iPad How to use an external hard drive on an iPad

[Cptnodegard]

I put together an article about using an external hard drive with an iPad. It does require jailbreak, but doesn't require special hard drives or anything like that.

Basically requires:

• Jailbroken iPad with iFile
• External hard drive formatted to FAT32 or other compatible file system format (not NTFS or exFAT)
• USB adapter (Camera Connection Kit for 30 pin, Lightning to USB Camera Adapter for lightning)
• Some way of powering the drive. Either a self-powered drive, powered USB hub, or a USB battery pack like in the video

Link: http://www.pocketables.com/2013/02/how-to-use-an-external-hard-drive-on-an-ipad-video.html


Video:

 

[musicpenguy]

Or you could just get the Seagate Wi-Fi drive that'll make it usable on any iPad no Jailbreak required ...

 

[Cptnodegard]

Or you could just get the Seagate Wi-Fi drive that'll make it usable on any iPad no Jailbreak required ...

You could, if you want to:

• Pay more for a 500GB drive than you would for a 2TB drive
• Be restricted as to how you can use it, e.g. you need to connect over wifi (thus not have wifi access)
• Not be able to link it directly to apps and browse files as if they were stored in the app
• Have to upload files over wifi/not be able to upload files (not sure if it supports uploading at all- but if it does, it will be slow)

 

[Carlanga]

Cool, but too much stuff to carry especialky if it needs outside power and to use it at home one can just hook it up to a computer.

 

[Cptnodegard]

Cool, but too much stuff to carry especialky if it needs outside power and to use it at home one can just hook it up to a computer.

It's not something I'm going to be using myself either, however it's nice that it works. I imagine e.g. a photographer using this to take photo backups on a trip

 

[musicpenguy]

The Seagate drive is 1TB and has a 10 hour battery life - it will connect via ad-hoc when needed so you don't need to be on Wi-Fi.

I don't want to hack around with my iPad to connect a stupid hard drive. Wireless works great and for most files it does what I want it to do. I'd get a laptop if I want anything beyond that.

http://www.cnet.com/network-storage/seagate-wireless-plus-1tb/4505-3382_7-35559082.html

 

[Cptnodegard]

The Seagate drive is 1TB and has a 10 hour battery life - it will connect via ad-hoc when needed so you don't need to be on Wi-Fi.

I don't want to hack around with my iPad to connect a stupid hard drive. Wireless works great and for most files it does what I want it to do. I'd get a laptop if I want anything beyond that.

http://www.cnet.com/network-storage/seagate-wireless-plus-1tb/4505-3382_7-35559082.html

It will connect over ad-hoc, but you will need to use the iPad's WiFi connection to the drive to access it. That means you can't access the web while using the drive.

What you want or don't want to do is your business. I don't get why you have a need to run around in threads that apparently have no interest to you just to let everyone know that.

 

[musicpenguy]

It is of interest to me - I use the iPad 90 percent of the time and my Mac 10 percent of the time - I think jailbreaking is not something advisable and there are alternatives that work for 99 percent of the users out there - it's a shame you are so narrow minded in your statements.

Jailbreaking is great for the few that need it, but don't put a blind eye towards the other alternatives.

(I prefer being able to update to iOS updates right away and having stable iPads - I've had several jailbroken experiences where crashing and headaches were a common thing)

 

[Cptnodegard]

It is of interest to me - I use the iPad 90 percent of the time and my Mac 10 percent of the time - I think jailbreaking is not something advisable and there are alternatives that work for 99 percent of the users out there - it's a shame you are so narrow minded in your statements.

Jailbreaking is great for the few that need it, but don't put a blind eye towards the other alternatives.

(I prefer being able to update to iOS updates right away and having stable iPads - I've had several jailbroken experiences where crashing and headaches were a common thing)

I'm not sitting in a Seagate thread rambling about how the jailbreak option is better, you're the one running around this thread constantly whining about how it's not an option for you. You don't even seem to have noticed it was moved to the jailbreaking section, meaning you're now in the jailbreaking part of the forum whining about how you don't want to jailbreak.

