Epson P-5000 and Small External USB Drives Fail

[ozphtoto]

I purchased an Epson P-5000 because of the inclusion of a USB port, and the fact that Epson brags about the ability to back-up your files to an external usb drive.

http://www.epson.ca/cgi-bin/ceStore/consum...es&oid=60068772

I am aware the drive must be formatted as FAT32 and the usb drive must have an ac adaptor for power.

I tried a Lacie 160Gb drive, formatted with FAT32 and an ac adaptor and the Epson display an message saying it can't connect etc etc. The Lacie drive works fine on a PC.

I called Epson Canada and Epson US and they refuse to tell me what external drives works with their product. They have no solution to my problem.

I don't want to drag a laptop into the field, that why I bought the Epson but I can't leave my photos to one device hence the external drive I would like.

Right now I am frustrated and almost ready to return the Epson for a full refund.

Anybody have an Epson and a small external usb hard drive that works troublefree???

 

[andyptak]

I have one too, but I think that you misunderstand the promo blurb from Epson.

My reading of it - and the way I use mine - is that I can transefer files from another USB drive - via my computer. You can set the Epson up as an additional USB drive and using your computer, copy files from one external drive to another.

I wish that it did have the feature that you were expecting. All in all, I think the unit is okay, but not much more than that. Epson seem to have orphaned it with minimal firmware updates - I can't read the RAW from my Sony A700, I have to shoot RAW/JPEG - because they just haven't bothered to add more supported cameras.

It's a shame, because with a few more features, which wouldn't take them a lot of effort, it could become a real "must have" device, rather than the convenient toy that it is now. Cheers.

[LARRYWESTBROOK]

Suggest you contact Bob Krist --bobcrist.com.Bob mentioned the Epson 5000 in an Outdoor Photographer article some months ago.As I understand it,he is using a small hard drive connected to the 5000 only. I don't recall the exact issue of OP.

[andyptak]

Larry - did you contact Bob Krist? I'm interested in the answer too. I checked the magazine's archives for his artcle an couldn't find any mention of the Epson.

[ozphtoto]

Larry - did you contact Bob Krist? I'm interested in the answer too. I checked the magazine's archives for his artcle an couldn't find any mention of the Epson.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I have pasted his reply here.

Your LaCie should work if 1,  it has it's own power supply AND 2.  it is formatte to FAT32, the Windows format.  I've had success with LaCies, Transcends, Firelites, etc. etc., but the drive must be formatted to FAT 32, which you can do with Disk Utility on your Mac (if you are on a Mac). I don't use PC so I can't advise you how to format an external drive with Windows or Vista.

Hope this helps. Bob Krist

And his last reply to me

Mark: The other drives I've had good luck with are the OtherWorldComputing USB drives (www.otherworldcomputing.com) and the GTech drives (you have to google this one..I'm out of my office).  You get people that either seem to love LaCie or hate them, depending on the availability.


So based on what Bob Krist says I went and purchased a Smart Disk (now owned by Verbatim) 160GB with power suppy, there is a small switch at the back which allows you to use either an external power supply or have it USB powered.

I haven't tried it yet, will today sometime.

I also have a response by Epson below on this issue, but hopefully this Firelite will work.

 It must be USB Mass Storage Class compatible.
(But not all Mass storage Class device are supported.)
- It must be in FAT compatible format(FAT/FAT32). NTFS nor HFS+ are not
supported.
- It must be self powered with its own AC supply. Bus powered HDD drives may
not work. NOTE: The power consumption of many 2.5 inch HDD drives is bigger than the
power supply from the USB.
- You should connect the AC adapter to the Viewer as well.
- It should have only one partition.
- There is no actual drive size limitation, however we confirmed with a 200 GB drive.

NOTE: the FAT32 file system supports up to 2 TB.
see: [a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32[/url]

We will be posting the guidelines for using External USB HDD devices on our support pages shortly.

We hope this helps
Best Regards,
Tony C.
Epson Product Support

I have several formatters for FAT32 in Windows if you need them

[ozphtoto]

I have pasted his reply here.

Your LaCie should work if 1,  it has it's own power supply AND 2.  it is formatte to FAT32, the Windows format.  I've had success with LaCies, Transcends, Firelites, etc. etc., but the drive must be formatted to FAT 32, which you can do with Disk Utility on your Mac (if you are on a Mac). I don't use PC so I can't advise you how to format an external drive with Windows or Vista.

Hope this helps. Bob Krist

And his last reply to me

Mark: The other drives I've had good luck with are the OtherWorldComputing USB drives (www.otherworldcomputing.com) and the GTech drives (you have to google this one..I'm out of my office).  You get people that either seem to love LaCie or hate them, depending on the availability.
So based on what Bob Krist says I went and purchased a Smart Disk (now owned by Verbatim) 160GB with power suppy, there is a small switch at the back which allows you to use either an external power supply or have it USB powered.

I haven't tried it yet, will today sometime.

I also have a response by Epson below on this issue, but hopefully this Firelite will work.

 It must be USB Mass Storage Class compatible.
(But not all Mass storage Class device are supported.)
- It must be in FAT compatible format(FAT/FAT32). NTFS nor HFS+ are not
supported.
- It must be self powered with its own AC supply. Bus powered HDD drives may
not work. NOTE: The power consumption of many 2.5 inch HDD drives is bigger than the
power supply from the USB.
- You should connect the AC adapter to the Viewer as well.
- It should have only one partition.
- There is no actual drive size limitation, however we confirmed with a 200 GB drive.

NOTE: the FAT32 file system supports up to 2 TB.
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

We will be posting the guidelines for using External USB HDD devices on our support pages shortly.

We hope this helps
Best Regards,
Tony C.
Epson Product Support

I have several formatters for FAT32 in Windows if you need them
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=210585\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just wanted to update the problems I have had with a small USB external hardrive.

I have found that a reliable small USB external drive to use with the Epson Photo Viewer is the Verbatim 160GB Firelite.

It has a switch on the back which allows you to switch from using USB power to using an optional power adaptor which you must use with an Epson.

Also you must format the drive as FAT32, Verbatim provides this on the drive when you open the package.

The drive was originally a Smart Disk now owned by Verbatim.

Thanks to Bob Krist for this info.

I have copied a card over to the Firelite and back again, and also pulled the USB cable to see whether the Epson finds it again and was successful.

I will now not take a laptop with me on my trip to the Great Bear Rainforest only the Epson P-5000 and the Firelite for a safe secondary storage location for photos.

Oh and lots of memory cards.