No rooting needed for Nexus 7 USB access ?

[din155]

Has anyone tried this app?

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/4700...upported-cable

Apparently rooting is not needed to access the USB drive from tablet. I will try this after reaching home tonight.

[din155]

Well, it works as simple as that. I already had a USB OTG cable, connected it to my old 8 GB flash drive that has my Calibre library on it and the app flashed a message showing my drive. I could see all the books from my flash drive on Nexus 7. I saved few books on tablet which it did smoothly. Just to be sure, I transferred some of my movies and songs on flash drive. I selected the files and transferred them to the tablet. App handled all the files equally well. Streaming of videos and songs from USB drive was quite smooth as well.
Out of curiosity, I connected a 500GB portable hard drive and for a moment I was stunned because I could see all the files, movies, songs and documents. Off course, my happiness was short lived and files started disappearing as hard drive kept disconnecting every few seconds. It doesn't matter as I didn't expect it to work with hard drive.
I am very pleased that I didn't have to root nexus 7 to connect my USB drive. Now can carry all the SD cards and flash drives I want to extend the memory of Nexus. It costs just £1.27 for the app and £1.49 for the cable.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by din155

Now can carry all the SD cards and flash drives I want to extend the memory of Nexus. It costs just £1.27 for the app and £1.49 for the cable.

What's the maximum size card it can handle - 32GB or 64GB?

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What's the maximum size card it can handle - 32GB or 64GB?

The developer dropped exFat support and it doesn't support NTSF so I think you're stuck with 32GB for the time being. The 64GB SDXC come pre-formated as exFat but you may be able to find some way to re-format it as a FAT32.

Regards - John

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Jabby

The developer dropped exFat support and it doesn't support NTSF so I think you're stuck with 32GB for the time being. The 64GB SDXC come pre-formated as exFat but you may be able to find some way to re-format it as a FAT32.

Regards - John

Thanks

[frahse]

Originally Posted by din155

Well, it works as simple as that. I already had a USB OTG cable, connected it to my old 8 GB flash drive that has my Calibre library on it and the app flashed a message showing my drive. I could see all the books from my flash drive on Nexus 7. I saved few books on tablet which it did smoothly. Just to be sure, I transferred some of my movies and songs on flash drive. I selected the files and transferred them to the tablet. App handled all the files equally well. Streaming of videos and songs from USB drive was quite smooth as well.
Out of curiosity, I connected a 500GB portable hard drive and for a moment I was stunned because I could see all the files, movies, songs and documents. Off course, my happiness was short lived and files started disappearing as hard drive kept disconnecting every few seconds. It doesn't matter as I didn't expect it to work with hard drive.
I am very pleased that I didn't have to root nexus 7 to connect my USB drive. Now can carry all the SD cards and flash drives I want to extend the memory of Nexus. It costs just £1.27 for the app and £1.49 for the cable.

Was the disconnecting because the hard drive was trying to power off the USB port. I have a 1TB drive that does that.

If so will it work if the drive is self powered?

[geekmaster]

I have a 1TB USB drive (2.5-inch), which got its power from my Nexus 7 (using root and StickMount). It successfully played a 1080p 2 hour movie with no problems. I was able to play it scaled to fit the screen, or zoom in for a cropped 1080p image.

I have USB host mode cables that I purchased at different times -- some work and some do not work with StickMount (probably missing the autosense jumper in the cable).

[afv011]

Originally Posted by frahse

Was the disconnecting because the hard drive was trying to power off the USB port. I have a 1TB drive that does that.

If so will it work if the drive is self powered?

That's my understanding as well, HDs that take power from the USB port may not work as the N7 may not be able to provide enough juice. It should be fine for self-powered HDs, as long as the HD formatting is understood by the N7.

[din155]

Originally Posted by frahse

Was the disconnecting because the hard drive was trying to power off the USB port. I have a 1TB drive that does that.

If so will it work if the drive is self powered?

That could be reason. I don't have a self powered drive so I couldn't test it.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by afv011

That's my understanding as well, HDs that take power from the USB port may not work as the N7 may not be able to provide enough juice. It should be fine for self-powered HDs, as long as the HD formatting is understood by the N7.

Perhaps different drives have different power consumption? My 1TB USB drive works great when powered from my N7, even after the battery was discharged awhile. I watched a 2.5 hour moving on mine non-stop, while it played from the attached USB HDD.

The difference MIGHT be that I uses StickMount on a rooted N7. Or perhaps my USB HDD draws less power than the one(s) had have intermittent dropouts.

Does StickMount do something special that this non-root app does not do, which could prevent the HDD dropouts?

[din155]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Perhaps different drives have different power consumption? My 1TB USB drive works great when powered from my N7, even after the battery was discharged awhile. I watched a 2.5 hour moving on mine non-stop, while it played from the attached USB HDD.

The difference MIGHT be that I uses StickMount on a rooted N7. Or perhaps my USB HDD draws less power than the one(s) had have intermittent dropouts.

Does StickMount do something special that this non-root app does not do, which could prevent the HDD dropouts?

If you done mind asking, which drive do you have?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Perhaps different drives have different power consumption?

They definately do. I have one that doesn't even get enough power from a desktop USB port to work consistently unless I use a second USB port with a USB power cable to help power it.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by din155

If you don't mind asking, which drive do you have?

WD Elements WDBABV0010BBK-00, made in Thailand before the flood.

I am glad that I stocked up on Hard Drives before the flood, which made new large drives rare and expensive (but finally falling in price again). I just unboxed my last two "pre-flood" Seagate 2TB BarracudaGreen HDDs this past week. I am trying to decide whether to format them with ZFS or Btrfs. Hmm...

[din155]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

WD Elements WDBABV0010BBK-00, made in Thailand before the flood.

I am glad that I stocked up on Hard Drives before the flood, which made new large drives rare and expensive (but finally falling in price again). I just unboxed my last two "pre-flood" Seagate 2TB BarracudaGreen HDDs this past week. I am trying to decide whether to format them with ZFS or Btrfs. Hmm...

Aah, thanks. I will buy few TBs once prices drop a bit on Amazon.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by din155

Aah, thanks. I will buy few TBs once prices drop a bit on Amazon.

Mine was only $70USD before the flood. The price these days is closer to $140 (if you can even find any in stock). My 2TB internal drives were also about $70 each before the flood, and the prices of those also doubled after the flood. Prices are beginning to fall, and you occasionally see large hard drives on sale again. Most hard drives were manufactured in Thailand, which is why the flood was so devastating to computer users. Intel had a warehouse full of computers waiting a LONG time for hard drives, before they could be sold. The phrase "putting all your eggs in one basket" comes to mind here...