Not that this actually requires jailbreaking; it would work for photo and video imports even without a jailbreak.

Also, nowhere was this stated as being an replacement for WiFi drives, it's an alternative. It has some advantages that WiFi drives don't, and I listed those.

I have to wonder how you go about a day at the mall. Do you go into every single store just to let everyone know that the store has no interest to you?

 

[musicpenguy]

(Thread was posted in the wrong thread to begin with - didn't notice it was moved until after I posted this stuff - post in the right place and you'll have appropriate responses) - have a good day

 

[vega07]

I use a Transcend 32GB USB stick to avoid all the wires, etc.

 

[dinggus]

Could the wall adapter power the USB?

 

[vega07]

It is of interest to me - I use the iPad 90 percent of the time and my Mac 10 percent of the time - I think jailbreaking is not something advisable and there are alternatives that work for 99 percent of the users out there - it's a shame you are so narrow minded in your statements.

Jailbreaking is great for the few that need it, but don't put a blind eye towards the other alternatives.

(I prefer being able to update to iOS updates right away and having stable iPads - I've had several jailbroken experiences where crashing and headaches were a common thing)

I do have to agree with the OP.

 

[HazyCloud]

You could, if you want to:

• Pay more for a 500GB drive than you would for a 2TB drive
• Be restricted as to how you can use it, e.g. you need to connect over wifi (thus not have wifi access)
• Not be able to link it directly to apps and browse files as if they were stored in the app
• Have to upload files over wifi/not be able to upload files (not sure if it supports uploading at all- but if it does, it will be slow)

FWIW, the Kingston allows you to bridge your connection which allows you to still be on the Internet while connected to the drive.

 

[Luis2004]

Basically requires:

• Jailbroken iPad with iFile
• External hard drive formatted to FAT32 or other compatible file system format (not NTFS or exFAT)
• USB adapter (Camera Connection Kit for 30 pin, Lightning to USB Camera Adapter for lightning)
• Some way of powering the drive. Either a self-powered drive, powered USB hub, or a USB battery pack like in the video

You lost me at Some Way of Powering the Drive....

Who's going to carry around all that stuff? Just load the crap you want through cyber duck and Open SSH.

----------

Or better yet:

iFlashDrive

 

[maccompatible]

It is of interest to me - I use the iPad 90 percent of the time and my Mac 10 percent of the time - I think jailbreaking is not something advisable and there are alternatives that work for 99 percent of the users out there - it's a shame you are so narrow minded in your statements.

Jailbreaking is great for the few that need it, but don't put a blind eye towards the other alternatives.

(I prefer being able to update to iOS updates right away and having stable iPads - I've had several jailbroken experiences where crashing and headaches were a common thing)

There is no alternative to f.lux, zephyr, tapdewiggle, opennotifier, iFile, etc. etc. There are tons of amazing tweaks that have no alternative.

Jail breaking does not affect stability unless you install an unstable tweak. It's not the sports car's fault you drove too fast and got a ticket or ran into something.

Also, giving up a jailbreak to upgrade anywhere from 6.0 to 6.1.2 is pointless unless the few bugs they fixed affected you (3G, exchange, etc)

After all of this logic, why hate jail breaking so passionately?

 

[Cptnodegard]

Who's going to carry around all that stuff?

This isn't something I plan on using myself either, for that exact reason, but I'm actually capable of acknowledging that others might use their devices differently. There are usage situations where neither a Wi-drive, storing files locally, or using flash drives would be sufficient. That's why I posted this.

