Does anyone know if it is possible to connect an EXTERNAL hard drive to a PDA (a Palm, HP, or Compaq) and access it (as if it were an extension of the PDA's storage) - sort of like a "drive D:" etc.? Any advice appreciated. Thanks

No. The PDA will not be able to power the drive for starters. Secondly there are no drivers or IDE interfaces for PDA's The IBM microdrive is your best bet, that is a hard drive for PDA's

The external drive would have its own power supply. I do not need it to be PORTABLE, just to be ACCESSIBLE by the PDA. So....Does anyone know if it is possible to connect an EXTERNAL hard drive to a PDA (a Palm, HP, or Compaq) and access that drive (as if it were an extension of the PDA's storage) - sort of like a "drive D:" etc.? I'm kind of guessing that some PDAs may be able to connect to a USB/Firewire cable....and since there are external USB/Firewire hard drives out there (which can plug into their OWN power supply), the PDA may be able to connect to such a DRIVE (and all that space) to access music, video, and other files. Any suggestions appereciated - THANKS! THANKS!

Oh, yes...the drivers would/may still be an issue. Would it be accurate that even if a connection could be made, that the Maker of the given external drive that was being connnected TO would have to provide some sort of PDA driver (which, in the end, may be the biggest issue)? Again, thanks for any suggestions.

I too am interested in doing this. I've had breif looks at the interface and it seems that compact flash has a "true ide mode". Going the other way certainly isnt a big deal - compact flash cards can basically be connected straight to ide. I too wondered about the driver issue....