External hard drives not working

**silverthornne** · 09-05-2011, 04:49 PM

Hey all,

Been enjoying my Galaxy Tab a lot, especially enjoying being able to connect it to my camera and show the pictures to other people on the Tab. Much better than showing them off on the camera's LCD.

Unfortunately, my other goal with the tablet was to move files from the camera to my tab and then to an external hard drive for safekeeping (and also because external hard drives are much cheaper than more SD cards) and that is not working. I first tried a Seagate Free Agent GoFlex and it said that it needed more power than the Tab could provide. No big deal; I tried to hook it up via a USB Hub with its own power cable. It still didn't work. Then I tried a Western Digital MyBook drive. It has its own power cable, and seemed to be able to work, but moments after the MyFiles app opens (it does so automatically once I plug it in), I get a notice that the drive was unsafely removed. Well, I haven't removed it.

Both drives are formatted for FAT32 using Fat32Format for Windows. I'm using the Tab with the TouchWiz update applied. Both drives work fine on my laptop. Bad Tab?

**ziggster** · 09-05-2011, 10:22 PM

Have you tried NTFS-formatted drives? I've never had a problem with external drives, but all of mine are NTFS.

**silverthornne** · 09-05-2011, 10:28 PM

Err, I was under the impression the drives need to be FAT32. Still, I never did try NTFS, so I'll give that a shot!

**ziggster** · 09-05-2011, 10:41 PM

Let me qualify that...I have only hooked an hd up to an Asus transformer. I haven't purchased the usb adapter for the GT.

Still, didn't fat32 pretty much go away with Win98?

Edit: Looks like you are correct...no NTFS.

Bush league!

**silverthornne** · 09-16-2011, 06:26 AM

I'm guessing the Yab just doesn't support external hard drives. I tried the 500GB Seagate FFreeAgentGoFlex drive using a self-powered USB hub and a dual USB cable (one of the ends is for power only).

I plug the drive in, the status bar displays "USB Device Connected", and after a moment, the Samsung MyFiles app opens automatically. A split second after the app opens, the status bar displays "USB Device Unexpectedly Removed" and the MyFiles app does display the drive's root folder but I can't access any files nor copy anything to it. If I leave the drive connected after receiving this message and close the MyFiles app, when I open it again, the Storages folder no longer displays any content.

Figuring this may just be my Tab, I tried it on a coworker's Tab (his is the 16 GB model, mine is 32 GB) and the exact same thing happened on it. We also tried a Western Digital MyBook drive which has its own power supply and had the same result on both Tabs. Meanwhile, digital cameras, USB pendrives and card readers work just fine on both Tabs.

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**cdf3** · 09-16-2011, 07:20 AM

I'm able to transfer files to my external drive just fine. I have a NTFS drive, which the Tab can't read. So I used a partition app to partition a portion of my drive to FAT 32 to use with my Tab.
I allocated about 30 GB just for the Tablet. If your tab is having problems reading your drive, there could be the possibility that the allocated space it's trying to read is too high. Think I read somewhere that some devices can't read FAT 32 drives higher than 200 GB.
If this is the case, partition a portion of the drive to a smaller amount to be used with your tablet.

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**Jay Evans** · 09-16-2011, 02:45 PM

I tried a 120GB drive and got the same "unexpectedly removed" error. Maybe I'll try 64GB partitions.

**silverthornne** · 09-16-2011, 08:38 PM

Ahh I didn't know of such limits. I'll give that a try.

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**cdf3** · 09-16-2011, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by silverthornne

Ahh I didn't know of such limits. I'll give that a try.

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Here's a link with additional info

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**genkilljoy** · 09-17-2011, 08:37 AM

I have read before the capacity is 32gigs as the SD card is and yes the drive has to be formatted Fat32 with the first drive being 32 gig tops. It has to be the first drive. So 250 gig drive will be A drive 30 gig Fat32 Drive B would be 220 NTFS for everything else. Also the drive has to have an external power source. It would be nice if the next evolution of the keyboard docking station would allow USB drive to be used avoiding all the hassle.

**silverthornne** · 09-21-2011, 10:07 PM

Well, I just gave up on the possibility of transferring photos to an external hard drive with my Tab and just bought another 32GB SD Card for my camera.

I formatted the Seagate drive and a Western Digital drive in FAT32 format and no go. Then I tried to partition both drives in multiple combination, all the way from a single FAT32 partition for the whole drive to a max partition size of 200 GB at FAT32 (working down to 8 GB) with the rest as unallocated space and it didn't work. I also tried multiple partitions, 8 and 16 GB in size and it wasn't working either. Nothing worked. I'd really like to see someone show me this working on their Tab as I just don't think ot works. Of course, maybe it's just that the software I'm using, Partition Master, sucks...

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**Kevin Gossett** · 09-22-2011, 11:46 AM

I haven't connected my HD since I updated to TW, but my 500gb Seagate worked just fine without partitions. I will give it a try when I get home tonight

**Kevin Gossett** · 09-22-2011, 11:28 PM

So it certainly would appear that the Touchwiz update killed the external drive functionality... so that's just wonderful

I even tried removing the My Files app, since it automatically opened when the drive was connected, thinking maybe it had something to do with it. No go. I'll keep digging to see if I can work this out

**rw0749** · 09-24-2011, 10:01 AM

The only external hard drive that will work in a normal setting is the Segate "wireless" 500Gb . It is very nice.. it is compatible with the tab, your desktop, laptop, or even an Ipad... has a very long battery life and is very light.. can support sending files to 3 different devices at once...

**silverthornne** · 09-24-2011, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin Gossett

So it certainly would appear that the Touchwiz update killed the external drive functionality... so that's just wonderful

So that means it used to work before Touchwiz? Hmm, is there a way to go back? Else, I hope Samsung can issue a new update that fixes this by Tuesday since I leave on Wednesday :/