If anyone is interested in a USB hard drive to use with their PSP, I have one I can recommend.
After much searching on the internet, two purchases on Ebay and many phone calls I finally found one that works the way it should.
I tried DealExtreme and the units that people had written about were out of stock.
The two I bought on Ebay with limited descriptions would only copy from the USB port not to it. What I was looking for was a bidirectional OTG USB hard drive enclosure and they are very hard to find. I guess that is why when you find one they are out of stock.
The one that I have found is the Bi-Directional Digital Partner,DigiBay USB 2.0 OTG Aluminum Enclosure with LCD Display.
This is the Box
These are pictures of the unit
These are the included parts
The pros for this device are as follows:
Aluminum extruded housing.
Internal lithium battery
AC Adapter for charging and can run the unit also
Full file manager can copy file by file, folder by folder in BOTH directions
Delete files on both the internal hard drive and external USB drive
Backlit LCD Display panel
Internal IDE hard drive interface allowing the use of hard drives you have laying around.
USB 2.0 interface.
The Cons for the device are as follows:
8 bit filename limits.
Slow hard drive startup require you to cycle power to get the unit to see the Hard drive.
Only low profile hard drives can be used in the device.
It does not come with an mini usb cable
I put an 80 gig hard drive in the unit that I had laying around in my shop from
Upgrading notebooks that I have
. I charged the unit up overnight to prep that battery and give the unit a true test.
I then plugged it into my computer and started to setup the unit. It can only be formatted as 16/32 bit Fat file system only. This was not a problem with an 80 gig drive so I proceeded. I made three directories on the unit. One called “games”, one called “movies”, and one called “music”. I copied about 100 games into the “games” folder. I then copied 20 movies into the “movie” folder and then about 1,000 songs into the “music” folder.
The drive performed the same as any other USB 2.0 hard drive that I already own, nothing special or bad, just the same.
Now came the real test.
I turned the power switch on and the unit came to life. I was greeted with the display that wanted me to backup, file manage, or diskinfo. I went for broke and selected file manager. It then gave me the option to browse, copy or delete. I couldn’t wait so I selected browse. It then wanted to know if I wanted USB disk or Hard Disk. I selected USB Disk and it said connecting. Damn I was in such a hurry I did not hook up the PSP. I pulled out the usb cable, hooked up the PSP and the device. I turned on the PSP and selected USB communication from the menu. Now I selected USB Drive on the DigiBay and it said connecting and jumped to the C:\ prompt. I selected C:\ and the unit gave me the complete root directory of my memory stick in my PSP. YEA !!! So far so good. I selected a file in the root, selected the destination on the DigiBay’s hard drive and copied. YEA it worked. Now the test, I selected an ISO in the DigiBay’s game directory and navigated to the PSP ISO directory and told it to copy.
At a speed not quite as fast as the PC the DigiBay copied my file to the PSP !!!
I shut down the USB in the PSP and navigated to the game directory and there was the ISO I had just copied !
IT WORKED !!!
But there was a fly in the ointment. The DigiBay can only do eight bit file names. Most of the games had long file names like “Monster Hunter Freedom 2”.
This was not good and very confusing. Until I came up with a solution.
I created a text file called “ISO.TXT” which contained entries like this:
MHF2.ISO ___ Monster Hunter Freedom 2
MHF.ISO ___ Monster Hunter Freedom
ABBF.CSO ___ After Burner Black Falcon
I copied this file to my PSP root directory. I then went into the PSP internet browser. I selected file and address entry and entered the name of my file “ISO.TST”. The browser now showed me the text file I had created. I then saved that text file to my favorites so all I have to do is select it to read the file. Now I have a reference in case I forget the abbreviated name of the game or movie I want to load.
Now I had the file name problem overcome it is a pleasure to use. I get about one half hour of transfers from the DigiBay hard drive to my PSP. That is a lot of data !
I have been using the unit now about a month and it has worked flawlessly for me. I can wholeheartedly recommend the unit.
Now if you can’t wait any more I will tell you that Meritline.com has them in stock and can ship them the same day you order it. The url is:
http://www.meritline.com/bi-direction-digital-partner-silver.htmlAnd they are only $39.99 plus shipping from California.
I am also receiving two prototype bridge units to work with.
A bridge unit is a very small device that has no hard drive in it. It has two usb ports and would sit between the PSP and an external “DUMB” hard drive.
It is not so dumb because the external hard drive can be your IPOD !
These are current devices that sell for under $50 and just have new firmware installed to allow talking to an IPOD. I should have them next week or so and will write an article about my experience with them. In the next few weeks.
One last note: you copy to your current memory stick, you do not run programs from the DigiBay unit.
I hope this answers most of the questions that people have. It makes the PSP so much more flexible.
