COMPUTER BITS
■
BY DARREN YATES
Mass data storage in the palm
ofyourhand
This month, we take a look at the Pocket Hard
Disc or PHd from KT Technology. It runs as a
logical hard drive from your PC's parallel
port, can be removed in seconds & can store
up to 120Mb of data.
If you need to transfer a large
number of files from·one place of work
to another, your options are fairly limited. You could back up your files to
floppy disc, but as soon as your files
become larger than about 1.2Mb, it
starts to get messy keeping track of
which disc is first, second, third and
so on. Backing up large amounts of
data is also very time-consuming.
Alternatively, you could use your
trusty modem. However, with a maximum data transfer rate of 9600 baud,
it could be quite some time before you
get your telephone line and your computer back again. Even with the various data compression systems, . the
best serial transfer rate you can get is
Pocket hard disc
backing up) large files in the form of
the Pocket Hard Disc (PHd). This
amazing piece of technology is just
148 x 75 x 28mm in size and fits in the
palm of your hand but it can store up
to 120 megabytes (120Mb) of data.
The beauty of the PHd is that it's
fully external - it requires no internal
driver card and simply plugs into the
parallel printer port on your PC. The
sneaky thing about it is the way it
obtains its power supply - it pinches
it from the keyboard socket via an
adaptor which is supplied with the
unit.
In operation, the disc is set up as
the next logical drive in your system.
So if you already have a hard disc
designated as your C: drive, then the
PHd becomes the D: drive.
It then behaves just like a normal
hard disc drive, yet is removable in
seconds and can then be transported
to any AT/386/486 system anywhere.
Pretty neat, huh?
Now KT Technology has come up
with the answer to transferring (or
Setting it up
around 57,000 bits per second or 7Kb
per second, which is still slow if you
have to transfer megabytes of data.
Another option is to use one of the
new "floptical" disc drives. These use
a disc very much like a normal 3.5inch disc and can store up to 20Mb.
While this may sound great, the problem is that you have to assume that
the user at the other end also has a
floptical drive to read the disc. It is
also surprising just how quickly a
20Mb disc can be filled with just a
few large files.
The PHd pocket
hard disc is not
much bigger than
a 3.5-inch floppy
but, depending on
the version, can
hold up to 120Mb
of data.
88
SILICON CHIP
The Pocket Hard Disc comes complete with its own installation software. This software ensures that the
drive is recognised and checked when
the computer boots up. In normal operation, there is no change to any of
your existing software and the unit is
used just like an ordinary hard disc
drive, You can copy files to and from
the PHd disc drive in the normal manner, or use it as the logged drive when
working in a word processor or some
other application.
Before you install the PHd, you need
to make sure that the system is turned
oft otherwise it may be damaged or
the data lost.
The adaptor power cable is con-
This delay period is cut to about five
seconds on a 386DX machine.
The data-transfer rate is greater than
700Kb/ second and the maximum seek
time is 19ms, which is comparable to
the faster internal hard disc drives
available. This can be increased by
using a _h ard disc caching program
such as Windows SmartDrive.
Applications
The PHd pocket hard disc plugs into the computer's printer port & obtains its
power from the keyboard socket via an adapter cable. The device has no effect
on normal printer operation & can be unplugged in seconds.
nected. to the keyboard socket and
one printer port and you wish to use
then the keyboard plug fitted to the
your printer and the PHd? No probback of the adaptor socket. The power · lem. The PHd has another 25-pin D
cable is then connected to the PHd.
socket at the other end and so you just
This makes it independent of exterplug your printer into that. From then
nal power supplies which means that
on, you just print files in the normal
it can be used all over the world.
way as though the PHd was not there.
There is also a printer port cable
But back to the installation of the
which is suppliedwith 25-pin D sockPHd.
ets at each end tci connect the PHd to
Formatting
the parallel port.
Before you can start using the PHd,
Once the appropriate file has been
there are a number of changes needed
copied across, you need to format the
on your C: drive, The first of these is
PHd and check the data transfer to
and from your printer port. Formatmade to your CONFIG.SYS file so that
each time the computer boots up, it ting is done in the usual way (ie,
format D:), while the supplied disc
looks for the PHd. This is done by
adding the following lines:
contains a file called PHDINITB.COM
(for the 80Mb version) which checks
INSTALL=C: \DOS\SHARE.EXE
the data transfer and initialises the
DEVICE=PHDLPTB0.SYS
PHd.
The device driver you install deNote that this data transfer check
pends on which model you have. For
only needs to be done once.
example, if you have the 40Mb PHd
Once you've done that, switch off
model, the relevant device driver is
and reboot your machine.
PHDLPT40.SYS and so on.
You can make these changes using
Boot-testing
either EDLIN or nearly any wordprocessor. Alternatively, you could use
While your machine reboots, it tests
the Windows Notepad or the Winthe validity of the printer port to endows SysEdit feature.
sure that it will transfer data reliably.
Next, you have to take the floppy
During this time, a test message is
displayed on the screen.
disc provided and copy the
The only drawback, and it's a miPHDLPTxx.SYS file from it to the root
nor one, is that if you don't have the
directory of the C: drive. This is the
PHd plugged in when you boot up, it
only file the computer requires to contakes a 286 computer about 30 sectrol the PHd.
onds to figure out that it isn't there.
What do you do if you only have
One area where the PHd will really
excel is in backing up existing hard
disc drives. In fact, when we recently
upgraded one of our 286 machines to
a 386DX with a new 85Mb hard drive,
we used the PHd to back up the old
40Mb hard disc and then simply transferred everything over to the new system. It was that easy.
Previously, you'd either have to
back everything up onto floppies or
load in each piece of software again,
taking hours to do so. The PHd backed
up the complete disc in only a fraction of the time that would have been
taken for floppies, without the hassle
of changing anything.
The ·drop test
Because the PHd is designed to be
fully portable, the makers have designed it to withstand a 150G shock.
That means that it will well and truly
handle normal everyday bumps and
knocks and then some. But no, we did
not try the drop test. That would be
pushing things a bit too far.
The PHd also only weighs 350gm,
which is really a little heavy for your
shirt pocket, but the fact that it is so
compact brings up another important
_point - security. Because it can be
unplugged so easily, you can take a
back-up of your hard disc with you
wherever you go.
Price & availability
One of the best things about the
PHd is the price. The 80Mb unit has a
retail price of $799. When you consider that floptical drives retail for
about $850 and that floptical disks
are $30 fo $40 each, the PHd is good
value. The 40Mb version sells for $549;
the 60Mb for $599; and the 120Mb
version for $999.
For more information about the
PHd, contact the distributors, · KT
Technology, Building 7 Central Boulevard, Portside Business Park, Port
Melbourne 3207, Phone (03) 646 5755;
fax (03) 646 7997.
SC
NOVEMBER
1992
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