External 2.5" Hard Drive Caddy.

[#1]

Hi! folks,
I  converted my lap top to Hardy successfully  some time ago now and am well pleased. To simplify the installation I put a new, larger HD (30GB) in it with the OS in solitary splendour. This leaves me with a redundant 2.5" HD (with a corrupted Win98SE on it). I thought of getting a caddy to accommodate this for back-up or even an alternative Linux OS on it. Local guru did stock them but abandoned the idea because of the unreliability of those he tried. Does anyone out there know of a decent USB caddy with drivers for Linux (if indeed they are needed)?
Ears akimbo,
Colintivy.


cOLINTIVY

[#2]

for my sins I have three caddies with drive out of my smashed up lap tops, all work on Linux (Eeepc 4g) and M$S
one has a double lead for power 2xUSB2  no name on it
one ICY Box - single lead
one Integral - kasa come with twin lead and also has a 5v socket
plus another nice one has its own internal battery model VP2160 X's drive  from vtec.co.uk.meant for downloading cameras etc when away from base has got MS SD MMC and SMC slots
Got the first three from Maplins

[#3]

Thanks Pierre,
I will look @ Maplin's web site. ICY Box looks promising...nice and simple. I already have a full sized caddy which works fine with a new drive in it. Old Hd looks very lost and needs cheering-up.
colintivy 🙂

[#4]

HI Pierre,
Its me again! Maplin does not appear to list any 2.5" caddies only a converter to 3.5". Not a lot of help. Will keep looking.
Colintivy  :- )

[#5]

you must be looking at the wrong page try http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=2.5+hdd+caddy...&menul1=1665&menul2=84399

[#6]

I have one of these;
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=45440
Not that the two pictures on that page are the same thing!!! mine is the one on the right.
It works OK, but does need two USB connections, one for power. But a lower powered drive (or higher powered USB ports) would sort that.
Not had any issues but its not carried about. Which I guess how most of these get busted.

[#7]

mines the one on the left, just looked up the VP2160, must have been feeling rich when I got that
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_vosonic_xs_drive_ii_vp2160.php

[#8]

On line retailers much cheaper than Maplins eg  www.microdirect.co.uk/productlister.aspx?n=2,13,63,919&cpp=10&po=0&co=10#Paging

[#9]

i like the look of this gadget, but it's hellishly expensive:
http://www.card-media.co.uk/XS+Drive+Centre.htm
are they all as highly priced?

[#10]

you could get an Archos that will do the same cheaper than that, yes that is one hell of a price

[#11]

Pierre,
Thanks again,
I only used Maplin's search tool in haste and reference now  found OK. I do not know how local guru had trouble. Corresponder elsewhere (Sweden) suggests generally few problems in practice. Will follow up recommendations. Expensive contraption 3.5" with display well out of my region!
Flexible friend at the ready!!
Colintivy

[#12]

Hi Brewerdave,  pierre_pierre,
Thanks both. Akasa ordered from microdirect, in stock (Silver) and a lot cheaper than Maplin, including Carriage (for small order). I will report when tested with Ubuntu 8.04 and when time permits. It would appear that this one is IDE and single lead, Iintend to use it from a hub which is powered. This set-up has worked with a 3.5" drive also in  a caddy so there is hope!
Regards all round.
colintivy

[#13]

When I worked in Maplin I sold quite a few 2.5" caddies for exactly the reasons mentioned above. Cannot remember any of them ever comming back faulty.

[#14]

Hi folks!
Akasa drive caddy duly arrived today. Old drive fitted OK. Tried it in USB but Ubuntu does not seem to know it is there. Should I mount it first?  Big thick books do not say much about external hard drives so can anyone point me in the right direction? I might try to run it as a check on my old Win-machine (which can see another 3.5" caddy when I last looked). I did think that Ubuntu did not want drivers but the case came with drivers for all flavours of Win including 98SE so will install them in the old dear.
colintivy

[#15]

Plug in your drive, then open a terminal and type `dmesg`, you should get an output like;

[15537.600031] usb 5-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
[15537.734479] usb 5-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[15537.810479] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
[15537.838167] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[15537.841012] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[15537.843943] usb-storage: device found at 5
[15537.843956] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[15537.846453] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[15537.847429] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[15542.840244] usb-storage: device scan complete
[15542.841709] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     TOSHIBA  MK3018GAS        0811 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[15542.845440] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
[15542.853844] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[15542.853854] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[15542.858441] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
[15542.861568] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[15542.861575] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[15542.864446]  sdb: sdb1
[15542.948243] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[15542.948758] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[15543.439020] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
[15543.439351] EXT3-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
[15543.441954] EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal
[15543.441965] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

at the end.
This shows that my drive is `sdb1` and using EXT3 file system.
Then type `mount`, and the last line should tell you where your drive is mounted.

/dev/sdb1 on /media/disk type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal)

Post up or PM me the results of your `dmesg` and `mount`. and I will take a look.