Using External Storage Devices with the iPad

[yof]

FAT 32 can support up to 128GB depending on OS.

I meant the 128GB SDXC card could not support 128GB FAT format. I verified with Lexar customer service and they said their 128GB SDXC uhs-I card can not as well.

 

[uyenho]

Could some one explain to me, I am a little bit confused because I saw another topic to teach how to connected HDD with CCK just install SBSetting and USB toggles, and it's done, but this topic got a lot of steps, so could some one explain what is the different please? Thanks a lot!

Edit: Thanks yof(OP) explained on 1st page already! Thanks OP!

 

[TylerThomas]

So, not too much has come to pass on this topic for me lately except one thing. I invested in a point and shoot digital camera a little over a week ago for a few particular reasons and ended up taking on photography as a kind of hobby. So during this time I took nearly seven hundred final draft pictures. I also took a few short videos to possibly use with the iMovie application of things such as leaves blowing in the wind and ripples traveling across water. I have transferred all this media to my iPad using an SD card adapter. But I'm not going to keep all of it on here because I imagine it will increase as time goes on and it already is taking up about 4GB of storage space. So via the WD Photos application I transferred the lot of it to my network drive and began organizing it by the types of photos they are.

So, for anyone who likes to take a decent amount of pictures or would like to do so I would definitely suggest investing in an external storage device with a decent capacity for such a thing among others.

I am able to access all of these files as well as the rest of my media and specifically with the pictures I am able to open them in my photo editing applications and can post them to Facebook among a decent amount of other things. Yet all the current and potential space this media would take up is free on my iPad and also can be freed up on my memory card that I use with my camera.

For pictures taken with 16.1 MP cameras and 720p and up HD videos it's very useful to have an external storage device to store them on and even more so when there is a large amount of them.

So digital photography is then in my opinion a practical and worthwhile use for an external storage device and I would recommend it to anyone who already uses such a device.

 

[TylerThomas]

Other good uses for such a device that I have utilized are:

- Storing my movie library; both iTunes purchases and DVD back-ups.

- Storing my music library; including iTunes purchases, CD back-ups, and legally free downloadable music.

- Storing my ebook library; both PDFs and ePubs from various sources including thousands of dollars of legally free downloads.

- Storing my video library; including music videos copied from YouTube via the ProTube package and teaching videos.

- Storing ROMs to be used with the emulator packages.

Etc.

 

[Thraex]

I'd add to the list of wi-fi storage devices the Patriot Gauntlet Node, it's an HDD enclosure, so you could add any capacity you want or is possible, and Buffalo MiniStation Air (500 GB) not yet released.Since I want 24 bit-perfect audio streaming to iPad > CCK > portable USB DAC/headphone amp on the go, and if I use any attached to iPad dock storage device I'll loose digital out, the only possible options for me are battery powered wi-fi server devices like Seagate GoFlex Satellite or Patriot Gauntlet Node (for portability WD MLB rouled out).iPad internal storage is too limited for big 24 bit files.Considering the only server, player and iDevice (not jailbroken) able to do up to 24 bit/96 Khz bit-perfect with FLACs is iPeng Player (in-app purchase to unlock it) and only with Logitech Media Server (any other combo like PlugPlayer and UPnP servers downsample data to 16 bit regardless server settings).To be able to use iPeng player, have you any suggestion how to install LMS to the mentioned battery powered wi-fi storage devices?Thanks

 

[Szepi70]

Hi all

Thx for the guide, I want to connect my iomega 500gb portable hdd to ipad2 (formatted to fat32 by swissknife, acronis disk director to fAt 32 lba) but ipad hardly recognizes the drive even if i try to force on terminal level by killing mounting process or mount by command. It takes 10-15 minutes continuous trying while the drive attaches once. CCK is official, I power up the drive with y cabel. If mounts then works perfectly but I don't know what's the reason of this long mounting time. Even USb toggle didn't help, it showed the same messages what ios drops:device is not configured. And sometimes the ipad rebooted while i was trying to get the drive to be mounted
Pls advice: the drive itaelf not compatible for this? Or how can I get the ipad to recognise the drive sooner?
Thx szepi
Ps sdhc 16 gb works perfectly but its capacity .....

