mp3 + Hard drive ?!!

[milk]

Hello, I am new to the forums, and I would just like to introduce myself. . Ok so I have a question, Is it possible to buy say, a 1 gb or 5 gb or something mp3 player, and if it has a USB port, connect it to a seperate external like 80 gb harddrive, so that, it would be a lot bulkier, but your have 81 gb worth of space for music, etc? What I'm saying is like, attatching the external seperate harddrive, like a 40gb, or 80 gb, (laptop possibly), the kind you can get for under a $100, and buy an mp3 player for under a $100, and connect the two through a USB cable (both presumably have USB ports), and not you have a massive storage mp3, which you bought for less than a 20 gb iPod. It may be bulkier, but nothing a little duck tape couldn't fix . Some of the laptop external hard drives are pretty slim too, only weighing like 4 ounces for 60 gb, and can fit in your hand (the viao 60 gb external hard drive for example). Also, most external hard drives are usb 2.0 1.1, so would the mp3 player have to be the same to connect? So is this possible? If so, have you heard of anyone that has done this, or any good way to do this? Thank you very much!

Tony

 

[Dishdog]

I don't think it would be possible. you only transfer files between the 2, and you need a monitor and mouse to do that. I don't think any MP3 player has the capability the access a HDD and play the music off of it.

it's a neat thought though.

 

[Kage]

hehe yeah, being a little creative here

I'm afraid that all laptop hard drives and such need power the MP3 player couldn't give it, so thats the first downside.

If this was possible though then (dont know if its cheaper than the ipod) there is the I-River H320 (colour screen and such) and has a USB cable on it which can link to cameras and such to grab data off them, and I guess it could be used with hard drives too, though this comes in 20gig and up, and so I don't know of any other player that does it this way with the USB ports.

ANSWER:

Though if you get a Creative Nomad jukebox (one of the old ones), and you might be able to do it with new ones as well (not sure really), you can actually mod it yourself and take out the old laptop harddrive, placing the new one in instead and then I've heard its as simple as installing the firmware again for it to recognise the new, much bigger, drive.

I could send this document to you as I have it on a PC Format magazine which i could scan

 

[rdcmmnst]

yeah read that article pretty neat huh?

 

[Kage]

Kewl Yeah, its rather neat, and that player is good even though its old and is probably really cheap now too so is worth spending the money on to do this.
I'm afraid I don't know the limit to the size of the drive possible though it would work on, so it'd be best to do some research first...

I bet you can do it with the Creative Zen Xtra too since its the same type interface and isn't as old though is a bit better... hmm I wonder if you can...hmm, I can't find any at the moment, but there must be some pages on it.

 

[theprodigy8964]

Could you send that article to me? Pm me.

 

[Kage]

Yeah sure I'll be able to I'd have to send it by e-mail then since I don't have any online storage, and i'll try and make them as small as possible, though each one is from an A4 sheet and the writing is pretty small on the pages. There are two pages in all.

As long as this is alright, PM me your e-mail address and I can send them for you