Mass Storage for IPAQ???

[imported_TommyT]

I am still undecided as to whether I want to get the IPAQ 5455 or the Toshiba e755.

I'd like to keep a large collection of documents, presentations, MP3?s, movies, games? on hand without the need of an expansion pack with numerous CF cards, micro drives or expensive 512mb SD cards.

I know that for about $200 I can hook up and external 20 Gb USB hard drive to the Toshiba e750. See: http://www.anypakusa.com/powerPc.htm .

Is anything like this available for the IPAQ?

If it where then I could view or transfer needed files to a reasonably priced 128 or 256mb SD card.

Thanks,
Tom

[Gerard]

As I understand it, none of the newest iPAQ models support USB devices as a host, so an USB drive would be unavailable in terms of software, even if you had an adapter. Your requirement that it be "without the need of an expansion pack" makes you limited to SD or MMC cards, and so far the biggest readily available are 512MB. So it looks like you're getting a Toshiba, or an iPAQ and a PC sleeve. Accurite external hard drives from 10GB to 20GB (used to go as low as 6GB, like mine) work great with any PPC device (mine's well over 2 years old, and humming along flawlessly despite several fairly hard falls), or even relatively ancient Palm-sized PC devices, so long as you use either a PC sleeve or a PC>CF adapter. They also supply one of those, but it's fragile, needing a shell built around the circuitboard, so this Semson looks a lot better.
Should you want it for a lot less money, consider using an existing PC hard drive and a shell, as outlined in many forum threads. Tapani J Otala wrote a driver for general use of these things, calling it a 'storage brick' - just do a search on that phrase and you'll find lots of stuff from users. I've heard of up to 80GB being used this way.

[Jucha]

Hi there

Do you really mean that you want to carry such a brick with you all the time. When someone asks you to give him some information what would you say? Give me 5 minutes to find the cables and hook it up :-)

When I was buying my first PPC I also thought there is no way that it all would fit on my sd but it did. All documents are about one tenth in size of pc documents because of different file formats and uless you want to have some long movies on your ppc, which wouldnt work anyway unless they are in resolution like 100times80 pixels you dont need such big space. I really recommend you to get 256 sd card plus 64md in you ipaq and 21mb in file store you will have enought space to store any document you have ever written, read or seen. Trust me on that one.

Jucha

[imported_TommyT]

Gerald and Jucha,

First, thanks for the reply.

Jucha What I had in mind with a "Mass Storage" device was to transfer files such as presentations or documents to a smaller format such as a 256 mb SD card before ever getting to the client.

I also like to listen to a lot of MP3's and watch movies. I would like to have all my music and some movies available while on trips. This could mount 10 or more gigabytes of storage. I wouldn't mind having the hard drive connected while traveling.

Now, Gerald. Let's suppose I get a PC card sleeve, PC card to hard drive adaptor cable and a hard drive. Would I be able to transfer files to a 256mb SD card in the IPAQ to view later without the hard drive attached? I just realy want to get away from having that blasted sleve attached all the time.

Thanks again,
Tom

[David Hettel]

Originally posted by TommyT
Gerald and Jucha,

First, thanks for the reply.

Jucha What I had in mind with a "Mass Storage" device was to transfer files such as presentations or documents to a smaller format such as a 256 mb SD card before ever getting to the client.

I also like to listen to a lot of MP3's and watch movies. I would like to have all my music and some movies available while on trips. This could mount 10 or more gigabytes of storage. I wouldn't mind having the hard drive connected while traveling.

Now, Gerald. Let's suppose I get a PC card sleeve, PC card to hard drive adaptor cable and a hard drive. Would I be able to transfer files to a 256mb SD card in the IPAQ to view later without the hard drive attached? I just realy want to get away from having that blasted sleve attached all the time.

Thanks again,
Tom

You would only need the sleeve attached when you are transfering files. And there is another option to, Sony has come out with a Bluetooth server. This is a 10, or 20 GB harddrive, with a built in bluetooth link. It's not cheap, but it does cut the wires between your PPC and storage.

David

[Skitals]

How about you get a laptop.

Seems a lot more practical and useful. Just activesync the files you want too and from your laptop, or over wifi / adhoc network.

[Skitals]

Oh, and if you are worried about size, get a sony vaio picturebook. Would be a lot better for watching movies given the 9" screen and dvd drive.

[Gerard]

... you will have enough space to store any document you have ever written, read or seen.

Gee Jucha, sounds to me like you don't do a lot of reading. My 6GB Accurite is about 4/5ths full, and while a fairly large portion of that is installer files, backups, and movies, at least 2GB is documents and photographs, most of the photos being already dramatically reduced from their original sizes. I am very frugal about my drive space, not wanting to keep any junk around, so with installer packages for instance I unpack, delete the original, and delete all elements not relevant to a CAB install on either of my PPC devices (I keep no SH3 files, for instance, as I don't own nor intend to own a Jornada).
My music and video collection all live an the middle partition, taking at the moment about 1.7GB of space. I also use 4 CF cards - a 16MB with all my iPAQ CAB files in ZIP files, a 64MB card for general use, primarily documents, a 128MB card, partitioned, with a lot of the same documents plus a bunch of others on part, the other partition being mainly for faster backups as it's formatted differently, and a 256MB card mainly for music and movies. I also use a 64MB SD in the iPAQ all the time, but shortly this will be swapped for a 256MB card, as I am finding it too cramped.
I would love to be able to save more web pages, for example. Having a bigger external hard drive would be nice, leaving me with a lot less worry about running out of space. Though I am careful not to waste space with junk, I am also a bit of a collector, and fancy that one day I will have a decent 'elibrary' of my own, and fully portable at that.
Tom; I don't know much about those storage bricks, but can tell you that the Accurite's PC card and cable for connecting are integrated with the HDD, not something you ever connect. So 'hunting for connector cables' is not relevant. It also contains a decent Li-Ion batter, which will hold more than enough power for any transfers you might make in a given week. If you use it as an MP3 player of for movies directly, rather than transferring these to an SD for playback, it will eventually need to run from external power. Mine has a switch so that I can have it feed from the iPAQ battery when it's own runs down, I think they all have this, the battery models. The much thinner ones have no battery, using only the device battery. Initially, in November of 2000, I got about 4 hours life out of it, when using a Casio which would lock up if I tried to run off that device battery. Now, with mixed use between 2 PPCs it's a bit hard to tell, but I think the capacity has gone down to about 90 minutes. Still adequate for me. I charge it every couple of weeks.
The 'get a notebook' argument may hold a bit of water, if you don't mind ridiculously long boot times and very short battery life compared to an iPAQ. But that's probably more a matter of taste. I find it odd how it seems this argument is coming up more and more lately around here, at least once a day some user advising another to 'get a laptop', as though the PPC were somehow inadequate to even basic purposes. Is this, or is it not, a Pocket PC forum? Am I in the wrong place? Seems to me one might as well say 'get a Palm'. It's about as relevant.

[Sunz]

Hey, If your willing to wait a few months ..this may be your solution. I think i will be getting one of these or a comparable one when it debuts.

http://www.blueunplugged.com/shop/de...D=178&deptID=3

[iqat]

this was my idea...

anyway, who is going to build a bluetooth adapter for the ipod? then i will have a 30GB storage server for my ipaq!!!