Hello Frank, As long as the drive you purchase is formatted as fat32, I suspect many different brand drives should work on the Apex. If it comes formatted ntfs or any other type formatting, then you will need to change it to fat32 first. Having said that though, I recommend you either getting a drive with a y type usb cable or purchase a separate y usb cable because the Apex seems to have a port power problem with some usb devices. My old Western Digital 80 gig drive worked fine on my voice note mPower but was flaky at best on my Apex until I purchased a y type usb cable that plugged into two of the usb ports on the Apex and the small usb port on the WD 80 gig drive. Then it came up ready to use in seconds and gave no problems. First, I would suggest you try reformatting the western digital drive on a computer to see if it just got corrupted because of a low power situation with use on your Apex. If this doesn't work and the drive is indeed dead, then try to find a drive that comes with the split usb cable. Some drives now come with such a cable. If not, check out the series of messages I exchanged with a Humanware support rep below and see where I gave a source of such a cable that resolved my hd problems on my Apex. The cable was less than $4 and should work on just about any usb drive, regardless of brand. Good luck. I will paste in a series of messages on this topic below. Richard Ehrler
Hello Sarai, I finally got around to partitioning and reformatting that 640 gig usb hard drive I mentioned to you in a previous message and tested it on my Apex 32 BT using that usb y cable I purchased from Other World Computing. It took longer than expected because the drive was originally formatted for use on an Apple Mac, so it had to be reformatted for use on PC computers. I partitioned it into four separate drives using fat 32. Within just a few seconds of hooking it up to the Apex, it recognized the hard disc and very quickly after that also recognized the other three partitions as separate hard drives. When I went into file manager and displayed the drive list, the flash drive was displayed, followed by hard drive 1, hard drive 2, hard drive 3, hard drive 4, and my sd card. It appears this usb y cable may be an answer for those who want to access information on external hard drives until Humanware can fix the Apex usb port power problem. Could you please forward these messages we have exchanged with the appropriate people in the Apex support and development team? I have left the complete original message thread below so they can see all information about my findings and the cable fix source info is still below in this message. Richard Ehrler On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:17:10 -0500, Sarai Bucciarelli wrote: >Hello: >Please let me know how the 640GB hard drive works. > > >Sarai Bucciarelli >Technical Support Specialist HumanWare >P.O. Box 800, 1 UPS Way Champlain, NY 12919 USA T. 800-722-3393 >F. +1 888 871 4828 >www.humanware.com <http://www.humanware.com/> >........................................................................ >........................................................................ >......................... >The power is in your hands > >-----Original Message----- >From: Richard Ehrler [mailto:[email protected]] >Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 10:57 PM >To: Sarai Bucciarelli >Subject: RE: [Braillenote] using western digital drives with an Apex can >bedone > > >Hello Sarai, >As mentioned in my origional message on this topic, I am using a Western >Digital 80 Gig hard drive. I just obtained a 640 Gig custom made usb >portable hard drive that I plan to test on my Apex with the same Y type >usb cable some time in the next week or so. I suspect the Y cable will >work for any usb drive that is fully powered by usb power but this will >need to be tested on a brand by brand basis, just to be sure. I hope >this helps as a immediate fix for the Apex usb port power problem. >Hopefully Humanware will be able to also fix the issue with a firmware >patch. >Richard Ehrler > >On Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:03:43 -0500, Sarai Bucciarelli wrote: > > >>Hello Richard: >>Thank you for the useful information. Which Western digital hard drive >>are you using? Please contact me off list with this information so I do > >>not miss your response Thank you, >> >> >>Sarai Bucciarelli >>Technical Support Specialist HumanWare >>P.O. Box 800, 1 UPS Way Champlain, NY 12919 USA T. 800-722-3393 F. +1 >>888 871 4828 www.humanware.com <http://www.humanware.com/> >>....................................................................... >. >>....................................................................... >. >>......................... >>The power is in your hands >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: [email protected] >>[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard >>Ehrler >>Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 6:15 PM >>To: Humanware >>Subject: [Braillenote] using western digital drives with an Apex can be > >>done >> >> >>This message may be of interest to anyone with one of the Western >>Digital drives or other brand drives which have a usb cable that can be > >>removed from the drive. I have used my Voice Note mPower with several >>different Western Digital drives with no problem for several years. I >>recently purchased a Braille Note Apex and discovered it could not >>power up any of those external hard drives. Someone on this list >>mentioned having a different brand drive with a y type usb cable that >>took power from two usb host ports to supply power to the hard drive >>and it worked with his Apex. I decided to try to find one of these y >>cables and a friend gave me a link to the exact cable I was looking for > >>being sold by a company called Other World Computing in Woodstock >>Illinois. I received that cable today and tried it out on my Western >>Digital 80 Gig hard drive attached to my Apex. Once plugged in, the >>hard drive ready message was announced within a few seconds and I was >>able to navigate the whole drive with no problem with the Apex. I will >>try to paste in some information from the web site about this cable >>here and will leave the text of my friends original message below for >>the phone number of the company and a direct link to the cable >>information in his message but the url wrapped across two lines in his >>message, so be sure to get that last little part from the second line >>of the url if it wraps on your mail reader. Otherwise, just call the >>company with the cable description mentioned below. At $3.99 plus >>shipping for the cable it might be a life saver for those with loads of > >>info on external hard drives they wish to access with their Apex. Also >>note that this cable may very well work on other brand hard drives in >>the same way Their catalog number for this cable is: OWCUSB2AYMBPC. >> >>Richard Ehrler >> >>Description:Ships:Price:1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - >>Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives. Custom made to > >>fit all laptops, even Apple models with single USB ports on each side >>of the computer. Clear Color. (OWCUSB2AYMBPC) Same Day $3.99 >> >> >>Add to Your Basket: >> >> >> >> >> >>Custom made to fit all laptops, even Apple models with single USB ports > >>on each side of the computer: >> >> >> >>OWC "Y" Type Dual USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable. >> >>Connect and power your external hard drive via USB on systems that lack > >>sufficient power via USB! >> >>Can't power your external hard drive via your computer's USB bus? >>The OWC "Y" type cable provides a convenient and flexible solution. >> >>This handy cable attaches to two USB ports on your computer to supply >>sufficient power to an external bus powered storage solution. Designed >>with an additional length of cable between the plugs, you can now >>utilize USB ports located on opposite sides of your computer. While a >>perfect compliment to the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro, this "Y" Type Dual > >>USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable will also work with many other >>computers and bus powered external hard drives. >> >> >> >>Data Transfer Rate480 Mbps (60 MB/s)ColorClear jacket w/visible >>silver braidLength >> >> >> >>---- Original Message ------ >>Here is the URL to one of those Y cables you were talking about. >>Of course if you can find one locally you wouldn't have to pay >>the >>shipping. But on the other hand, you could always purchase one of >>their nifty external solid state drives. >>The company, by the way, is Other World Computing, and they just >>happen >>to be Bill's ISP. They sell all kinds of neat products, and >>according >>to the recording when I called them, they have been selling >>products >>since 1988. >>Their number is 800-275-4576 and you can order by phone. >>http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/USB2AYMB >>PC/ >> On Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:32:40 -0700, frank M. Hernandez wrote: >This is a very sad day for me. > >Can anyone recommend a hard drive that is powered by the USB port >and will work with my APEX? >Thank you, >Frank M. Hernandez. >
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