As far as reformatting, one drive that I had could not be reformatted. I do
not remember the brand, but, one brand that comes as fat32 already is
VERBATIM.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Ehrler" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; "Bn List"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] my western digital passport "80 gigs), died!
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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If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
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