Tablet and HDD

A_Sober_Paddy

Hey all

I'm considering buying some form of tablet, one with a USB port and was wondering what sort of portable hdd would work with a tablet if any at all?

know different models of tablets will be different, i've not decided yet just looking around at the mo

Cheers in advance

Bosh

Can only speak for Galaxy Tab 3, you'll need an usb adapter (standard female usb to male micro usb) & then you can connect a stick or drive.

Drive would prob need it's own power supply, doubt very much that Tab port would have sufficient.

Drive also needs to be formatted Fat32 or exFat

HTH

SickBoy

Something from the Seagate Satellite line of drives would do nicely.
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/

Dravokivich

The type of cable you'll need is generally called "OTG."

riclad

YOU have to make sure tablet has usb mass storage mode,
i plug drive into my tablet tru usb cable, ,nothing happens ,
Even though theres a storage usb screen in my tablet menu.
i use dropbox app or 32gig sdcard to put music on my tablet.
MY manual says connect tablet to pc thru usb cable,
does not mention usb drive acess .

Theres usb storage apps in the play store , i haven,t tried them.
MY tablet came with a usb otg cable in the box, so i can plug any usb drive into the cable.
JUST because the tablet has a usb interface does not mean it ,ll detect usb drives.
Better to get a tablet with a sdcard slot so you can easily transfer data onto it.
usb to pc sdcard reader in dealz ,poundword is 2 euro.

mordeith

Oddly enough some of the mid range tablets have better options in this regard. I paid €229 for an Acer Iconia 10". I sacrificed HDMI out for a full size USB slot, which so far has taken mouse, keyboard and USB drives with no difficulty (obviously not all at the same time )

riclad

MY old tablet had a full usb interface which would acess any usb drive , windows drives using NFTS file format.or 1gig usb pendrives
my 3q tablet uses a mini usb interface.
THE funny thing is i had to install a file manager app from play store,
to acess sdcard ,files, theres no file manager on the tablet at all.
SOME tablets may need windows drivers usb installed,
so check it out before you buy ANY tablet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2IlwOAZyR4

howamidifferent

SickBoy wrote: »

Something from the Seagate Satellite line of drives would do nicely.
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/

I have one of these guys and its the business.
Paired with my Nexus 7 2013.

EDIT: I was wrong. I have this model which is newer.

zbluebirdz

I have a Sony Xperia Z tablet and can hook up external hdds to it.

What you need:
- Tablet with USB/microUSB socket with OTG enabled
- External HDD
- USB OTG cable
- USB Y cable
- External battery pack

The USB Y cable has three plugs - 2 x data and 1 x power.
- Hook the data plug, that has one cable (thick) coming out of it, into the ext HDD
- Hook the other plug, that has two cables coming out of it, into the USB OTG
- Hook the third plug, that has a thin cable, into the ext battery pack

Then plug the USB OTG into the tablet.

NB: Not all tablets allow USB OTG connections.

riclad

depends on the drive,
if your drive has its own power unit ,turn on drive,
plug drive usb cable into tablet ,via otg cable,
or INTO tablet usb port ,if it has a full size usb interface.
I USE sdcard 32gig or dropbox to get data onto my tablet.

yoyo

The Surface tablets have a full size USB ports. Great devices if windows would be an option. Otherwise as pointed out many Android tablets will mount a external HDD provided you use a USB to Mini USB adapter. Just keep in mind a portable hard drive (no external power) will likely not get enough juice to power on from one of these tablets, I amn't sure about the Surface but it would likely be the same

Nick