Directly connecting a hard drive to Sony handycam HDR-CX210E

[sharifat]

I already bought a hdr-cx210e sony handycam, I tried to connect two types of passport external hard drives (WD 1 TB & Hitachi 500GB) directly to handycam by a USB adaptor ( female USB to male mini USB) not supplied by sony ( same as sony VMC-UAM1 ) but no acctivities was seen in hard drive (like hard drive LED blinking or hard drive motor noise). It seems that there is no 5 volt supply from handycam to hard drive. I connected handycam AC power to handycam too and tried 3 available settings regarding USB connection in habdycam but no success.

[Mick2011]

Hi sharifat, welcome to the Sony Forums

Can you confirm you're using Direct Copy (see the User manual p.55) to transfer to the external drives?

You do need AC power to the camera in order to do this. Sony usually point out that a successful transfer will depend on the device you're using, ie not all drives will work.

I notice Sony's own portable 500GB drives' compatibility list doesn't include your camera, which is odd given that the CX210E is Direct Copy enabled

Make sure the drive you use is FAT32 formatted, and you're not using a USB hub to make the connection. If all these things check out I guess you need to look at a different (AC-powered) drive.

Cheers

Mick

[sharifat]

Hi Mick

Thank you for your reply, I just found the problem, it only works with sony VMC-UAM1 cable not similar USB adaptor from other suppliers, I don't know it is a comercial trick ( sony's cable 10 times more price) or from a technical point of. It was better Sony mention it on the manual that, should only use recomended Sony cable, it was waste of time for me.

Take care

Sharifat

[Mick2011]

The VMCUAM1 is basically a USB-A>mini-B adapter – any decent cable with the appropriate connections should work just as well.

Interesting that you found a solution this way though. Thanks for updating

Cheers

Mick

[sharifat]

Hi Mick

I tried 2 such adaptor but no success, I believe Sony VMC-UAM1 is technicaly different, to propve it, just connect the Sony cable (without hard drive) to Handycam without AC adaptor, you will get the message that "connect the AC adaptor", it means that Handycam detected the Sony cable itself, but it doesn't happen with any other mini-B cable insertion. there is some thing in the cable that are detectable for handycam.

Thanks.

Sharifat