Seems like the mentality of a lot of people here goes something like this:
"I don't see a use for X so no one else has a use for X either"

 

[Menneisyys2]

Link: http://www.pocketables.com/2013/02/how-to-use-an-external-hard-drive-on-an-ipad-video.html

Great to see my tutorials (here, the symlink + CCK one) being linked to by Pocketables

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You could, if you want to:

• Pay more for a 500GB drive than you would for a 2TB drive
  

Exactly. The portable Wi-Fi media drives are laughingly expensive. (And have a pretty bad battery life, I should add.)

 

[Cptnodegard]

Great to see my tutorials (here, the symlink + CCK one) being linked to by Pocketables

I linked to it in my review of the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter as well. Aside from being where I discovered this capability, and hence it's just common courtesy to give credit, remaking a tutorial when you have a great one makes no sense

I might do an article where I explore other uses for symlinks though, for document apps etc. I would of course link back then too

Exactly. The portable Wi-Fi media drives are laughingly expensive. (And have a pretty bad battery life, I should add.)

The linked article has an imagined shopping list of parts that give you a 2TB hard drive powered by a 15000mAh battery for $330. It will outlast two 1TB Wi-drives as far as battery life is concerned, you can use the battery pack for charging the device as well, and so on.

Obviously there is a lot to love about the Wi Drive, and I never disputed that. The bridge connection feature that HazyCloud mention makes it a lot more useful, too. However, I still know for a fact that there are situations where carrying around the parts needed to do this via a wired connection would make sense.

 

[Luis2004]

This isn't something I plan on using myself either, for that exact reason, but I'm actually capable of acknowledging that others might use their devices differently. There are usage situations where neither a Wi-drive, storing files locally, or using flash drives would be sufficient. That's why I posted this.

Seems like the mentality of a lot of people here goes something like this:
"I don't see a use for X so no one else has a use for X either"

I respect your point of view and applaud your initiative to think of others, even if you may not share their point of view.

As an aside, I find that when I usually feel like item X won't be of any use to me, it's true for everyone else as well. For example, I had no use for a little bag of dried up chicken bones I found some time ago. I figured everyone else would feel the same, so I didn't bother picking it up.

But that's just one example.

 

[Cptnodegard]

I respect your point of view and applaud your initiative to think of others, even if you may not share their point of view.

As an aside, I find that when I usually feel like item X won't be of any use to me, it's true for everyone else as well. For example, I had no use for a little bag of dried up chicken bones I found some time ago. I figured everyone else would feel the same, so I didn't bother picking it up.

But that's just one example.

 

[RDAR]

Again I have to ask lol, does this sacrifice a lot of battery life since it's a hard drive now instead of a USB flash drive?

 

[Cptnodegard]

Again I have to ask lol, does this sacrifice a lot of battery life since it's a hard drive now instead of a USB flash drive?

No, the hard drive is powered independently. In fact, the iPad can't output more than 20mA from the USB adapter (unless you use a trick that isn't needed here), which is insignificant. There may be additional processing power (and as such, battery drain) from reading from the drive- I don't know- but I doubt you'd even notice it.

 

[SFFotoShootr]

Is there any way to hook up the portable external hard drive and a USB battery pack without jailbreaking or getting a WiFi enabled HD?

 

[gotluck]

Is there any way to hook up the portable external hard drive and a USB battery pack without jailbreaking or getting a WiFi enabled HD?

The hootoo tripmate can be used to make any usb device accessible from the ipad, even non-jailbroken. It also has some other cool features. It is sweet and downright better than standalone wifi drives IMO.

http://www.amazon.com/HooToo®-TripMate-Wireless-Portable-External/dp/B00DTPYRTI

as far as apps to interact with the data on the drive:
nplayer can play any media
documents by readdle can display docs/pdfs

the most difficult part is getting the app in question configured to read from the drive, but it works great. and no tethers coming from the device!

the other negative is that while connected to the device, you cannot access the internet from the LTE connection. The hootoo must be connected to another wifi network (must be another device outside of the hootoo's internal wifi) in order to have internet access.