I just tried a Deal Extreme SKU10113 USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE 5 Component Cable and it worked without any issues. N810 with Diablo firmware, nothing special except USBControl installed.

Here's an image of a 160 GB hard disk connected to the N810. The disk is a flaky one, previously installed on a Linux desktop machine, containing several ext2/ext3 partitions. USB-A adapter is self-made from the cable that came with the N810. (Sorry about the unreadable text in the image...)

Good post. Thanks, those SATA cable are pretty reasonably priced. Thanks.

My experience, as long as the USB physically fit the jacks of the HD, any external powered HD, will work with the tablet. These are those big footprint HD, I am using a 350 G HD. However, I also have several small footprint HD, those palm size one, drawing current from USB, even with USB hub to provide current, still NOT able to make it work with the tablet. Anybody has luck with those USB powered small footprint, palm size HD?


bun

I've been playing around with this for a while now and no luck. I use a OTG adapter, USB control and a laptop drive. I tried it directly to the NIT (everything seems to power up (I can hear it whirling around)) and also I tried it through a powered hub. In both cases it it gives the error "USB device not supported" This would be great to get working so I can add this to download pictures from my camera on a trip. My tests were tried with Chinook and Diablo on a SD card.

C

And the error statement "File system not found, not connected" are both standard statement from USB control, at least with other USB HW, like keyboard and working external powered HD. By itself, those err statements has no meaning, I guess.

You are correct, I am chasing and has no luck, I am trying to attach a palm size HD of 160 G, exactly the size of my hand (literally palm sized) but usb powered. NO LUCK so far.

bun

I just reread the post again and realized that 3.5" drives seem to work but not laptop (2.5") drives. Is that correct? I wonder what the difference is?

C

I think you are referring to my post? The difference is external power. All external power HD works, the only one that does not work are those powered by USB, be it 3.5" or 2.5". I mentioned 2.5" because of its small footprint. Here, size has nothing to do with it. It is the power it draws from the tablet stop it from working.


bun

What types of filesystems does the drive have? I had ext2/ext3 in mine, which are built-in. If your drive has been on a Windows machine, the filesystem is probably NTFS. That requires extra effort to use.

Oh, BTW, I got the "USB device not supported" message too, but after a few seconds the file manager opened and displayed all the partitions.

I have fat32 on my drive so I can take my files to work so I think it should work. I am powering both usb cables from the 2.5" drive with a powered USB 2 hub. According to HP it should work with 1 USB 2.0 cable but you need both for USB 1.0 so i think there should be adequate power. At least your post gives me some hope of a solution.

C

Does the drive appear on the USBControl device listing, maybe after pressing Refresh a couple of times? Also running dmesg from the command line is a helpful tool for troubleshooting issues that might be driver related, or otherwise tied to the kernel (like USB issues often are). dmesg simply prints the kernel ring buffer. Kernel drivers and subsystems have lot to say in there.

EDIT: Refresh in USBControl seems to do nothing. I had to restart USBControl to see any newly connected devices.

Hi Jethro

The drive doesn't appear on the list. I just get:
usb controller mode:a_wait_vfall
Bus 001 Device 001:ID 0000:0000

The USB symbol doesn't appear on the toolbar either where if I put in my usb flash key in it does.
usb controller mode:a_host
Bus 001 Device 002:ID 126f2136 TwinMOS

I tried looking at dmesg more doesn't make too much sense and (I do see a bunch of USB thingies - with or without the the flash drive in). I have 3 files but I don't know how to retrieve them from the NIT (I'm using putty)if they will make any sense to see them. I'll copy over to my flash drive (it's working) and put them somewhere if anyone wants them - various states of working or not. Hmm... can't find out where they are... I'll keep looking ;-)

C