[gui-talk] Fwd: PAC Mate FAQ: Can I connect a USB drive to a PAC Mate?

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    Daniel Keogh DKeogh at quantumtechnology.com.au
 To:      vip-l at softspeak.com.au

Can I connect a USB drive to a PAC Mate?

Yes.  There is 1 major restriction however. This generally won't apply
to Flash drives but it may to external Hard Disks. The drive must be
formatted as FAT32. 

There are a few different file systems you can use under Windows. A file
system is a way of storing information on the hard drive. The 2 most
common ones are FAT32 and NTFS. Windows Mobile 6.0 (The version of
Windows the PAC Mate is using) only supports FAT32. For some reason
Microsoft chose not to support NTFS. Freedom Scientific has no input
into what they choose to support or not. They have to make do.

By default the majority of USB Flash drives are formatted as FAT32.
Unless you know how to change this you should be able to just plug the
drive in and use it. Hard disks however are another matter. In a lot of
cases they come formatted by default as FAT32 but a lot of people
reformat them. If you want your PAC Mate to be able to read the hard
drive don't reformat it.

To find out what file system your drive is using:

1.	Highlight the drive with Windows Explorer.
2.	Press Alt Enter to go to the Properties window.
3.	Use your screen reader's review cursor to find the line with the
words "file system". This will tell you which one the drive is using.

To use a USB drive on the PAC Mate:

1.	Plug in the USB adaptor that came with your PAC Mate so that the
small USB socket on the PAC Mate becomes the larger one.
2.	Make sure your PAC Mate is turned off. Plug the USB drive in.
3.	Turn the unit on and go to the File Explorer.
4.	Navigate to the "My Device folder". The USB Drive will show up
as Hard Disk.

You can now access this as you would any other folder on the PAC Mate.
 
Regards,
Danny Keogh
Quantum Technology
Blindness Software/Hardware Sales and Support
Phone:  03 9545 4102
Mobile:  0439 022 146
Email  dkeogh at quantumtechnology.com.au
 
Our 2010 scholarship program is now open. See
www.quantumtechnology.com.au/scholarshipprogram
for more details.
 
Quantum Technology Home:  www.quantumtechnology.com.au

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
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