Info on USB host?

[LynnL]

Hi -- was wondering if someone who has this tablet can report on how the USB host functionality works, particularly with a portable hard drive? Do you just plug it in, and you're able to transfer files from the drive to the tablet? Can you transfer to both the internal memory and the SD card easily?

Thanks!

 

[wynand32]

I haven't tried it, but my understanding is that it does work, only the external drive needs to be formatted in some variant of FAT. The Excite doesn't support NTFS, unfortunately.

 

[BurlyEd]

I bought an OTG cable and used it to connect to several usb sticks.
Then I tried portable hard drives. The ones which are formatted fat32 worked ok, the ntfs drives were not recognized. The Excite can access a thumb drive or a hd without requiring optional external power.

Then I bought a 7 port D-Link USB hub. 2 of the slots provide extra power.
I was able to attach 2 fat32 hard drives (a 500GB Samsung and a 250GB WD, I had an SD card in the tablet and a thumb drive in the hub, and I still had 4 free usb slots open for more thumb drives or even a network adapter (untested).

I can play movies, music, etc. from the SD and thumb drive(s) and both hard drives. To copy or move files you need a file manager. I use Astro. I cannot see much of the internal memory as it is still (?) not possible to gain root access. I tried unsucessfully to find the Owners Manual (a pdf file) in internal memory.

This was better than I expected, but the ACER A510 reportedly can also connect to ntfs drives, in case you want to create a server farm.

 

[LynnL]

Thanks, Ed, that's what I wanted to know. My external drives are FAT32 anyway, so it's not a problem. I'm a Xoom owner and this is the one big thing missing on the Xoom, IMO.

I also like that the Excite uses regular SD cards instead of micro (easier to insert and remove) up to 64 gb.

Let's face it, I'm mostly trying to justify the $450 for a new tablet to myself

 

[barskin]

You know, I'm wondering. Is $450 all that much for a top quality tab? An iPad (newest) is $499 for wifi, 16gb. And 16gb on an iPad means 16gb - period. I just got a great deal on ebay for a top quality 64gb sd card ($39.95), so my 16gb Excite is really an 80gb Excite.

 

[LynnL]

I am not saying I think the Excite is overpriced or expensive. But it is still $450 (over $500 once you add a case and a nice big SD card) and that isn't chump change to me. My Xoom is only a bit over a year old, so it's a bit hard to justify to myself

 

[barskin]

I am not saying I think the Excite is overpriced or expensive. But it is still $450 (over $500 once you add a case and a nice big SD card) and that isn't chump change to me. My Xoom is only a bit over a year old, so it's a bit hard to justify to myself

Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. I am such a spendthrift when it comes to these tablets. My Acer A500 is only a few months old, so I am waaaay worse than you. Now you can tell yourself, "hey, I'm not as bad as that degenerate device junkie, barskin."

 

[rushmore]

The Excite formats:


Fat32 = works fine for reading files, but does not allow third party apps to write.

exFat = works fine for reading and writing, plus allows bigger files to be used than fat32.

Ntsf = No driver support.

I am using a 128gb sd card formatted exfat and works great even with large hi def files.

 

[tbodroid]

can you please, please tell me how you got USB external hard drives to work on the Excite 10? I just got my tablet back from toshiba tech support for this reason, and their answer was that the Excite can not read hard drives; but the internet is littered with comments like yours of users making it work!!! I'm at a total loss.. I have tried 3 hard drives, one with it's own power source, two USB powered, all of them FAT32, none of them have worked! Also, when I plug the tablet into my computer, nothing happens- it just charges, but it doesn't register as an external device on Windows 7. Please help.

 

[Jutta Carl]

Greetings;
I believe you need a OTG cable(available on Amazon for a few dollars) and plug it into the micro USB port. Hope this helps. Regards