Android and external hard drives

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crackrdbycracku

1168 posts

Uber Geek

#141378 11-Mar-2014 08:47

Hey,

A couple of years ago I looked into this and basically it was hard if not impossible to hook up a large (probably NTFS formatted) hard drive to an Android device for moving files or video play back.

The issues were varied including plugs and software.

Mind you 'a couple of years' is a long time in Android land so as I'm considering a return to the fold what is the situation now? I'm interested in phones, tablets and what ever else runs Android.

J

Didn't anybody tell you I was a hacker?

nzlegs

52 posts

Master Geek

#1002578 11-Mar-2014 09:08

I have used external hard drives on my Nexus 7 (otg dongle and Nexus media support App required).
1TB HDD or 256GB SSDworks.

My Galaxy Tab 2 does not work, but Surface Pro does. The Galaxy Tab 2 works with external flash drives though.

1eStar

1604 posts

Uber Geek

#1002819 11-Mar-2014 14:35

Depends on the power requirement of the drive, and should be formatted correctly. FAT32 etc. I've got a seagate 320G hard drive that my galaxy note 2 will run. Usb drives all seem to work once formatted. OTG cables are cheap as on eBay.

kiwitrc

4123 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1002826 11-Mar-2014 14:59

You can also get an OTG cable with a power extension for drives your device cant run.

nzlegs

52 posts

Master Geek

#1002946 11-Mar-2014 19:00

Just tried my S3 phone. It works with external flash (USB) drives but not external HDD of any description. That is, it requires the otg dongle. I have not yet tried with the Y power cable.

Have to use that cable with a DVD drive and theSurface Pro.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1002951 11-Mar-2014 19:10

NTFS is the problem, without that then you cant fit most movies onto a drive without breaking it apart. In theory you should be able to use exfat on things claiming to support 64 gig micro sd cards, but I would rather not use that file system for things I actually care about.

Richard rich.ms