Originally posted by arogan
Does anybody know if the cable supports 250gb hard drives?

I asked Brando who manufacture this what capacity limit there is, their reply verbatim:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: USB to IDE
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 22:18:00 +0800
From: usb.brando.com.hk – Delta Global Crew <usb>

Hi,

I haven’t limit for the capacity. It supports all knid of IDE HardDisk.

B.Regards,
Joe.

—————————————

So I am guessing it must use the 48 bit LBA to have any capacity of IDE drive currently manufactured to fit it.

Originally posted by Julie
Are you making sure that you have the connector correctly attached? I’m not sure how closely you read my review, but I had similiar problems till I realized that I had the connector off by one set of pins.

Thanks, that must have been it. I re-read your review and had previously not noticed that bit at the end, as I kind of rushed it a bit, looking for a limit to hard disk capacity more than anything else.

So now it works, I have attached a 60GB drive to it successfully which is recognised in Windows XP. I have other USB 2.0 enclosures, different types to this one, one with a 160 GB drive, one with a 120 GB drive, both work well too.

I was using before a firewire enclosure but I think the electronics on that were faulty, hence I bought this USB to IDE adapter, so am reusing the firewire enclosure with its IDE to firewire electronics ripped out, and the USB adapter plugged in directly to the internal IDE drive.

The older standard only supported 28bit LBA allowing you to only address a maximum of 137gb. You’ll see this with older motherboards too like those based on kt266 or good old 440bx.

Most newer chipsets support 48bit LBA allowing you to address up to 144 petabytes.

http://www.48bitlba.com/

I believe most of these types of devices today (including external enclosures) support 48bit LBA but it’s always nice to ask and be sure.

I would agree this is not a good solution for a permanent setup but for quick testing or if you need ultra portability it would be perfect.

I couldn’t see why not, it is basically a Hard Drive enclosure without the enclosure part, just the cable. I wouldn’t recommend this as a permanent solution, I think an enclosure would be a better solution, because of the circuit board on the bottom of the drive. I’d be afraid it would get damaged.

Glad to hear that the product worked out for you!

Thanks for the Linux instructions.

I just got it working in Linux. I’m running Redhat 9, though the distribution should not matter as much as the kernel that you’re running. In my case, I have a custom kernel and had to manually load the usb-storage module. I also read you had to load the sd_mod module. It’ll appear as a scsi device (for example /dev/sda).

So, here’s the process I went thru to get it to work for my system (other systems might be a tad different, but the idea is still the same). My external hard drive was already partitioned and /dev/sda1 was formatted with Reiserfs. /mnt/usbstorage was the directory where I wanted to mount.

1) plugged in the drive as Julie has in the picture
2) made sure the jumper settings are set to master for an ide device
3) as root ran: insmod usb-storage
4) as root ran: insmod sd_mod
5) mkdir /mnt/usbstorage
6) mount -t reiserfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstorage

Finally, you might want to check /var/log/messages to see that the drive was recognized, etc. In my log I was able to see the vendor and model number of my drive.

I hope this helps one of your readers as your review has helped me.

Update:
USB.Brando.com.hk replied within hours. They said they will send me a replacement unit. Great service! I will post an update when the replacement unit arrives.

Just received a replacement today (1 week after I reported the problem) and it is working perfectly! I am happy to report that Brando.com is behind it’s products and responses quickly. I will definitively continue to be their loyal customer.

–
Manny

Originally posted by bobn
This is expensive, and does not always work. Also, the rack extends out of the enclosure.

Is this because the rack assembly is bigger than what the enclosure was designed for?

I was actually wondering if I could get mobile racks to go in an enclosure….given that I haven’t been able to find enclosures that come with the mobile racks included (though I was thinking this was because the company’s hadn’t considered that anybody would have a need to put a mobile rack into a portable drive case….:rolleyes: )

Some people at work swap racks around as their backup system….I brought my old DLT4000 into work, to backup my work machine. One person goes as far as taking one of the disks home….to have offsite. I’m not that concerned about work data though….given that until recently the office offsite backup went putting the tapes in a safety deposit box in the bank across the street. Thinking that if a tornado took out the office it would be selective enough to miss the bank?

The tapes are in a bank further away now…but through no action on my employer’s part. The branch was closed as a result of the latest string of bank mergers. 4th one to affect that brach that I’m aware of (and I’ve only been here for 6 years).

The Dreamer.

In any event, this suggests a solution to a problem I’ve had for a while. In order to do backups, you can buy expensive (and slow) tape equipment, or now that disk drives are so inexpensive, you can buy disk drives. However, to use drives, you need an enclosure. I’ve been using one of those “mobile rack” devices inserted into a Firewire/USB enclosure, and each disk is put into a tray which fits in. This is expensive, and does not always work. Also, the rack extends out of the enclosure.

Using a cable like this, connecting cheap disk drives for backups should be quite easy.

Does this work with drives over 120 GB?

My SFFPC doesn’t have the support to connect two more drives to it….so I was thinking firewire, though I’ve been looking at external enclosures….which aren’t as simple….and a touch more expensive.

Though the SFFPC I have doesn’t do USB 2.0….so it’ll probably make for a slow upgrade. But, only need to do 5 of them (plan to turn all 5 of my RTVs into 250G units :wow:, unless during the process drives continue to get cheaper…and I opt for a 400G here or there. )

Some how still need to fit those plans with the other plans for this year….like finally replacing the 21″ TV (probably only a 43″, unless at the last minute I spot a 50″ [table top style] for similar price without side speakers…..since the opening in my stand is about 43″ wide.) And, then all the other upgrades that will trigger…like an upconverting DVD player (skipping [just] progressive :confused: ).

Wonder if anybody makes a DVI/digital audio auto A/V switcher yet…..

More recently added to my list….a new bed….a Select Comfort….that’s a gadget right

The Dreamer

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/usb2ide-review.html

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