iPod As An External Hard Drive?

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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
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Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I plan on having to share a laptop (it's got Windows XP on it, by the way) with a friend of mine for a little while (especially because he's going to be away for awhile and won't be bringing the laptop with him). But because he's already running very low on memory or hard drive space or whatever, he doesn't want me doing anything that'll save anything on his hard drive.

So...I figured I'd pick up an external hard drive, and do anything I need to do only through that.

But then I remembered that my iPod can be used as some kind of removable hard drive, and that I'm actually only using about 5 out of the 20 GB.

So my question to you guys is....can I disable his hard drive (temporarily), plug the iPod into the laptop and do everything through the iPod everytime I turn on the computer (use the iPod as the boot disk or something)? I don't really do much with the computer anyway...just surf the internet, use AIM/ICQ, wirte some things in Microsoft Word and maybe use Photoshop once in a while....could I do all of that kind of stuff exclusively through the iPod so that when my friend wants to use the normal hard drive on his laptop, it'll be as if I never used it?

If not...could I actually do it with another external hard drive? If so, what would be a good setup? That was my first idea anyway...

Thanks.
 
S

stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
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Depending on how old his laptop is, it may be possible to boot with an external usb hard drive, not sure about the iPod though.
 
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Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
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If you just need to surf the web, use AIM, etc., I don't see why you shouldn't use the notebook as-is, far less trouble... if you want to download anything or save something you wrote up in Word, you can simply hook up the iPod and windows should recognize it as an external drive, allowing you to save anything you want to it. While it may be possible to install an OS on it and boot from it, it would likely be extremely slow and far more trouble than it's worth. USB 2.0 & IEEE 1394 are nice, but IDE they ain't.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
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Originally posted by: Gurck
While it may be possible to install an OS on it and boot from it, it would likely be extremely slow and far more trouble than it's worth. USB 2.0 & IEEE 1394 are nice, but IDE they ain't.
Click to expand...

Ahh...I thought that might be a problem.

While i've got plenty of free spece on the iPod, I wasn't sure if it'd run fast enough, even if it could run those programs and stuff.

Would another external hard drive set up be sufficent? Is there a certain kind of thing I should be looking for?
 
newParadigm

newParadigm

Diamond Member
Jul 30, 2003
3,667
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If his Lappy has FireWire, just plug in the iPod, and pop in your WInXP CD.

When it sboots to the CD, there'll be 2 drives showing: Your iPod, and the Built in harddrive, now just install windows to your iPod WITHOUT reformating.

Once you install you may have to change a bios setting or 2 to allow the computer to boot from the iPod.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
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Well, that certainly sems simple enough....

But after I do that, is there anything special I'd need to do to be able to access the internet through the iPod? I mean...the laptop uses a wireless internet thing...would the iPod (or other external hard drive) use that to connect to the internet?
 
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MentolovBurek

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
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Um... you could move some data from his laptop to your ipod, and viola -> free space.
Then later you just put the data back on the laptop.

If there is no need to make your life difficult... try not to.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
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No offense...but I'm really just asking if what I want to do is possible...after I figure out exactly what it would take, then I'll start thinking about other ideas.
 
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phisrow

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
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It may, or may not, be possible. The laptopl in question will need support for either USB or firewire booting. Recent Macs have it, some recent PCs have it, others don't. I'd recommend googling for something like "*model type of your laptop USB boot" or similar e.g. "t42 usb boot" or something of that sort. If it does seem to be possible, you'll need to make the appropriate changes in the bios and then install an OS and supporting applications on your Ipod. I've only ever attempted this with Linux on and ordinary USB hard drive, so I don't know exactly how an installed OS and boot sector and so on will agree with the Ipod(as it uses a somewhat perverse file structure). I know it to be possible, with Macs booting from firewire, I don't know about PCs and booting Windows.
Short anser: it just might be possible, but it isn't going to be easy or nontrivial even then.
Another possibility: If you boot the system off a linux livecd, like knoppix or mepis, you can then mount the Ipod read/write and leave the internal harddrive readonly, and put a persistent home directory on your Ipod, which would allow you to have a decently customised workspace without changing so much as a bit of the main hard drive.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
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After doing a whole bunch of googling, I think I;ve come t the conclusion that using an iPod for this would probably work, technically...but it really won't be a great idea. It'll probably run very slow,and the life of the iPod would be shortened drastically.

So...now I'm just trying to figure out what kind of setup I'd need, when using a more "normal" external hard drive.

Somebody, somewhere, suggested that I use a 4 GB compact flash with an "IDE Adapter" and a "3.5-Inch USB 2.0 External IDE Drive Case". The only problem is that I have no idea what that means. Anyone got any ideas?

