Database Users

[Q] USB drive?

I know on the Galaxy Nexus you can root it and using a OTG cable and hook up an external HD/USB drive to extra room.
Is there any reason why this wouldn't be possible with the Nexus 7? Will there be performance issues in say streaming a movie off a USB drive to the 7?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1736825

The Prestige said:
I know on the Galaxy Nexus you can root it and using a OTG cable and hook up an external HD/USB drive to extra room.
Is there any reason why this wouldn't be possible with the Nexus 7? Will there be performance issues in say streaming a movie off a USB drive to the 7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watch, live, and breathe this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA

USB storage is available at /dev/sda, all you need to do is mount the device which requires root access, which is easily done.
Bear in mind that any external storage will either have to be self-powered or flash based unless you want to drag a power supply for the HDD around with you as well, as the tablet won't supply enough current to power anything other than very low-wattage devices.

external hard drive?

Hi people,
I read in a review that you can connect an external hard drive to the nexus 7 (the usb powered ones) via a USB Host Cable.
Could any of you tell me if this is correct or not? As i have an Archos 80 g9 and i know it cant do it off the micro usb only the USB 2.0 slot it has.
Thanks a lot for the help
Regards
Kurpter

Yes, it is possible but you may need to provide external power to the drive. Use a powered usb hub or something like that. The Nexus 7 most likely won't be able to output enough current to power a spinning drive.

Ah ok, so you are saying that you plug the usb host connection from the nexus to the usb hub and plug the hard drive in to another port on the hub?
I just want to know if this works as 16GB isnt much space when you want to take it on a trap to watch films.
cheers

you need to be rooted. my understanding is flash drives or micro sdcards are good to go, not sure an external hd will work unless powered as previous poster alluded
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

Since N7's have been out for a few days, has anyone tried hooking up a portable hdd using a micro otg cable? I could plug my portable Toshiba hdd into my Acer A500 tablet without rooting and it would read the contents of the drive just fine. I would watch movies and view pictures as if it were an sd card. Wondered if the N7 unrooted could do the same?

ezzkmo said:
Since N7's have been out for a few days, has anyone tried hooking up a portable hdd using a micro otg cable? I could plug my portable Toshiba hdd into my Acer A500 tablet without rooting and it would read the contents of the drive just fine. I would watch movies and view pictures as if it were an sd card. Wondered if the N7 unrooted could do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it does not mount the external storage nor does it have an option to do so. You need to root and install chainfire's stickmount app for this to work.

clockcycle said:
No it does not mount the external storage nor does it have an option to do so. You need to root and install chainfire's stickmount app for this to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, root and stickmount. Does anyone need me to test an external hard drive? I can if you guys want.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I use a Seagate Wireless Drive
kurpter said:
Hi people,
I read in a review that you can connect an external hard drive to the nexus 7 (the usb powered ones) via a USB Host Cable.
Could any of you tell me if this is correct or not? As i have an Archos 80 g9 and i know it cant do it off the micro usb only the USB 2.0 slot it has.
Thanks a lot for the help
Regards
Kurpter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi. I decided to use a wireless drive to store all of my music, movies and documents. So, I purchased the Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage. You can use with Android or IOS devices. I love it.

Yes, its a no-go out-of-the box connecting to a USB thumb drive or a powered HD with a microUSB OTG cable. This doesn't really surprise me, though, because they would need to dynamically detect the device type and mount it on the system. What I haven't tried is a USB keyboard. Anybody do that?

wiithepeng said:
Yes, root and stickmount. Does anyone need me to test an external hard drive? I can if you guys want.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes could u test it out? i was thinking of buying a portable hard drive but not sure if it will have enough power to use it
does usb 3.0 work? or do i need to buy a usb 2.0

I've tested mine with an old 60GB WD Passport and a new 500GB Freecom XXS. Both are 2.5" USB powered external HDDs, and both worked fine.

chris100575 said:
I've tested mine with an old 60GB WD Passport and a new 500GB Freecom XXS. Both are 2.5" USB powered external HDDs, and both worked fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
great thanks for the info. btw is the new one using usb 3.0 or 2.0? do u know if usb 3.0 will work?

I just plugged in a full-sized USB keyboard using my OTG cable and it works fine. I can touch type, use the cursor keys including ctrl+arrows to skip words, bring up menus with the context menu key just to the left of the right-hand ctrl key, etc, etc. I'm sure it must be using up my battery at a faster rate, though.
Edit: It's just occurred to me that there's a problem with using a USB keyboard to type when the N7 is in portrait mode: finding a stand to hold the tablet upright at the right angle when the USB-OTG cable is sticking out of the USB port at the bottom of the tablet.
Mind you, it's great being able to type at full speed without a soft keyboard hiding a large chunk of the screen.
--
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

garryknight said:
Edit: It's just occurred to me that there's a problem with using a USB keyboard to type when the N7 is in portrait mode: finding a stand to hold the tablet upright at the right angle when the USB-OTG cable is sticking out of the USB port at the bottom of the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can get OTG cables with a right angled micro-USB plug on them, which might help your stand problem. I have one on its way as I was concerned about knocking/bending/snapping the straight plug when its sat on my lap in portrait mode.

Edit: It's just occurred to me that there's a problem with using a USB keyboard to type when the N7 is in portrait mode: finding a stand to hold the tablet upright at the right angle when the USB-OTG cable is sticking out of the USB port at the bottom of the tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or, just turn the tablet upside down so the cable is pointing up. The display will rotate appropriately.