 

[uyenho]

Hi all

Thx for the guide, I want to connect my iomega 500gb portable hdd to ipad2 (formatted to fat32 by swissknife, acronis disk director to fAt 32 lba) but ipad hardly recognizes the drive even if i try to force on terminal level by killing mounting process or mount by command. It takes 10-15 minutes continuous trying while the drive attaches once. CCK is official, I power up the drive with y cabel. If mounts then works perfectly but I don't know what's the reason of this long mounting time. Even USb toggle didn't help, it showed the same messages what ios drops:device is not configured. And sometimes the ipad rebooted while i was trying to get the drive to be mounted
Pls advice: the drive itaelf not compatible for this? Or how can I get the ipad to recognise the drive sooner?
Thx szepi
Ps sdhc 16 gb works perfectly but its capacity .....

I have some problems before, not sure this can help: Change your usb Y cable ( I have 3 usb Y cable but only one work, don't know why:all my Y cables come from portable HDD that I bought), the other Y cables(seagate) didn't work when I transfer 2GB file and it got disconnects in the middle, tried couple times and don't know why, but with the Y cable that I got from Ego Iomega HDD, it works very well. The Iomega Y cable looks very big and buggy, the seagate Y cable look very thin.

 

[yof]

Hi all

Thx for the guide, I want to connect my iomega 500gb portable hdd to ipad2 (formatted to fat32 by swissknife, acronis disk director to fAt 32 lba) but ipad hardly recognizes the drive even if i try to force on terminal level by killing mounting process or mount by command. It takes 10-15 minutes continuous trying while the drive attaches once. CCK is official, I power up the drive with y cabel. If mounts then works perfectly but I don't know what's the reason of this long mounting time. Even USb toggle didn't help, it showed the same messages what ios drops:device is not configured. And sometimes the ipad rebooted while i was trying to get the drive to be mounted
Pls advice: the drive itaelf not compatible for this? Or how can I get the ipad to recognise the drive sooner?
Thx szepi
Ps sdhc 16 gb works perfectly but its capacity .....

The way to get the iPad recognize the drive sooner is using the steps by step and using Mobile Terminal. Launch it every so often you want to connect and disconnect by shortcut commands. When you said it takes 10-15 minutes of trying. What did you do to make it connect when it did connect? Did what you do is reliable enough that you can keep on using that method? Maybe the long mounting times might be because of your HDD does not have enough power to run fully. It could be the case because of the y usb cable. You should also try to hook it up to the outlet with it being straight to the iPad to see if that is the cause. If it isn't or is, let us know. Do you have a lot of things on the hard drive btw?\

I have some problems before, not sure this can help: Change your usb Y cable ( I have 3 usb Y cable but only one work, don't know why:all my Y cables come from portable HDD that I bought), the other Y cables(seagate) didn't work when I transfer 2GB file and it got disconnects in the middle, tried couple times and don't know why, but with the Y cable that I got from Ego Iomega HDD, it works very well. The Iomega Y cable looks very big and buggy, the seagate Y cable look very thin.

Is your sleep setting or dim settings set on the iPad on? Try with it not on so it won't go standby and, some harddrives they go to sleep by themselves while transfering or when its not in use. Or like you said it could be the Y cable or a nudge on the CCK that could come loose(which is hardly noticed). But becareful of improperly unmountings.

