Topic: [Frontpage News]Zalman ZM-VE200 External HDD Enclosure

[Zeus]

Zalman ZM-VE200 External HDD Enclosure

We have just taken a look at the Zalman ZM-VE200 HDD Enclosure + Virtual Drive.  This is a USB 2.0 + eSATA 2.5" drive enclosure that takes things up a notch with the ability to mount ISO images directly on the device.  This makes it ultra-handy and saves you from packing your entire CD/DVD library with you.  Please check out our review for all the details.

The performance of this unit for USB 2.0 transfers is pretty much standard and eSATA is a nice option for sure.  I'd be very happy if it offered power-over-eSATA as this would make it a one-cable solution for systems that support this feature.  What makes the ZM-VE200 a stand-out product is its ability to mount ISO images natively be able to manage a lot of disk images in the process. . .

Please post your thoughts, comments and questions regarding the ZM-VE200 right here.

[crashnburn]

Can you try booting a Mac OSX Snow Leopard / Leopard instance..
- A retail vanilla DMG
- An ISO of Mac Hackintosh Distro
- A modified .DMG with Mac cloning tools etc.
- Etc

I can link to specific instances that I have.. or you could try some of the above. 

The following is said to be from the manual.

The iodd[Zalman VE200] will identify the type of image file by the extension:

* .iso -- CD/DVD/Blu-Ray
* .dsk -- Hard disk image
* .ima -- Floppy disk image
* .rmd -- Removable Disk image

So, where and how do Mac .DMG files fall? Are they .ISO / .DSK or .RMD equivalents?

I noticed someone posted a review of Mac OSX being booted of its previous rev (iodd) Hard Disk Drive HDD Enclosure.

The question is..
- Which version of Mac OSX was it? Leopard or Snow Leopard?
- Was it stored as a .ISO, .IMG, .DMG (.DMG is typical imaging on the Mac)
- Also, could / would this thing be able to boot a Mac OSX .DMG or .ISO on a Hackintosh ?

[Fujitsu]

- Which version of Mac OSX was it? Leopard or Snow Leopard?

Shouldn't matter what version is was, as long as it is in a compatible format (.iso) you should be fine.



- Was it stored as a .ISO, .IMG, .DMG (.DMG is typical imaging on the Mac)

I'm going to assume it was a .iso format since .dmg  and .img isn't listed as being supported



- Also, could / would this thing be able to boot a Mac OSX .DMG or .ISO on a Hackintosh ?

.iso = yes, .dmg = probably not since it isn't listed as being supported by this enclosure.

[Zeus]

The OS is pretty irrelevant as to what you can boot off of it - as long as it is in a compatible format.  I've booted a Windows ISO on the device onto a Linux system and vice versa.... As long as the image is compatible, I'm sure it would work.

[crashnburn]

I'd really appreciate if you guys could try and boot a Snow Leopard and be for sure. Maybe rename a .DMG (typical Drive/CD/DVD dumps on a Mac are as .DMGs) to a .ISO.. and try it.

I'd appreciate if you could do a PoC and share your experience.

I am guessing it simply loads a contiguous fragment into Virtual CD emulation and Boots of it.

[Zeus]

I don't have a image of OSX - the only way I could do this is if I pirated a copy.  At this point, I'm not willing to pirate software in order to test a product...  I'll see if I can rustle up something that will work, but I can't guarantee anything at this point.

Thanks for your interest in our review!  We'll do our best to follow up.

[crashnburn]

I don't have a image of OSX - the only way I could do this is if I pirated a copy.  At this point, I'm not willing to pirate software in order to test a product...  I'll see if I can rustle up something that will work, but I can't guarantee anything at this point.

Thanks for your interest in our review!  We'll do our best to follow up.

Maybe download a copy just to TEST.. or maybe Borrow and backup a friends Snow Leopard and see if it works just for evaluating whether the Hardware boots it. 

[Fujitsu]

If your system can boot off a USB device and the image you are trying to boot off of is compatible (for example .iso) it should work, not sure what else you want him to test for you....

Minus getting the exact same system you have with the exact same image you have there really isn't much more he can do to test it for you.

[Fujitsu]

I'd really appreciate if you guys could try and boot a Snow Leopard and be for sure. Maybe rename a .DMG (typical Drive/CD/DVD dumps on a Mac are as .DMGs) to a .ISO.. and try it.

I'm pretty confident that will not work, renaming a file doesn't magically convert it into another format...

You could always get a software program to do the converstion for you, something like this would work

http://www.magiciso.com/FAQ/FAQ0011.htm

There are probably a dozen other programs that will do the same conversion for you as well.