I think but not sure that you'll want cm10 for the rotate from any angle thing...

chris100575 said:
I've tested mine with an old 60GB WD Passport and a new 500GB Freecom XXS. Both are 2.5" USB powered external HDDs, and both worked fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you manage it ??did you use nexus media importer

Without a custom kernel, the external hdd won't work with Stickmount or NMI if it is formatted NTFS. I haven't actually used NMI, but others have posted about the NTFS issue.

[q] otg > usb?

I know I should likely be asking in the Accessories sub-forum, but I'll give it a shot here since it's the Q&A section. I missed out on all the usb > otg cable threads, including the ones that specify which work best/which don't work or don't work at all.
With that said, my only need for otg > usb on my Nexus is to access my 1TB My PassPort external, or my 32GB Cruzer Glide to watch my HD/720p anime via Dice Player or MX Player as the anime itself will quickly clog up the space on my Nexus. That and read eBooks off one of my many usb sticks.
So I'm looking for recommendations/suggestions on which otg > usb to purchase. Can be from eBay/Amazon/etc. as long as it does the job.

I just bought one from Amazon for £2, will update you when it arrives but I don't think it matters much which one you get as long as it is an OTG cable. I just searched for "Nexus 7 OTG cable" on Amazon and picked the cheapest one. One thing I do know though is that your external hard-drive may not work as it won't get enough power from the Nexus 7, so that would need an external power source if it has the capability, as far as I know though the USB flash-drive should work fine. You also need the Nexus 7 Media Importer from the Play Store to pick up media from over USB.

Once you have a compatible OTGusb adapter I recommend you get the Stickmount app. While in the Play store getting Stickmount, note the available drivers for NTFS file systems in the Stickmount description and download them and install following the instructions. You will need those drivers for your PassPort (most likely formatted NTFS). You will also likely need a separate power supply for the Passport. I use a cable that came with my external portable dvd drive that has two usb connectors to one micro-usb. One usb to the OTG cable, one usb to power supply, micro-usb to N7. I can read/write/stream to and from my 750Gb Passport external.

How do I power an external HDD so that I can use OTG?

Hey guys!
I have a Transcend StoreJet 500gb external HDD that I want to connect to my Nexus 7 (2012). Flash based usb sticks work fine, but this hard disk with the actual spinning platter doesn't. I found out that you need to "power the hard drive with a usb hub".
I don't have a usb hub, so I thought of this. Since my External HDD has a usb cable with two usb connectors, can I plug one of them into the Nexus 7 battery charger and the other one into my nexus 7 with a OTG cable?
Can I power it properly like that?
Or is it dangerous?
If I only connect it to my nexus 7 it makes beeping sounds and doesn't get detected. Not much power output on the Nexus 7....
Please help!
Thanks in advance.

You need a powered USB hub, they aren't that expensive.
Sent from my Nexus 7(2012) that has zero issues.

SlowCobra96 said:
You need a powered USB hub, they aren't that expensive.
Sent from my Nexus 7(2012) that has zero issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there nothing else I can do?
Cost is not the issue, I just cant buy anything right now. :good:

compgenie said:
Hey guys!
Since my External HDD has a usb cable with two usb connectors, can I plug one of them into the Nexus 7 battery charger and the other one into my nexus 7 with a OTG cable?
Can I power it properly like that?
Or is it dangerous?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can do that, it is not dangerous. I power my external WD Passport HD by plugging one usb connector into the pc for power and the other into the OTG usb cable. My drive won't spin unless supplied with the additional power. I have also tried it by plugging the connector into an a/c adapter instead of the pc usb port, which also worked fine.

Groid said:
Yes you can do that, it is not dangerous. I power my external WD Passport HD by plugging one usb connector into the pc for power and the other into the OTG usb cable. My drive won't spin unless supplied with the additional power. I have also tried it by plugging the connector into an a/c adapter instead of the pc usb port, which also worked fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Connecting it to a/c adapter + tab worked! :good:
Thanks!
Ps: I tried that before too. Didn't work then. Now it worked. Weird.

Hi all,
I have a similar problem with my N7 attaching a small USB powered HDD to watch HD movies stored on that drive. Thing is, when I attach the HDD on my USB OTG cable, all i hear is a repeated "clack..clack" and nothing happens, the HDD doesn´t start. So the other day I got my Nexus 5 and for fun I tried to use the SAME HDD with the same cable and same adapter on the N5 and it worked flawlessly! Starts up, Stickount mounts it and boom!
Now how can it be that one device can work with the HDD and one not? I´mm guessing it may be related to AC voltage levels, but shouldn´t the Nexus 7 be able to deliver the same or even more power to the HDD than the Nexus 5?I don´t get it....
Thanks,
Kusie

USB OTG

I briefly searched thru the forums but I never saw a direct answer to this. My question is, is the Axon 7 powerful enough to attach and run a portable hard drive such as western digital via a type C to USB 3.0 adapter? I am about to order the adapter but I wanted to know prior to. Has anyone tried this yet?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I couldn't get it to work with my portable wd 1tb hard drive. It would spin up and the light would turn on but the Axon wouldn't recognize it. Let me know if you have better luck.

dcscorpio76 said:
I briefly searched thru the forums but I never saw a direct answer to this. My question is, is the Axon 7 powerful enough to attach and run a portable hard drive such as western digital via a type C to USB 3.0 adapter? I am about to order the adapter but I wanted to know prior to. Has anyone tried this yet?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you answer
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=68206046&postcount=3
Even shorter, is capable to power up a portable 2.5" drive (1 TB)

Nice! I'll order that dongle and give it a try! I already have files on my drive so I'll have to back up the drive before I reformat. Thanks @DrakenFX