Thursday 19 December 2019

The IODD Mini is now available

The crowd-funded IODD Mini (<Amazon link - please use this if ordering from USA or UK) seems to have arrived at last, after 2 years of waiting.

IODD on Amazon Germany here.

IODD Mini 256GB version is approx $135
Apparently it contains a KingSpec 2242mm M.2 SSD NGFF Internal Solid State Drive SATA III and so you could swap it out for a different one.


I haven't tried it yet but it seems to have good reviews (but a few minor niggles with the firmware still). It supports multiple partitions too (e.g. NTFS+exFAT)! Hold down the [3] key and it will be write-protected.


More official videos here.

Since many BIOSes are UEFI-only these days, these devices are an ideal solution for the professional 'tech' and it should be reasonably robust (as long as you always disconnect the USB cable from it before transportation, to avoid straining and damaging the USB socket and PCB).

You can also add E2B to it to boost it's features.

Message from IODD:
IODD MINI is currently preparing more advanced firmware.
We're also building a new homepage.
Early next year, the new website will provide firmware, mobile guides and more.
Unfortunately in Europe, we are delaying our release due to various issues.

Add a USB battery power pack + USB 2.0 Y-cable

You have to connect it to a USB port in order to see and change the currently loaded ISO\VHD, so a battery pack with USB connector is useful - you can then load the ISO you want and write protect it before you connect it to a potentially infected system.

The battery pack + Y-cable is also useful if you come across a notebook which has insufficient USB power. It is also useful for booting from devices which boot really quickly such as Chromebooks (which have no reset/reboot button) - when the IODD firmware does not have enough time to boot up and show itself as a 'USB DVD' device before the BIOS can look at it (just connect the battery pack + Y-cable to the system so the IODD is powered up first).

You should also supply a USB 2.0 Y-cable as well as a USB 3.1 cable. Sometimes, some systems have BIOS I/O issues with USB 3 due to signal integrity design issues - simply using a USB 2.0 cable solves this issue.

P.S. It is Christmas soon, so start dropping hints or maybe treat yourself...

29 comments:

  1. Steve,
    THIS IS FANTASTIC!!!
    Do you recommend to buy now from US through Amazon International Shipping in Italy or waiting till it will be available in Europe?
    Thanks a lot for he news.
    barrow

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was supposed to be available at end of November on Amazon EU but it's not there yet. I guess it depends on how long you can wait...

    ReplyDelete
  3. All is very, very strange!
    Surfing in the offcial IODD website, no announcement seems to be there for the new product...

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y465VX1?pf_rd_p=2d1ab404-3b11-4c97-b3db-48081e145e35&pf_rd_r=NRJPBJEX7Y5V1NAQEDSD

    ReplyDelete
  5. Prudence.
    Better safe than sorry!
    I think to wait till it will be available within Europe.
    On the other hand, in the official website I saw no firmware version present to download, so that in case like this one, I think it is better waiting for the first firmware release, due to a lot of reasons...
    Anyway, thanks for the precious info.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Gregory,
    is that the first Zalman/IODD you have ?

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  7. I had written an e-mail to Alex Koh ( 고봉석 ) from IODD and received the following answers:
    IODD Mini is high price. and We have no return address.
    So We don't sell in EU yet.
    If this problem is cleared, We will sell in EU.
    Yes you can replace, but the SSD Max power consumption may be lower than 2W.
    Internal interface: M.2 NGFF 42mm
    all warranties are invalidated (IODD MINI body and m.2 ssd)

    I ordered 2 pcs (256Gb) with AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping and the delivery time to Germany was 3 days.
    I'm thrilled.

    Total Before Tax: $295.71
    Import Fees Deposit: $59.74
    Estimated Tax: $0.00
    Order Total: $355.45
    *EUR 326,95

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unfortunately this was not possible because I ordered before you reported about IODD Mini.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for the reviews on our products.
    IODD MINI is currently preparing more advanced firmware.
    We're also building a new homepage.
    Early next year, the new website will provide firmware, mobile guides, and more.
    Unfortunately in Europe, we are delaying our release due to various issues.
    We will do our best to satisfy our users.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Would gladly buy USB Type-C version of the device.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great news, thanks for it...

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  12. Then I put the SSD 2242 M.2 SATA KingSpec 2TB there
    - If I copy large files there, then ioddMini is disconnected.
    - If I look at the SSD information through the CrystalDiskInfo program, then information about "Total host reads", "Total host writes", "Power on count", "Power on hours" is not displayed there.

    Has anyone come across this? Why is that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. probably that ssd consumes more than 2W so the device can't handle it. i had similar issues with a zalman zm-ve400 (hdd case) that couldn't handle a WD blue, bit worked fine with toshiba low power drives

      Delete
  13. IODD say:
    Yes you can replace, but the SSD Max power consumption may be lower than 2W.

    Maybe power issue?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What SSDs are compatible with ioddmini?

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    2. I have no idea. Why not use a USB 3 Y-cable and connect a USB battery power pack to provide extra 5V power to it and see if it works?

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    3. Which SSD is in the IODD itself?
      It says on the original SSD: iodd MST1000-256.
      Is this some kind of rebranding?

      Delete
    4. I don't have one, maybe the SMART data would give you a clue? Maybe connect it to a PC mainboard and read SMART data?

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    5. Here is such an original SSD inside ioddmin, what kind of SSD is it? is it rebranding?
      https://imgur.com/a/nM0wvnC

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    6. You would need to peel off the label and photograph both sides and look for clues on the PCB silk screen printing, etc.

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    7. From the layout it is this one:
      https://www.ebay.de/itm/Goldenfir-480GB-360GB-240GB-60GB-120GB-M-2-2242-SSD-NGFF-Solid-State-Drive-SSD/183597258471?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D5ce755eec4894e039f17bb024e22a1b2%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D333371884701%26itm%3D183597258471%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

      Delete
    8. Or here: https://www.amazon.com/Ocamo-Goldenfir-Laptop-Notebook-Desktop/dp/B07M6QKL23?th=1

      Delete
  14. IODD MINI is now available on Amazon Germany.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Are you sure about the 2W. I cheched the specs from Goldenfir (layout looks like the one used by iodd) and Kingspec. Kingspec 1TB SSD is 3.85W and the seller of the goldenfir 960gb ssd told me "maximum power consumption 5 ~ 10W, average 4 ~ 5W".
    Even the Kingspec 256GB SSD has a working power consumption of 2.52W.
    http://www.kingspec.com/product/28.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 2W is what the manufacturer says that the IODD mini is rated for. So he should know!

      Delete