Attaching EXT USB Hard Drive

[Guest hitchikr]

Hi all,

First off thanks for all your efforts with ROM it is very very good.... :P

I am using the 1.4Beta Rom.

I have a Western Digital external USB drive, can I attached it to my tablet to view

movies and if so how? I have played around but cannot figure it out... :rolleyes:

Any help appreciated.

Paul

Edited May 24, 2011 by hitchikr

[Guest trevor432990]

You need to switch the Vega to HOST mode if it isn't already. Plug the drive in the USB. Wait a few minutes then you should be able to access it via ifilemanager also have you read this earlier thread yet? :P

[Guest hitchikr]

You need to switch the Vega to HOST mode if it isn't already. Plug the drive in the USB. Wait a few minutes then you should be able to access it via ifilemanager also have you read this earlier thread yet? :P

Many thanks for your reply and the link to that thread.

How do you switch between USB host and slave mode on the Vegacomb 1.4 Beta ROM?

I have plugged in a 8Gb stick formatted to FAT32 and also my WD 250Gb Hdd and nothing happened

with so suspect I am in wrong mode.

Thanks

Paul

[Guest windin101]

Many thanks for your reply and the link to that thread.

How do you switch between USB host and slave mode on the Vegacomb 1.4 Beta ROM?

I have plugged in a 8Gb stick formatted to FAT32 and also my WD 250Gb Hdd and nothing happened

with so suspect I am in wrong mode.

Thanks

Paul

after you turn on wait for the screen to light up then hold down on the back button until the tablet has finished booting

[Guest hitchikr]

after you turn on wait for the screen to light up then hold down on the back button until the tablet has finished booting

Thanks for your help, last daft question, is there a way to tell which mode you are in?

Many Thanks

[Guest Stevonator]

I don't believe there is ... I suppose if you were able to get your hard drive or USB working, the only way to tell would be whether or not the Vega recognises it.

But I'm prepared to be proven wrong :P

S

[Guest Dave Marchant]

I don't believe there is ... I suppose if you were able to get your hard drive or USB working, the only way to tell would be whether or not the Vega recognises it.

But I'm prepared to be proven wrong :P

S

There is a widget to display USB Mode for the Corvus5 ROM - check in the first post of the Corvus5 post. Not sure if it will work with Vegacomb or any of the other ROMs though.

[Guest trevor432990]

There is a widget to display USB Mode for the Corvus5 ROM - check in the first post of the Corvus5 post. Not sure if it will work with Vegacomb or any of the other ROMs though.

It used to show in SETTINGS > ABOUT DEVICE in the Kernel Version whether your are in SLAVE/HOST mode does it not in your case?

[Guest premieral]

There is a widget to display USB Mode for the Corvus5 ROM - check in the first post of the Corvus5 post. Not sure if it will work with Vegacomb or any of the other ROMs though.

No doesnt work with this rom, like steve says only way is probably plug a usb device in and see if its recognised :P

[Guest Cozza]

No doesnt work with this rom, like steve says only way is probably plug a usb device in and see if its recognised :P

I wonder what would happen if you connect your Vega to your PC when its in host mode.

The PC will be pumping out 5V and so will the Vega, anyone done this? will it do any damage.

[Guest trevor432990]

I wonder what would happen if you connect your Vega to your PC when its in host mode.

The PC will be pumping out 5V and so will the Vega, anyone done this? will it do any damage.

It is safe no worries on that score. :P

[Guest hitchikr]

Thanks for your help everyone, I can now get it

into the right mode and it flags up when I connect

a USB drive BUT...there is always but.... :P

When I click on a film it say that file does not exist?

Any suggestions.

[Guest Cozza]

It is safe no worries on that score. :P

Hi

When I installed R8 one of the reasons was that I could change between client and host modes, but I did worry that if I left it in host would I do some damage, so thanks for the info very useful, I got a docking station at long last yesterday from PC world so this becomes less if an issue as I can plug into the dock.

Do you know if I can connect to the PC using the side USB to access the as a mass storage device and at the same time have usb devices connected to the dock?

Cheers.

[Guest scarrie]

i

Thanks for your help everyone, I can now get it

into the right mode and it flags up when I connect

a USB drive BUT...there is always but.... :D

When I click on a film it say that file does not exist?

Any suggestions.

I'm getting the same with an NTFS drive, left my FAT usbkey at work so can't try that yet.

On vegacomb 1.5.

Steven

[Guest Greyowl]

Hi Guys, I`m a complete Vega newbe ( only had it for 3 days) am running r8, can get a flash drive visible and useable in HOST mode, but not my Freecom 500GB 2.5inch hard drive ( fat32 ), it just doesn`t show up. I presume it would be in MNT/USB/SYSTEM_USB folder ?

