Using USB 2.0 External Hard drive with EMTEC Gdium 1000 MIPS Notebook/

[WB7ODYFred]

Hello fellow Gdium users,

I have been wanting to buy an external USB 2.0 Hard Drive 160GB to
connect with the EMTEC Gdium Mips Notebook. I willl use this to set
up a compiling and testing environment for native MIPS compiling.

1.) will a small 80GB, 160GB, 320GB, or 500GB drive work. Yes
probably. How much current in milliAmps will that External hard
drive requries, since it has no external power line input. The
power comes through the USB 2.0 cable from the Gdium Motherboard. So
will the "standard" 110VAC charger that came with the Gdium Notebook
have enough extra current / wattage to supply the current through the
USB 2.0 cable to the suppy the extra external hard disk drive?

So is the 110VAC wall charger large enough to handle the extra wattage
needed for external USB 2.0 hard disk drives? Or is it just sized to
charge only the batteries inside the Gdium Notebook computer?
The Hardware Engineer could answer this question and clear up the
unknowns.

In a Instant Messaging Chat, "sinned" provided some authoritive
answers.
<sinned> i wouldn't worry about excess power consumption
<sinned> if a mobo has 2 usb ports, it's almost certainly rated to
handle the full power consumption
<sinned> that usb 2.0 specifications require
<sinned> it has to be compatible with any power-consuming usb 2.0
device, on both ports at the same time, if they give you the ports

Here is my Wiki My Talk WB7ODYFred where you can add your comments
about installing and compiling using an External USB Hard Disk.

http://olph.gdium.com/wiki/doku.php/talk:wiki:user:wb7odyfred

2.) Can some one post directions and steps to start with a blank
external USB 2.0 hard disk drive. Partition it, Format it, and
copy / install files, then make changes to PMON to select booting
from the Hard Disk first before booting from the Gdium Flash disk
drive.

Maybe we can break this into 3 similiar wikis, One for Mandriva, One
for Debian, and One for OpenSUSE. thanks PhilV for the instructions
for setting up a Flash Disk and installing Debian.

http://olph.gdium.com/wiki/doku.php/projects:debian_at_gdium:start


3.) Any particular models you have used and work well for you?
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/expansion/
Seagete ? which model

Western DIgital? which model?

4.) There are some external Hard drive cases that support Firewire
IEEE1384 an USB 2.0 both. This type of hard drive case has a
separate 110VAC power cord that does not draw power from the USB 2.0
Cable to supply the hard disk drive.

[WB7ODYFred]

Here I add this to the above post. WB7ODYFredOregon

4.) There are some external Hard drive cases that support Firewire
IEEE1384 an USB 2.0 both. This type of hard drive case has a
separate 110VAC power cord that does not draw power from the USB 2.0
Cable to supply the hard disk drive.

http://groups.google.com/group/gdium/browse_thread/thread/a12ddd2f7c853fa

Western Digital External USB 2.0 and Firewire interface 250 GB hard
disk drive

Kit Contents

* 250 GB USB 2.0/FireWire external hard drive with USB 2.0 hub
* 6 foot (1.8m) USB 2.0 certified cable
* Software CD including Dantz Retrospect Express backup software
* AC adapter with power cord
* Vertical stands
* Feet for horizontal placement
* Quick Install Guide

210 of 213 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A lot comes in the box!, August 28, 2004
By Karl (Bozeman, MT USA) - See all my reviews

First, the big thing is that this is also a USB 2.0 and Firewire
(1394) hub! I thought I'd have to buy a separate firewire hub to use
this with my laptop and video camera since I only have one port there.
But, there's an extra firewire port in the back of the unit. For USB
2.0 - two ports are made available - so you actually gain one when you
plug the unit in (it's like a 2 port hub): one in the front
(convenient for flash memory keys/etc) and one in the back.

from WB7ODYFredOregon

[fga]

Hi

I use it regularly - I have a noname 2.5'' HDD USB 2.0 enclosure which
is solely powered by the gdium (on the side USB) that I use to build
rpms (as the space on the key is limited once you start installing the
build tools and dev libraries).

The current requirement depends on the HDD and its enclosure - USB
spec says it must not exceed 500mA but usually modern HDD are under
this. Anyway, the gdium is able to provide this current (in some cases
you will need the "Y" cables where both USB aree used to power the
device, such as with DVD writer).

I use the chroot method to use it, which is well explained here:
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Development/Howto/Chroot

I have 3 partitions on my HDD: 1 FAT32 (for file exchange), 1 ext3
(used for chroot) and 1 swap (used for gdium swap)

regards

Fabrice

On 11 oct, 08:16, WB7ODYFred <WB7ODYF...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here I add this to the above post.  WB7ODYFredOregon
>
>  4.)   There are some external Hard drive cases that support Firewire
>  IEEE1384 an USB 2.0 both.   This type of hard drive case has a
>  separate 110VAC power cord that does not draw power from the USB 2.0
>  Cable to supply the hard disk drive.
>

> http://groups.google.com/group/gdium/browse_thread/thread/a12ddd2f7c8...