[Web4lib] Outside disk usage

[McMorris,Don]

There are devices out there that you can install in a 5.25" bay, to move USB ports and whatnot up to the front.  This basically has a big cable run to the back into a free slot, and then an external cable plugs in to all the ports (IE: USB, sound, etc).

 http://tinyurl.com/a4mgm 

This particular device would retail for about $40.  Manhattan products are carried at smaller computer shops, which generally also market Intellinet network products.

This particular product reads 4 memory cards (a lot more with adapters), and relocates mic/headphone, USB, and firewire to the front of the PC.  The card reader is USB.  I believe it has an internal USB hub.  So, you install it in an available 5.25" bay, and run a cable to a free slot at the back of the pc.  From that slot (on the outside), you have a combo cable with USB, mic, headphone, and firewire.  You just plug them into the appropriate ports.  There is actually no PCI card or anything like that.

Now, one common scenario I ran into when installing these, is that people don't have firewire.  No problem.  Just cover the port with a piece of electrical tape, and don't plug in the firewire cable in the back.  the rest will still work.

With a device similar to this, you will now have an internal card reader, front headphone, and front USB.  And, because it's internal, there's little chance of theft.

I'm sure that if you looked around, you could find devices fairly similar to this from other vendors.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

--Don

------------------------ 
"Proudly serving the 964 residents of the Village of Salem, NY" 


Donald J McMorris Jr. 
Assistant Librarian 
Bancroft Public Library 
181 South Main St 
PO Box 515 
Salem, NY 12865 
Phone/Fax: (518) 854-7463 
www.slibrary.org 
XIZ / SALS-SLM 

www.slibrary.org/staff/don.mcmorris/blog/




From: Louise Alcorn
Sent: Tue 8/16/2005 3:17 PM
To: Web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Outside disk usage


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Louise E. Alcorn     --    Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdm.lib.ia.us

>>> Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins at gmail.com> 08/16/05 06:03AM >>>
>Somewhat related question: how often do people show up with pocket USB flash 
>drives and expect to plug them in?

We have at least 1-2 per day come in with USB drives of some sort (flash, thumb).  Our problem is that our somewhat older towers have their USB ports in the *back*, as you mentioned.  We've bought some extenders to bring them over the top of the tower, so the patrons don't have to turn the tower around to plug in--which all too often disconnects some cable or another.  We're trying them out--they're a bit flimsy, and could easily be stolen--I'm taping the heck out of them to attach them to the top of the tower, with a little 'give' at each end for useability.  I'm hoping this will be a deterrent.  We'll see.

We also have 3-4 machines that are using both of the USB ports for peripherals--keyboard and mouse.  I've tried to mark these so patrons don't try to use them for their flash drives.

Frankly, I'd prefer they use a USB drive than a floppy, since we've had increasing problems with disks going 'floopy' as I term it--our drives seem to have problems (we've just replaced them all, so I'm hoping this deals with some of it) and won't read a diskette properly, or will claim it needs formatting.  A lot of patrons have either lost or simply been unable to access data as a result.  Very annoying.  Hence the floppy drive replacement (we can't afford new PC's as a whole, so this is a stopgap to get us to another fiscal year).  

I've been encouraging patrons who are even remotely savvy to check for deals at local shops--Staples, CompUSA, etc.--on USB drives.  You can buy a rather ridiculous amount of storage for like 20 bucks, and I think it's worth it to them if they're moving from machine to machine.  One of our IT guys expressed a concern about plugging in a little hard drive, essentially, to the network, but I think it's a risk we take to offer better service.

My 2 cents and then some.
Louise

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