 
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phisrow

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
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A cute feature of compactflash cards is that they are electrically compatible with standard IDE interfaces(albeit in the least efficient PIO modes, if memory serves, but no matter). They are not, of course, physically identical. The "IDE Adapter" mentioned will convert a compactflash card into something you can plug an IDE cable into(http://www.dansdata.com/cfide.htm). The "3.5 inch USB 2.0 External IDE drive case" is basically just a box with a power supply and a bridge chip that allows you to hang an IDE bus off of a USB or USB 2 connection, in such a way as to be in compliance with the standardized mass storage class drivers(so it will work under pretty much any modern OS). This solution would work, if all you want is a 4 gig slab of memory; but it really isn't a very good idea to boot an OS off of such a device.
The trouble with compactflash is that it has a limited number of read/write cycles before it dies (100,000 to 10 million are cononical values). That is a hell of a lot of shots on a digital camera; but something like a windows swap file or a linux swap partition can literally flog a CF card to death within hours or days. If you want to boot an OS off one of these, you would be much better off with a proper external hard drive. For what a 4 gig CF card and the necessary adapters would cost you, you could easily score a proper 20 or so gig 2.5 inch external hard drive(bus powered). or a c. 200 gb 3.5 inch external drive(clunkier and powered by a seperate power supply). CF just isn't worth it, except for small storage needs(the key fobs are pretty nice up to 1 gig or so), and specialty applications(e.g. linux in a high vibration environment, or in an environment with no air, or something of that sort.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
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Suprisingly, I think most of that made sense to me. And from everything I've read, I think I agree with you that a regular external hard drive would be the best thing to go with. Both an iPod and a compact flash seem like they'd probably work, but only really as a temporary fix.

But when you say, "For what a 4 gig CF card and the necessary adapters would cost you, you could easily score a proper 20 or so gig 2.5 inch external hard drive(bus powered)"...is there anything in particular I should be looking for? Are there different kinds that do different things or anything?

Also...I'm still a little confused about how I'd access the internet through one of these. Would I just use the wireless internet thing that's on the laptop? Could I have that installed (or whatever) to both the laptop and this second hard drive?

Thanks
 
V

venk

Banned
Dec 10, 2000
7,449
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I have the perfect solution to your quagmire. I'll trade you my WD 120 GB External HD for your ipod. ;)
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
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Originally posted by: phisrow
It may, or may not, be possible. The laptopl in question will need support for either USB or firewire booting. Recent Macs have it, some recent PCs have it, others don't. I'd recommend googling for something like "*model type of your laptop USB boot" or similar e.g. "t42 usb boot" or something of that sort.
Click to expand...

I've been trying to figure this part out for hours now...no luck.

His laptopn is a Dell. Inspiron 5100. I forgot to ask him, but it's prety new I think...probably about a year and a half old or so.

Can anyone help here?
 
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Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
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Ok here is what I did, I took an internal laptop HDD 4200RPM 7GB and bought an external case. I put the HDD in it and hooked it up. It supports USB 2.0, the HDD had windows 98 on it and had the system boot to it first, I restarted and the system booted plenty fast. I thought WOW USB2.0 is really fast, I took the same HDD with casing and hooked it up to another laptop with USB 1.1. The laptop with USB 1.1 too can boot to USB but much slower because it's only 12MB/s and it was sooo slow to boot. So to answer your question, yes if the iPODs support installing files on there like a regular HDD then go for it. If you have USB 1.1 on the laptop, expect it to be very very slow but otherwise USB 2.0 is super fast. I did some Si-soft sandra tests with it and it performed just as fast as it was suppose to. I can say with confidence that the USB2.0 interface will match or beat the IDE interface with out a doubt on a laptop, probably a desktop too. Also bought a casing for desktop HDDs and tested it, agian it was just as fast as the IDE interface. When I first heard of USB burners I thought It was the dumbest idea in the world, same with HDDs. When they came out with 2.0 I still thought it was dumb, but after trying it I gotta say it's a good idea. USB 1.1 though for those devices are always a bad idea. Agian I would probably never buy an external drive but instead an internal and just get the external casing separately, just in case I change my mind or for other reasons.
 
M

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
13,590
4,239
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Originally posted by: newParadime
If his Lappy has FireWire, just plug in the iPod, and pop in your WInXP CD.

When it sboots to the CD, there'll be 2 drives showing: Your iPod, and the Built in harddrive, now just install windows to your iPod WITHOUT reformating.

Once you install you may have to change a bios setting or 2 to allow the computer to boot from the iPod.
Click to expand...
Is this fact or speculation? I haven't heard of PCs booting FireWire drives before.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
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0
Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Ok here is what I did, I took an internal laptop HDD 4200RPM 7GB and bought an external case..
Click to expand...

Where can you get an external case for the internal HDD?
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
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Thanks....but since I'd be connecting it using the USB or whatever, I'd still need to know if the laptop even allows booting from a USB, right?
 
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Philippine Mango

Diamond Member
Oct 29, 2004
5,594
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Mind telling use what exact model and brand lappy it is? Instead of us playing the guessing game, you could give us the info.
 
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phisrow

Golden Member
Sep 6, 2004
1,399
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In regard to wether the laptop can boot from USB: It looks from the menu options that you listed that you won't be able to do a USB boot. However, I just tested the temporary boot menu on my system and noted that if you have a USB HDD attached, the option appears, and if you don't it does not(it should be noted, however, that mine is an IBM, and may or may not have a similar BIOS in this respect). I would say that if you had the Ipod connected and powered on(just as it would be during a file transfer) and you didn't get the option to boot with it, it is almost certain that you cannot boot from a USB device. If, however, you didn't have it connected and active at the time, the possibility might exist, and just not be shown. I don't know which of these holds true. If it is the first, I'm sorry; but unless there is a BIOS update available(and quite possibly even then), you are eminently out of luck. If it is the second, you can try again with the Ipod connected and active, and best of luck with that.
I'm sorry I cannot be more definite; but booting PCs from oddball devices is something of a black art, and I've no access to similar hardware.
 
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imported_Hal

Junior Member
Nov 21, 2004
11
0
0
Originally posted by: Philippine Mango
Mind telling use what exact model and brand lappy it is? Instead of us playing the guessing game, you could give us the info.
Click to expand...

I actually did, earleir in the thread...
 
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