After trying many ways, my 20G usb hard disk(2.5") works on N800!

Thanks for Mara's shell script, it works fine. And thanks for all other pepople's quick answers. I share my experience here hope it's helpful for someone meet the same problem.

1. My portable usb hard disk is realy a DIY thing. I bought a 2.5" hard disk which is actually used in laptop and a usb hard disk box which can convert the IDE bus to usb bus. The usb hard disk box is very cheap, I guess it's reason why my attemps failed.

First, I made a cable(one end is male mini B, the other is femal USB A type receptacle ) to connect a mini usb hub (with 4 usb A receptacles and one usb A PIn)which has a separate power supply, then connected hard disk to usb hub, it didn't work.

Then, I used usb cable shipped with N800 connect to hard disk directly, and usb the adaptor of mini usb hub to supply the current, aslo failed.


Finally, I used N800's original usb cable connect to HD directly, and a adaptor to supply power, Success! The power of this adaptor is 5V* 1600mA. Can you Believe that? The adaptor of mini usb hub is 5V*1000mA. With this powerful adaptor, my HD works good on N800, the file manager pops up quickly. Transfer larger file( 600M) is also very good.

The usb cable is also very important for such access. I tried my homemade cable to connect another cable, then connect to hard disk, usb symbol shows on status bar, but can not access file. It seems the singal's attenuation is very heavy via too many connections.

Have fun with your N800!

I am using a USB hard drive as well, and I'm having problems. I have the thing formatted to FAT32, and it is externally powered. It also has a rechargeable battery built in, to boot. The power supply is supposedly rated for 1000-1200mA. When I try to connect, I get the Unable to connect - No file system available message. Is this what you were getting before you got it working? Also - where did you find a 1600mA adapter?

Thanks.

dannyo,
I think you got a totally different USB hard disk from me, mine is really a DIY thhing. First, check your usb hard disk can work properly with the cable on PC, and measure the real current output from the adapter. I got my adapter from a electronics shop, I just choosed the current, voltage and connet port. (5V,1500mA is fine,notice the adaptor output direction)
So, if the cable is good connected and adapter's power is enough, your usb hard disk will function.

Hey all,

Any USB hard drive will require external power to run with the tablet (the tablet puts out just enough power for a thumb drive, so a full fledged drive will never be able to spin without an external power source). Two options are to make sure that either your drive enclosure (the box you put the hard drive in) has an external power connector (some do, some don't. If it does, it should come with an appropriately rated power adapter). Most 2.5" drives are efficient enough that they don't need an external power supply as they're intended to be powered from the USB port itself, though not all.

If your drive doesn't have an external power connector, then you'll need an externally powered USB Hub; the Hub has a power adapter that will provide the additional current required to get things going.

Finally, if you're on an N800 you can simplify the host mode/device mode USB thing by purchasing a USB OTG adapter and plugging your USB hub/usb HD cable into it. When the OTG adapter is connected to the tablet, it makes the tablet go into host mode; when disconnected the tablet reverts to device mode.

OTG adapters are available here:
http://www.electronicproductonline.c...s=n800&x=0&y=0
along with some various other bits and pieces related to the N800 and USB.

Thanks,
-Rob

Old external Zip (or Jaz, I don't know) drives had a 5V 2000 mA wall wart, if I remember right...

My experience with external USB memories/HD, the correct USB cable and using the function USB Host on Maemo.

2 flashmemory 2GB -OK
1 mp3player 1GB - Fail
Palm mobile 16GB-fat32 as USB storage device (cardreader and card exporter software) - Fail


I read the output of "dmesg" command but I couldn´t find a reason/solution

2 MP3 Players 1 GB - OK
1 MP3 Player 2 GB - OK
1 iPod Shuffle 3gen - OK
1 Nokia E63 - OK
1 Palm Treo - OK
1 iPhone 3gs - fail

Which OS is running theTreo? windows mobile or a PalmOS?
In the second case, I understand you should be using card reader or card export,

For some reason not all SDHC card readers work. I had to try a couple until I found one that worked with my N810. The following worked for me:

Targus TGR-SD20 SDHC reader
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=9722060

Cable - microUSB to Female USB A. Automaticaly sets the USB to OTG.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=H11576-ND

Palm OS, without any app, i just connect all the cables, first try, nothing, second, card export, f*ck yeah !