar to see what is the path for storage card, I get "Computer\paul's HTC_P3650\Storage Card". However, this path is not good for use in commands like robocopy. You can easily see that it won't work in cmd windows. I tried to map a drive letter to either "paul's HTC_P3650" or "Storage Card" and none of them works. Could you let me know what you see in your Windows Explorer? If you can have a letter assigned, it gives me a hope that I may be able to do it.

[frquixote]

I'll take a look when I get home, but I see one very big difference ... I am still running Windows XP. When I open My Computer I see the selected card in my HP iPaq 210 mounted as my M: drive (first available letter). I'll give more details tonight.

[paul2003]

Thanks for checking this for me. I also connect the PDA to a Windows XP machine. Even thought the details may be slightly different, I did not get a drive letter for PDA on XP either. So your information on XP system will be very helpful too. Thanks.

Paul.

[frquixote]

OK, just a couple more things. After you connect your PDA via USB cable to the PC you need to select a device from the drop down menu in WM5torage. The list usually includes:

DSK1: / External Storage
DSK2: / PCMCIA/Compact Flash (or SD Memory Card depending on device)
DSK3: / PCMCIA/Compact Flash (or SD Memory Card if second device is installed)

After you select the device from the drop down, tap the "Activate" softkey and the PDA and storage card will be mounted as a Device with Removable Storage and will have a drive letter assigned. When you are finished using the device as a thumbdrive, tap the "Deactivate" softkey and the device and storage will be dismounted from Windows.

Couldn't get mine to work the way you are describing.

[paul2003]

Interesting. I just noticed "Activate" softkey thanks to your message. I never used it before, perhaps because I can always access PDA from a PC in a way as I described in the previous message whenever it is connected to the PC. I thought the connection was done by WMStorage. Now I realized that it is actually done by Windows Mobile itself and I haven't used WMStorage function yet.

Anyway, I followed your steps. My drop down menu in WMStorage contains:

FLASHDR / Microsoft Flash Drive
DISK1: / SD Memory Card

If I choose the first one and click "Activate" softkey, the PDA freezes and I have to reset PDA.

If I choose the second one and click "Activate" softkey, there will be a new drive shown up in Windows Explorer in PC. However, if I click the drive letter, I got an error message "G:\ is not accessible. The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" in Vista (in XP, I got a message something like "Insert disk in G:\"). I can't figure out what is wrong with my SD Memory Card access. I don't recall that I ever formated the SD card in PC. Is it because the SD card is in Windows Mobile format and cannot be read by Vista/XP before reformating it in PC? If this is the case, I have to think about how to format the card without affecting the PDA function (I remember some programs /data were installed on card). Any suggestions? Many thanks for your help. I am closer to what I wanted because of your help.

Paul.

[frquixote]

Not sure what the FLASHDIR device is so its hard to say why the device freezes up.

To see whether or not formatting is the problem with the SD card you might want to try mounting the SD card to Vista or XP using a card reader instead of the PDA. If it mounts properly with the card reader, but not with the PDA I'd say there's a problem with the PDA card hardware. If the SD card fails to mount using the card reader, it probably needs to be formatted.