Sorted my wifi not connecting issue, changed router to "WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK" and connects instantly every time :-)

Edited August 29, 2011 by Greyowl

[Guest TimboDavis]

Hi Guys, I`m a complete Vega newbe ( only had it for 3 days) am running r8, can get a flash drive visible and useable in HOST mode, but not my Freecom 500GB 2.5inch hard drive ( fat32 ), it just doesn`t show up. I presume it would be in MNT/USB/SYSTEM_USB folder ?

Sorted my wifi not connecting issue, changed router to "WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK" and connects instantly every time :-)

I used a Western Digital successfully when using r8 but sometimes I needed to simply pull out the USB connector and then reinsert it before I could see it in ifile manager. It took at least a couple of minutes too, which I assume is because of the info being loaded.

See what happens dude. On the down side, a mate of mine using r8 had an external drive that just wouldn't work. We tried it on about 5 other Vegas.

Good luck!

[Guest Greyowl]

I used a Western Digital successfully when using r8 but sometimes I needed to simply pull out the USB connector and then reinsert it before I could see it in ifile manager. It took at least a couple of minutes too, which I assume is because of the info being loaded.

See what happens dude. On the down side, a mate of mine using r8 had an external drive that just wouldn't work. We tried it on about 5 other Vegas.

Good luck!

I`ve tried 2 different 2.5 drives, both Fat32, a Samsung G2 320GB and a Freecom Classic 500GB, both USB powered, but neither of them seem to want to work.

I know the Freecom uses more power from the USB port as it will only work on the rear USB ports of my PC, it beeps at me if I plug it into the front ports whch cannot supply enough current, but the Samsung works on any port even lower power.

I`m wondering if I`m looking in the wrong mount directory on the Vega ?

Should it be MNT/USB/SYSTEM_USB ? the same as a flashdrive ?

[Guest IanTurner]

You do have the power adapter plugged in while trying this don't you ?

[Guest Greyowl]

Yes, tried with and without power adapter, tried different USB cables, still no joy :-(

[Guest TimboDavis]

I`m wondering if I`m looking in the wrong mount directory on the Vega ?

Should it be MNT/USB/SYSTEM_USB ? the same as a flashdrive ?

Yes, it's the SYSTEM USB directory if I remember rightly. Somebody told me there may be different voltage requirements from drive-to-drive but whether there is any truth in that I have no idea. I assumed that all USB drives used a 'standard' supply. Feel free to put me right!

[Guest thedicemaster]

voltage shouldn't be a problem for 2,5" drives.

a problem could be the partition layout though.

could you do the following with a drive that isn't recognised?:

reboot the tablet.

use a root-capable file browser. "root access" might not be necessary, but you need to at least be able to see system files.

es file explorer can be used for this.

go to /dev/block/vold/ this is a symbolic folder used by linux to display all detected partitions.

now remember(or write down) all files in that folder.

then attach a USB hard drive, and check the that folder again.

it should add some files after attaching a hard drive.

if it does, please list all files added.

if no files are added it means your drive isn't recognized at all(in which case it's probably voltage or a damaged cable)

android is not built for external hard drives, so it occasionally has trouble mounting certain filesystems or partitions.

[Guest Greyowl]

voltage shouldn't be a problem for 2,5" drives.

a problem could be the partition layout though.

could you do the following with a drive that isn't recognised?:

reboot the tablet.

use a root-capable file browser. "root access" might not be necessary, but you need to at least be able to see system files.

es file explorer can be used for this.

go to /dev/block/vold/ this is a symbolic folder used by linux to display all detected partitions.

now remember(or write down) all files in that folder.

then attach a USB hard drive, and check the that folder again.

it should add some files after attaching a hard drive.

if it does, please list all files added.

if no files are added it means your drive isn't recognized at all(in which case it's probably voltage or a damaged cable)

android is not built for external hard drives, so it occasionally has trouble mounting certain filesystems or partitions.

contents of dev/block/vold with no drive plugged in are :

179:24

179.25

contents of dev/block/vold with drive plugged in ( USB host mode ) are :

179:24

179:25

8:0

8:1

Edited September 3, 2011 by Greyowl

[Guest Greyowl]

contents of dev/block/vold with no drive plugged in are :

179:24

179.25

contents of dev/block/vold with drive plugged in ( USB host mode ) are :

179:24

179:25

8:0

8:1

Tried a 3rd Fat 32 drive 20GB( RCA Lyra MP4 media player) that didn`t work either. Also bought a Vega docking station today and that didn`t make any difference, do I need to run a script to access the drive ?