Hardware Talk :: Damn Small Machine in DSL Store!

Thanks for the reliability tips.

I have tried various laptop drives over the years. Hitachi has the best g & mtbf ratings that I have found. I have found them to be very reliable in rough use.

I hope that carries over into the micro drives. I have not yet tried them. It does sound like the market is still developing for them.

I recall IBM's announcement back in the 90s. The media called them a "drive that would fit in a matchbox".

Jeff

Microdrives don't need much in the way of shock isolation. The incredibly low mass of the moving parts makes them naturally more rugged than a conventional PC hard drive.

I use a 4GB Hitachi Microdrive in my Zaurus handheld which sees plenty of bumps and vibration. Unless you're going to put the PC in a really harsh environment (automotive, industrial, etc.), virtually any mounting scheme that allows reasonable heat dissipation should work fine.

Frustrating that the DSL store doesn't give more specs ie. the machine's identity! I was daft enough to think that because it is called a 'Nano ITX Machine' it used 'THE' Nano ITX board (the one everyone is waiting for), whereas it is a Nano-format embedded thingy with no scope for RAM expansion. Still, it does use the new Eden N processor (all those on-chip MPEG-II, security & sound goodies just waiting for someone to write apps for).

The DSM John sent me is an eBox-3850 (with COM & LPT ports) - the 'fat' version, which at 58mm wide is designed specifically with fitting a 2.5" hard drive in the box in mind - so no need to fiddle about with smaller (and pricier) HD types.

I note the eBox-3800 lacks Com & LPT... and any room for a HD... but at 38mm wide is perhaps even sexier still if you just want a DSL thin client... okay, difficult to imagine 'sexier than the DSM'...

I received mine a couple of weeks ago unfortunately the USB pen drive was dead on arrival
I do have a 5GB USB travel-drive that I use to transfer files around so how would I go about installing the OS on it from my desktop PC [Mandriva 2006

I gave you a tip via email, but try puting the USB pen in before you power up and then going into the bios and selecting USB HDD boot, then exit the bios and see what happens. The screen should flash blue with a boot prompt. If you get black, try "ctl + alt + del" and then let it start the boot process again.

If all else fails send me the pen back and I'll format you another one.

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