I'd add to the list of wi-fi storage devices the Patriot Gauntlet Node, it's an HDD enclosure, so you could add any capacity you want or is possible, and Buffalo MiniStation Air (500 GB) not yet released.Since I want 24 bit-perfect audio streaming to iPad > CCK > portable USB DAC/headphone amp on the go, and if I use any attached to iPad dock storage device I'll loose digital out, the only possible options for me are battery powered wi-fi server devices like Seagate GoFlex Satellite or Patriot Gauntlet Node (for portability WD MLB rouled out).iPad internal storage is too limited for big 24 bit files.Considering the only server, player and iDevice (not jailbroken) able to do up to 24 bit/96 Khz bit-perfect with FLACs is iPeng Player (in-app purchase to unlock it) and only with Logitech Media Server (any other combo like PlugPlayer and UPnP servers downsample data to 16 bit regardless server settings).To be able to use iPeng player, have you any suggestion how to install LMS to the mentioned battery powered wi-fi storage devices?Thanks

How to install Logitech Media Server (LMS), Logitech Media Server - SqueezeboxWiki
Have you taken a look at this yet? I hope that helps. But a battery powered nas, I'm not too sure of this field for running LMS onto a nas yet. Maybe you can let us know while I'm overseas. If you make any progress let us know too! Yeah.. and downgrading the music quality isn't what i would want too. And have you tried GoldenEar line out for filterless output?


@ CCK & iPad with headphones quality, that also does work but have you seen the Fiio E-1 amp product for Line-Out? It's great with the iPhone because it's small and compared with the iPad, CCK easily comes loose (especially with most protective cases).

& @ Patriot Gauntlet Node ! :thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs: :thumbs:


THAT IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!
*crosses off Seagate GoFlex Satellite hacking hardware & os*

I will review it as soon as I gather more research! Nice find !!!

I wan to order this just for that! Space & money ! Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 32 MB Cache 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive

 

[Thraex]

I've worked a lot lately to find out how to stream 24 bit perfect audio to iPad/CCK/external USB DAC for portability everywhere and I'm near to find a good and easy solution.
Any piece of the chain do matter and can downsample data to 16/44.
Server software and iPad app player used are the first two bottlenecks even at home.

Patriot Gauntlet Note is rouled out for me, since SMB streaming or similar generally are too slow to operate, load, organize, no cover arts, auto play next, ... difficult to use always without a router.

From now on I want to find a solution to stream to any renderer in my home too, so I'm targeting only UPnP/DLAN server and iPad UPnP/DLNA players.
I've already purchased most UPnP/DLNA iPad apps using a few UPnP/DLNA servers (JRiver, Asset, Foobar) to test their funcionality.
Most are not working 24 bit-perfect and some that works don't supports FLACs.Best interfaces and features (like playng in the background or auto play next) are from apps that downsamples any file to 16/44.
None are without bugs, but best 24 bit-perfect all formats apps are free, it's a shame to have paid so many apps that don't work, they're generally crap.
I'm writing to all these stupids programmers to report tons of bugs, basic functions not working and such, I can't understand why Apple approved some apps like these.
Add that some servers sends metadata info in a different way to the each app and you'll understand how hard is to find a good solution.

BTW DLNA basic functions are already officially implemented in GoFlex Satellite which I'll test in a few days (latest FW allow internet while streaming and you can hack it if you're not satisfied).

 

[Szepi70]

The way to get the iPad recognize the drive sooner is using the steps by step and using Mobile Terminal. Launch it every so often you want to connect and disconnect by shortcut commands. When you said it takes 10-15 minutes of trying. What did you do to make it connect when it did connect? Did what you do is reliable enough that you can keep on using that method? Maybe the long mounting times might be because of your HDD does not have enough power to run fully. It could be the case because of the y usb cable. You should also try to hook it up to the outlet with it being straight to the iPad to see if that is the cause. If it isn't or is, let us know. Do you have a lot of things on the hard drive btw?\

Thx yof and uyenho for your comments. Of course i will try different cable to power up the hdd and let you know the result. Unfortunately i cannot exactly tell what was the reason, when the hdd get mounted. Here are my findings:
This hdd never produced basic ipad error message: device is not supported.
As power source i tried ipad power supply and usb port : no difference
Tried to connect cables in different order to cck and hdd :no result
Installed usb toggle: as i tapped on the button two messages appeared alternately 1. Device not configured 2. No attached device (cannot remeber the exact text sorry) and hdd wasnt mounted
After this i installed issh. As some blog said, tried to kill mobilestoragemounter and waited for the hdd to be mounted . Negative.
Tried mount from command line : got the device configured message again
Several times i respringed the ipad, moreover the ipad restarted itself.
Amongst these tries, after a restart, and usb toggle, somehow the drive was mounted and worked worked well (i played some movies from it) When i dismounted i wasn't able to mount again.
So it's the actual state, will try different cable

