S8 type C port OTG

[AC Question]

What format flash drive can s8 read? And also, can s8 read hard drives up to 1tera or 2? What brand of harddrives would you recommend for s8.

 

[mhinc]

What format flash drive can s8 read? And also, can s8 read hard drives up to 1tera or 2? What brand of harddrives would you recommend for s8.

So first, any OTG you connect to your S8 needs to be formatted FAT32, it won't recognize NTFS.
In regards to size connected to OTG, it's not a matter of the size not working, it's a matter of power.
I like the Western Digital Elements External USB drives. They are well priced, and I have had no issues with any of them to date. One is peaking at 5 years old.
Your phone can handle the size over OTG but not sure it would have enough power to run the drive itself.
If you really want to know. Typically any GOOD electronics place has a 14 to 30 days no questions asked full refund policy. Such as BestBuy. Grab one. Format it in FAT32, and plug it in, see if it works. Start with a 2TB. If it works GREAT! If not down size, but I am guessing a 1TB would use the same power as a 2TB.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Don't format as FAT32. The partition size is limited to 32 GB with FAT32. Use exFAT instead. Android can read and write to exFAT disks.

As far as power, there are hard drives with their own power supply. But these are beefier heavy duty hard drives. I'm not sure if the S8 could power your typical external drive or not. I'll test later today.

I buy a lot of drives to shuttle video files to production companies I work for. Using a computer, not my phone. Pretty much any of the $60 - $70 USD drives work well. I've used Toshiba, Seagate, and WD. 1 TB or 2 TB. Always worked well. I use heavier duty hard drives for my main edit drives, though.

I think this is my current portable drive.

Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEA1000400) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TKFEEA...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5845730

I'll let you know if it works later.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Oh, and if it doesn't supply enough power, something like this should work. You would plug one USB into a power brick and one into the OTG connector on the phone.

I checked the reviews and people are using it for this purpose on the Wii U since it doesn't supply enough power to hard drives.

Insten Dual USB 3.0 Type A to Micro-B USB Y Shape High Speed Cable for External Hard Drives/Seagate/Toshiba/WD/Hitachi/Samsung/Wii-U/Note 3 (21 Inches) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005M0ICG...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5845739

I just noticed you mentioned flash drives and hard drives. It should power a flash drive just fine. The price on them starts getting high after about 128 GB, last time I looked. You also pay more for one that is fast. I hate slow flash drives. I have one drive that takes like 2 - 5 mins to transfer 30 GB and another that would take 15 to 20 mins. Both USB 3.0. That's a big difference when I'm backing up footage in my car after a shoot and I'm in a sketchy neighborhood or trying to beat Atlanta traffic.

 

[arunma]

Anyone have issues with the S8 not recognizing OTG connected devices? After the T-mobile software update to my S8+ earlier this week, I'm unable to connect anything (even the Gear VR)! Wondering if anyone else had this problem.

 

[Seiyonblem]

Don't format as FAT32. The partition size is limited to 32 GB with FAT32. Use exFAT instead. Android can read and write to exFAT disks.

As far as power, there are hard drives with their own power supply. But these are beefier heavy duty hard drives. I'm not sure if the S8 could power your typical external drive or not. I'll test later today.

I buy a lot of drives to shuttle video files to production companies I work for. Using a computer, not my phone. Pretty much any of the $60 - $70 USD drives work well. I've used Toshiba, Seagate, and WD. 1 TB or 2 TB. Always worked well. I use heavier duty hard drives for my main edit drives, though.

I think this is my current portable drive.

Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 (STEA1000400) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TKFEEA...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU5846854

I'll let you know if it works later.

Please let us know. Thank you.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Please let us know. Thank you.

I just tried it on my WD 1 TB My Passport external drive. I used the OTG connector that comes with the phone.

Note that I had linked the wrong drive in the above post. It was a shuttle drive that I had bought and sent off a little while back. Here's the link to the one I tested:

http://a.co/95EzBEg

The drive powered up and was spinning. I forgot that I had it formatted as the Mac format. And I wasn't going to reformat it, as it's a backup drive and I didn't want to re-backup what was on it. But it gave me the option to format the disc in my notifications. So it should work fine.

I also tried my flash drive, which was already formatted as exFAT. I pulled it up right up in FX File Explorer and was able to view and play files on it.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[Sergio Sanabria]

Sorry for being late, i bought a wd my passport 1tb and its working perfect with my s8+, i have it partitioned half tera in ntfs for smart tv and half in exfat for my phone

 

[ihearlivepplz]

Sorry for being late, i bought a wd my passport 1tb and its working perfect with my s8+, i have it partitioned half tera in ntfs for smart tv and half in exfat for my phone

My 1 TB WD Passport does not power up on the s8+ :x

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

My 1 TB WD Passport does not power up on the s8+ :x

I bet if you used one of those splitter cables and plugged the other into a portable battery (or a wall charger), that it would work.

 

[ihearlivepplz]

I bet if you used one of those splitter cables and plugged the other into a portable battery (or a wall charger), that it would work.

Probably. But did the person above use an additional power source?

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

Probably. But did the person above use an additional power source?

I did not.

 

[Sergio Sanabria]

No, directly connected with a normal microusb cable and the otg adapter provided by samsung

 

[ihearlivepplz]

Figured it out. I hadn't actually tried connecting it with the My S8+ xD It was my router that I was messing with before. Connected it to the S8+ but it wants me to format first so maybe someother time.

 

[Darkerfoxtech]

What format flash drive can s8 read? And also, can s8 read hard drives up to 1tera or 2? What brand of harddrives would you recommend for s8.

I use a WD 4TB Orange My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0

I drains the battery quick tho.


I would recommend an SSD or use a external drive enclosure.

I use Siig USB 3.1 to SATA 2.5 External Hard Drive Enclosure
With Various HDD and ssds It has a Y splitter so it wont drain your battery.

If you want to go smaller Kingwin USB 3.0 to NGFF(M.2) SSD External Enclosure Adapter
Or
Kingwin USB 3.0 Mini SATA Enclosure Adapter


A SanDisk Ultra CZ48 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive does very well and is very portable.

All of these work well, You will have to format them to exFAT first.

 

[GuccizBud]

Don't format as FAT32. The partition size is limited to 32 GB with FAT32.

For what it's worth, this is a myth that just won't die — you can in fact format up to 2 TB with FAT32. I've done it on two separate Seagate Expansion 2 TB portable drives ( and a 1 TB one ). I tried it on a 4 TB, just to see, and as expected I got a message saying 2 TB was the limit.

For Windows, Google the words "Ridgecrop Consultants" and among the first results — probably the very first result in fact — will be a small, portable, free tool you can download to do it, called "GUI Format" or something similar ( the word "GUI" is in there anyway ). Heck, you can do it without downloading anything and just use the PowerShell, but it will take MUCH longer.

Having said that, the disadvantage is that FAT32 limits the size of individual files to 4 GB. Even if you think this won't be an issue for you, exFAT is still, on the whole, probably the better file system … but the decision needs to be based on factual info, and the fact is that the 32 GB partition limit thing is, and always has been, just plain wrong, wrong, wrong!