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Hands-On: Datel 4GB Hard Drive for Sony PSP - Details, Benchmarks, Compatibility Tests & Image Gallery
Mon Oct 17 2005 19:34:31 Hong Kong Time - Sony PSP

If you are a proud owner of a Sony PSP system, storage space (or what's on your Memory Stick) and battery power become the two main factors to consider before you head out into the wild. Our friends at Datel have developed an exciting solution for both of your problems. What was still an unconfirmed rumour last week is reality today: Lik Sang received the first sample of Datel's 4GB Hard Drive for the PSP, and in old Lik Sang fashion we couldn't resist to open it up, play around and take a VERY close look.

4GB Hard Drive for Sony PSP - US$ 199 Confirmed Price

With the very first sample of Datel's 4GB Hard Drive for Sony PSP, we received the final and confirmed price, as well as availability and shipping information. Lik Sang expects to have the product in stock by Monday, and the final and confirmed price of the unit is US$ 199. All customers who pre-ordered for the unconfirmed price of US$ 249.90 will of course get the new price applied automatically (we'll send you an email within 48h).

There is currently a huge rush on the unit and stock will definitely be limited over the next couple of weeks. Secure your unit by placing a pre-order today, compared to available Memory Sticks and expansion batteries it's a steal.

4GB Hard Drive, X2 Battery Pack, Max Media Manager

The 4GB Hard Drive for PSP consists of four parts: the Hard Drive, a X2 Battery Pack, Max Media Manager Software for Windows, and a High-Speed USB 2.0 cable to connect your PSP to your Computer.

The 4GB Hard Drive is connected with the PSP by means of what Datel calls a flexible Memory Stick™ adapter that is plugged into the Memory Stick™ slot on the PSP. Once connected, the body of the HD attaches to the back of the PSP using two location posts which slot into corresponding holes on the back of the PSP. When used in conjunction with the X2 double capacity battery the 4GB HD forms an ergonomic extension to the PSP which follows the neat lines of the handheld.

The PC software is completely optional and advanced users already setup with Memory Stick, video converting software and game saves manager may keep their old setup. If you are completely new to "media management" for your PSP, Datel's software will be good quickstart: it allows you to manage your save files, download more of them from Codejunkies, convert movies, transfer files back and forth and more. The software comes in form of an 8cm CD-ROM. When we installed it, we were asked if we would like to automatically download an update from Codejunkies.com.

You'll also find an installation guide in the box and Datel provides support virtually everywhere in the world through codejunkies.com and their European and American hotlines.

Free Space 3803 MB - Size and Performance

Once in place and the PSP switched on, the hard drive is recognized by the firmware with 3803 MB free space. Because the 4GB Hard Drive is based on Microdrive technology (see here for an illustration), it is tiny and small and therefore doesn't make any noise when it is spinning.

If you are worried about the total weight of your PSP with 4GB Hard Drive and X2 Battery Pack, we've got good news. The hard drive's weight is is about 35 grams, and the X2 only additional 80 grams. The total weight of both units connected to your PSP is not more than about 125 gram. A PSP with standard battery and a UMD in the drive weights about 320 grams in comparison.

Transferring Movies to the PSP

In this test we have transferred a movie file with about 150 MB from the PC to the PSP's Memory Stick slot.

• Transferring to Memory Stick using Media Manager: 44 Seconds.
• Transferring to 4GB Hard Drive using Media Manager: 90 Seconds.
• Transferring to Memory Stick using Windows: 35 Seconds.
• Transferring to 4GB Hard Drive using Windows: 75 Seconds.

Loading Times

Here is an overview of how loading files from the three different solutions compares. Please note that in this test we measured the time from pressing start in the PSP menu, until the file was fully loaded and could be played back. The times will of course vary depending on the file size.

• Loading from Memory Stick: 1 Second.
• Loading from 4GB Hard Drive: 8 Seconds.
• Loading from UMD: 27 Seconds.

Battery Life on Movie Playback

To answer the question if a Microdrive consumes more power than a normal Memory Stick, we have put a couple of PSP's into test and waited until they shut down before running out of power.

• Playing movie with Standard Battery and SanDisk 1G Memory Stick: 4.45 Hours.
• Playing movie with Datel X2 Battery and Datel 4GB Hard Drive: 5.45 Hours.

Replacing the Internal Hard Drive

After having done all the standard tests, it was now the time to get a screw driver and see if our theories about hard drive up- and downgrades will prove to be true. After last weeks announcement of the 4GB Hard Drive, all the tech freaks here at Lik Sang couldn't resist to conjecture about all the different possibilities should the 4GB Hard Drive turn out to be a normal Memory Stick to Microdrive (aka Compact Flash, aka ATA/IDE) adapter on the inside. Imagine if Compact Flash cards work with it, imagine if you can plug in a 6GB or 8GB Microdrive, imagine if you can trick around and actually run a 120GB hard drive on your PSP?

Now all these theories can only be proven to be true if the PSP's Firmware actually supports file systems with maximum volume sizes of over 4GB. A quick search at Microsoft.com revealed that the standard FAT (FAT16) format that the PSP uses has a maximum volume size of 4GB, only FAT32 (maximum 32GB) and NTFS (maximum 256 terabytes) would allow larger hard drives. While the PSP itself only formats FAT, a quick test revealed that the PSP doesn't have any problem with FAT32 formatted Memory Sticks created with a PC. This having said, our hope for larger hard drive support in the PSP was back and the wait to get our hands on the opened hardware was getting more and more thrilling.

Opening the 4GB Hard Drive for PSP

After removing exact 4 tiny screws, we found exactly what we were hoping for. A small 4 GB Microdrive from GS Magic (click for the datasheet).

Compact Flash Positive

Now what happens to our PSP if we remove Datel's pre-installed 4GB Microdrive, and replace it with a couple of different sized Compact Flash card from 8 MB to 256 MB, 512MB and to 1.0 GB? As expected and as hoped for, the PSP didn't have any problems with it and allowed us to use our Compact Flash cards (less expensive than Memory Sticks and Microdrives) for our movies, photos and other files for the PSP. Please note that we pre-formatted all these CF cards with a PC. As we later found out, if you format them with the Datel "Hard Drive Adapter" through the PSP's firmware, it will not correctly format and always report as 3803 MB (and the CF cards will be corrupt). Again, formatting (or reformatting to get them fixed) with the PC will do the trick and all Compact Flash cards work flawless on the PSP.

6GB Microdrive Negative

Alright, what about other Microdrives? Larger Microdrives to be exact? Powering the unit up with our good old IBM 1.0 GB Microdrive attached to it worked like a charm, and one of us had to head out and hunt down the biggest Microdrive to be found in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, this test was less successful than the Compact Flash test, and we want to spare you the exact words of our fellow Lik Sang tech support guys when they found out. To put it in decent words: while you can use the complete capacity of our newly purchased Hitachi 6.0 GB Microdrive when you are using the PSP in USB mode via your PC, the PSPs Firmware just doesn't want to recognize the drive. Bummer.

On the other hand, 3803 MB of free space was great news last week, and is still great news this week! Count each of us in to soon own one of these masterpieces (Editor: I stole the test sample for myself already). Congratulations go to Datel for providing us with a rock-solid (and innovative) product for the PSP. That's the Datel we all used to know "in the old days".

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Well, interesting.. though it hasn't made me more interested in getting a PSP. Maybe in a few years when they're half the price they are now, but it's interesting to see things like this and how they'll intersect with the homebrew PSP community..

Saw it a few weeks ago. Costs more than an ipod. They need to fix that.