Thx szepi

 

[uyenho]

@szepi: here is some more if you would try from my exp.
-Like yof said: you have to mount and unmount properly: that mean everytime I have to go to ifile -mnt- tap arrow to see new window and roll down and tap unmount it. If I just unplug the HDD without doing those unmount steps above, then next time when I plug in the HDD, the CCK not see the HDD, then I have to reboot ipad in order CCK see HDD.
-My ipad is ipad 1 with OS 4.3 after I installed USBtoggle and SSH, my ipad works very slow and some time CCK see HDD but some time it doesn't see, so I decide uninstall SSH and usbtoogle, and now every time I put HDD in it recognized about 5 seconds later.
-For the Y cable: the best way the plug in CCK: the V part with double cable should go to CCK port, and the single cable of V part should go to power port, and the I part of Y cable go to HDD port (not sure you understand what I mean?) I have tried many times to switch around and only the above connection is work.
Sorry I am not computer guy, so sometime I tell something that you guy thing that was stupid stuff, but this is the way I did and now work well with my ipad 1.

 

[yof]

I've worked a lot lately to find out how to stream 24 bit perfect audio to iPad/CCK/external USB DAC for portability everywhere and I'm near to find a good and easy solution.
Any piece of the chain do matter and can downsample data to 16/44.
Server software and iPad app player used are the first two bottlenecks even at home.

Patriot Gauntlet Note is rouled out for me, since SMB streaming or similar generally are too slow to operate, load, organize, no cover arts, auto play next, ... difficult to use always without a router.

From now on I want to find a solution to stream to any renderer in my home too, so I'm targeting only UPnP/DLAN server and iPad UPnP/DLNA players.
I've already purchased most UPnP/DLNA iPad apps using a few UPnP/DLNA servers (JRiver, Asset, Foobar) to test their funcionality.
Most are not working 24 bit-perfect and some that works don't supports FLACs.Best interfaces and features (like playng in the background or auto play next) are from apps that downsamples any file to 16/44.
None are without bugs, but best 24 bit-perfect all formats apps are free, it's a shame to have paid so many apps that don't work, they're generally crap.
I'm writing to all these stupids programmers to report tons of bugs, basic functions not working and such, I can't understand why Apple approved some apps like these.
Add that some servers sends metadata info in a different way to the each app and you'll understand how hard is to find a good solution.

BTW DLNA basic functions are already officially implemented in GoFlex Satellite which I'll test in a few days (latest FW allow internet while streaming and you can hack it if you're not satisfied).

I totally forgot about foobar. That's not good as we are all headed to iOS 6. Hopefully they will push out those bugs in the next major update as all developers are still working on the bugs. Yes DLNA functions are in the GoFlex S. But as I said they have this forum thing where you sign up and buy their firmware download that the GoFlex developer hack team has done. They have more support and implementations and does not lack as bad as the original Seagate OS for it. Are they ipad compatible or is it both iphone and ipad btw? Yeah sometimes developers use reviews to fix their apps rather than having the sources to fix it themselves before release. Could be worse, could be on android. haha.

