IO Data Device has come up with another hum-dinger. If you were to put an enormous hard drive inside a USB 2.0/FireWire casing, give it some blue LEDs, and add a USB port, you’d end up with the 400GB “UDH-UEH400.” Not only does it connect by USB (or FireWire), but it has a USB port. If you’re like me and have a single USB port on your computer, you certainly wouldn’t want it being taken up by just a hard drive. Yeah, I know daisy chaining has been around for years and years with SCSI (and thus FireWire, its distant cousin), but I think this is one of the first applications of it I’ve seen in USB form. Somehow, it can even recognize USB devices if you connect the drive by FireWire. Don’t ask me how that works; I didn’t realize something like that was even possible.
Press Release [IO Data Device]
Update: Ian Chiu writes:
I think the hard drive will route HDD traffic to FireWire if it is detected. But to also use USB devices off the HDD’s USB hub, you also need to connect to a USB port as well.
This is seen on Western Digital Dual-Option Media Center – a 250GB hard drive coupled with USB/FireWire interface, 2-port USB Hub & USB flash card reader.
