Anyone connect an external hard drive to their Note?

QatarHero

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Mar 2, 2014
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I am considering buying a 10.1 2014 Edition but I am concerned about the ability to connect a hard-drive to it. I have a Galaxy Note 3 and watch movies that I load onto it. I've heard that it is possible and that I would need to purchase an OTG with a mini usb port for the Note.10.1
I have also heard that the hard drive needs to be Fat32 which all of mine are.
 
Well for convenience, I like to attach my External HD to my Galaxy Note 3 and simply load movies onto it. Of course I could use a large zip drive but then I would have to load the movies etc twice instead of moving them one time. Also I want to be able to watch the movies right from the hard drive as well as have the option to move it onto the Note 10.1
 
I don't think you can. I've tried with my 1TB Toshiba , formatted fat32, and it doesn't seem to read it. I have many flash drives of varying sizes, and they all work fine connected to the OTG cable to Note, but the HDD seems to be a no go.
 
A NON fat 32 drive connected with a OTG cable should work .. As Diane mentioned its all about the format of the HD...The subject has been covered in a thread previously, a search may find it and answer your question...

Dale
 
A NON fat 32 drive connected with a OTG cable should work .. As Diane mentioned its all about the format of the HD...The subject has been covered in a thread previously, a search may find it and answer your question...

Dale


NON fat32 , ?

Can't be ntfs, or xfat, so what format wound w ork?
 
That is interesting about the Fat32 because I thought that was the only format that is read by the Note....and that it didn't read the NTFS

Sent from my Beastly Galaxy Note 3
 
That's an interesting thred. I didn't realize the part about licensing the format type. I might be wrong, but from what I can gather, to use an external hdd, it would need to be self powered, and be formatted in exfat, or fat32 to work? Does that sound about right?

Honestly speaking in terms of the future, I don't think external drives will be used for much more than backups. Even sd cards are disappearing. Everything is streaming on the net. For those people who dont have an Internet connection I think a windows product would suit you better. I doubt android will ever move in the direction of removable storage, and android will never replace windows.

Just an afterthought, what about external ssd drives? I guess they would still be limited to file sizes of 4gb?

OK just read the part about nexus media importer in the play store. That seems to be the easiest solution.
 
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Yes it is possible. My GNP recognizes my external hard drive . It just needs to be formatted to Fat32 to work. Also the more you have on the external hard drive the more extended it takes the GNP to read it.
 
I thought it wasn't possible to read an NTFS volume with my Note. I was surprised that I could mount with ES File Explorer. I was able to read from my 1TB external HDD.
 
I made the same expeirence as aliases with a Note 4 and ES File Explorer. Though I was only able to read from the 2TB Passport Ultra. No success writing from my Note 4 to the external HDD so far. :(
 
I have a Samsung 1TB Hard Drive that works flawlessly with my Note 3. First I have to connect my Zek Hub, then connect my Samsung 1TB Hard Drive to the Zek Hub/Card Reader.

I'm hoping the HD will also work with my Note 4. I had to order a different Card Reader/Hub for my Note 4, which should arrive tomorrow. So I will know soon if my Note 4 will read my Samsung 1TB Hard Drive .....
 
I am considering buying a 10.1 2014 Edition but I am concerned about the ability to connect a hard-drive to it. I have a Galaxy Note 3 and watch movies that I load onto it. I've heard that it is possible and that I would need to purchase an OTG with a mini usb port for the Note.10.1
I have also heard that the hard drive needs to be Fat32 which all of mine are.

Hiya...ive had a WD external 320 gb drive working through a OTG...it was mains powered...my 500gb WD drive didnt work but wasnt main powered...ntfs will not work...fat32 works....had my 64gb thumb drive...external drive above work with OTG on my galaxy note 3..4...8.0...10.1 and 12.2....external drives must have mains power.....but i believe there is a app to help with ntfc format but im not sure if device needs root or not

That's an interesting thred. I didn't realize the part about licensing the format type. I might be wrong, but from what I can gather, to use an external hdd, it would need to be self powered, and be formatted in exfat, or fat32 to work? Does that sound about right?

Honestly speaking in terms of the future, I don't think external drives will be used for much more than backups. Even sd cards are disappearing. Everything is streaming on the net. For those people who dont have an Internet connection I think a windows product would suit you better. I doubt android will ever move in the direction of removable storage, and android will never replace windows.

Just an afterthought, what about external ssd drives? I guess they would still be limited to file sizes of 4gb?

Yes the external drive needs to be powered...ive just tried a seagate mains powered 1TB drive on note 4 and 10.1 and the samsung file manager and solid explorer premium both read and play movies in Avi.. mp4 h.264 ..mkv and the new hc.h.265 codec...hope this helps
 
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I managed to connect and write to a 1tb toshiba portable and no wxternal power. However I cant do it with a 2tb harddrive WD ultra. Can anyone please help. ES work but you can write
 
I am considering buying a 10.1 2014 Edition but I am concerned about the ability to connect a hard-drive to it. I have a Galaxy Note 3 and watch movies that I load onto it. I've heard that it is possible and that I would need to purchase an OTG with a mini usb port for the Note.10.1
I have also heard that the hard drive needs to be Fat32 which all of mine are.





It doe work I have a wd passport ultra. The note 4 software recognises it no problem. Format it in exfat I think and use a otg cable or adapter. Word of warning eject your hard rive otherwise it won't recognise the hard drive