The way to get the iPad recognize the drive sooner is using the steps by step and using Mobile Terminal. Launch it every so often you want to connect and disconnect by shortcut commands. When you said it takes 10-15 minutes of trying. What did you do to make it connect when it did connect? Did what you do is reliable enough that you can keep on using that method? Maybe the long mounting times might be because of your HDD does not have enough power to run fully. It could be the case because of the y usb cable. You should also try to hook it up to the outlet with it being straight to the iPad to see if that is the cause. If it isn't or is, let us know. Do you have a lot of things on the hard drive btw?\

Thx yof and uyenho for your comments. Of course i will try different cable to power up the hdd and let you know the result. Unfortunately i cannot exactly tell what was the reason, when the hdd get mounted. Here are my findings:
This hdd never produced basic ipad error message: device is not supported.
As power source i tried ipad power supply and usb port : no difference
Tried to connect cables in different order to cck and hdd :no result
Installed usb toggle: as i tapped on the button two messages appeared alternately 1. Device not configured 2. No attached device (cannot remeber the exact text sorry) and hdd wasnt mounted
After this i installed issh. As some blog said, tried to kill mobilestoragemounter and waited for the hdd to be mounted . Negative.
Tried mount from command line : got the device configured message again
Several times i respringed the ipad, moreover the ipad restarted itself.
Amongst these tries, after a restart, and usb toggle, somehow the drive was mounted and worked worked well (i played some movies from it) When i dismounted i wasn't able to mount again.
So it's the actual state, will try different cable

Thx szepi

Have you tried a fresh restart before starting over with the mounting and several tries of mounting? That usualy does the trick.

What was the message for the mobile terminal after you tried to mount it?

Have you tried the steps from command line to set it up mannually?

Hmm. Okay there you go so a restart was a key somewhat. You know what you can do though? Buy a cloudftp and save yourself some trouble by hooking your hard drive into the usb slot of cloudftp and create you own network that streams fast as a wifi connection depending on your rpm of harddrive and the information sent to from usb to the usb slot. So you wouldn't have to go through all those problems. Hope that helps!

@szepi: here is some more if you would try from my exp.
-Like yof said: you have to mount and unmount properly: that mean everytime I have to go to ifile -mnt- tap arrow to see new window and roll down and tap unmount it. If I just unplug the HDD without doing those unmount steps above, then next time when I plug in the HDD, the CCK not see the HDD, then I have to reboot ipad in order CCK see HDD.
-My ipad is ipad 1 with OS 4.3 after I installed USBtoggle and SSH, my ipad works very slow and some time CCK see HDD but some time it doesn't see, so I decide uninstall SSH and usbtoogle, and now every time I put HDD in it recognized about 5 seconds later.
-For the Y cable: the best way the plug in CCK: the V part with double cable should go to CCK port, and the single cable of V part should go to power port, and the I part of Y cable go to HDD port (not sure you understand what I mean?) I have tried many times to switch around and only the above connection is work.
Sorry I am not computer guy, so sometime I tell something that you guy thing that was stupid stuff, but this is the way I did and now work well with my ipad 1.

Also there might be a problem with the Y cord, I know you might of tried to switch the cords around on the y ends. Some company doesn't change the color for the power output side so it's all black and you won't know which one charges and which ones send info, but not sure if the cords are all the same though.
& yes proper mount and unmount

 

[Thraex]

I totally forgot about foobar.
...Are they ipad compatible or is it both iphone and ipad btw?

Foobar with "foo_upnp" plugin is a UPnP server, check streaming settings to have 24 bit-perfect streaming.
If you want the best 24 bit-perfect iPad player app, without purchasing any of them just to test and won't work, go with "8player" (ALAC/AIFF/WAV totally bit-perfect, FLAC files are played but bit/freq info not sended to my external DAC, developer informed me he'll fix it in the future).

 

[wheelhot]

Hmm, it looks like I have the same USB hub as yours but I am not able to make ifile to detect my external portable HDD. I can see my HDD lighted up and hear the disc spinning, but iFile just won't recognize the drive.

Help pls

 

[wheelhot]

View attachment 21129

This is the USB hub I have.



View attachment 21130

This is the CCK I have. (which cost $10.00)



View attachment 21131

This is the iHustler.



View attachment 21133

View attachment 21134

This is two USB flash drives connected and mounted to my iPad as shown in iFile and a picture of what the set up looks like.

Hmm, it looks like I have the same USB hub as yours but I am not able to make ifile to detect my external portable HDD. I can see my HDD lighted up and hear the disc spinning, but iFile just won't recognize the drive.

Help pls