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[Q] Trouble Mounting 1TB Hard Drive

I purchased the G-Tablet because I wanted a way to download photos from my camera's memory, view them, and write them to an external hard drive. The problem I've run into is that I can't get my tablet (running TnT-Lite) to recognize my 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive to mount. I've done a lot of searching for answers, and my first thought was that the drive wasn't receiving enough power, but I've tried it through the docking station and a powered USB hub without any luck. I also reformatted it to Fat32 just to be sure it wasn't the drive format. Sniffer never even notices it's connected.
I'm using TnT-Lite, but am perfectly willing to try other ROMs if they have better external drive support. I'm not super familiar with linux so I haven't tried seeing if I could manually mount the drive, but if someone would be interested in telling me how to see if it's recognized and manually mount it I'm all ears.
Cheers!
Gaines Kergosien
(615) 412-9739

Kind of a repost...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=912212
Two things:
Make sure your harddrive format is supported by your kernel. Some kernels like clemsin support ntfs and other formats. I am not really sure what formats does the kernel that comes with tnt lite supports, but i recomend to check or install another kernel.
Second; make sure you connects your HDD to a power source before using it. I have not tried it myself, but i heard that the low power source of the usb port of the g tablet is not enough to supply power to the HDD.
Good luck with that, hope you find a solution to the problem.

Another thought, have you tried rebooting the tab after you've plugged the HDD in. I have a 500 gb WD elements, and if I'm having issues, usually rebooting with the drive plugged up takes care of it.

Pazzu510 said:
Kind of a repost...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=912212
Two things:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, others have posted similar issues, albeit with different drives/ROMs and little or no followup to troubleshoot the problem and no real solution.
I believe I was very specific in mentioning during the opening post that I tried using external power (via the dock and powered USB hub) and different drive formats.

lordgodgeneral said:
Another thought, have you tried rebooting the tab after you've plugged the HDD in. I have a 500 gb WD elements, and if I'm having issues, usually rebooting with the drive plugged up takes care of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried having it plugged in via the dock and powered hub before boot, but still no dice.
The best case scenario for me is that someone here has the same drive, overcame this issue and is willing to share their solution. I'm hoping that I can at least find someone who knows enough about linux/ROMs to help me troubleshoot and figure out if this is a hardware, driver or software issue. Maybe the drive is being recognized but the partition isn't getting mounted for some reason? *shrug*

Try partitioning your drive to 2 500gb sections. I don't think android os recognizes 1tb drive sizes. Just a thought.

Mantara said:
Try partitioning your drive to 2 500gb sections. I don't think android os recognizes 1tb drive sizes. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent suggestion. Just repartitioned it as (2) 465GB fat32 drives and copied over some test files, plugged the drive into the powered USB hub, plugged that into the G-tablet, booted...and at first I thought it didn't work. Then an hour later I look at my tablet and realize it's mounted! I can see the image file I was using to test it...except the image (png) doesn't open. I try moving it to the SDCard using iFileManager and it errors.
...so on the up side, the drive mounted. On the down side, there may still be some issues.

You didn't say what model drive. I got a 1TB drive to use on my Tonido plug server and server would not recognize it. apparently some of the new drives need non standard drivers. For bulk storage, the tonido works great and accessible from the web.

Rumbleweed said:
You didn't say what model drive. I got a 1TB drive to use on my Tonido plug server and server would not recognize it. apparently some of the new drives need non standard drivers. For bulk storage, the tonido works great and accessible from the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is my opening post that difficult to read? Pretty sure I said it's a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex.

not only is this not developement but snapping at the people trying to help you is just gonna not get you any help

Moved to general.

I have the exact same hard drive and the exact same problem as well. Running Cal's 1.1 with Clem's latest kernal ver. 6. No luck in seeing it.
Also, even with a thumb drive it cannot recognize it if it's formatted as NTFS. I know it's supposed to work but there must be something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?
Thanks

thebadfrog said:
not only is this not developement but snapping at the people trying to help you is just gonna not get you any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seemed to me that troubleshooting problems with ROMs not correctly mounting drives fell under development along with the ROM being used.
As for snapping at people, maybe I wasn't as appreciative of their effort as I should have been, but I felt like people were replying without even reading the opening post where I had tried hard to explain the situation in detail. It's like taking your car to a mechanic and telling him it's making a clunking sound, then receiving a call from them later saying, "Yeah, we took a look and there seems to be a clunking sound."

you try using a file explorer like root explorer?? or only sniffer?

rover442 said:
I have the exact same hard drive and the exact same problem as well. Running Cal's 1.1 with Clem's latest kernal ver. 6. No luck in seeing it.
Also, even with a thumb drive it cannot recognize it if it's formatted as NTFS. I know it's supposed to work but there must be something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey rover442. I'm thrilled to have gotten it to mount and, hopefully if we work together, we can figure out how to get everything working properly. To recap, here's what I did to get it to mount:
Delete the existing partition using Windows Disk Management
Create two new partitions (under 500GB)
Format those partitions using fat32format
Plug the drive into the tablet via a powered usb hub
Reboot
Wait an undefined amount of time for it to magically mount

10roller said:
you try using a file explorer like root explorer?? or only sniffer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried all of them, but when it finally mounted I noticed it in Sniffer then was able to access it using iFileManager.

Ok gaines. I'll reformat the drive and partition it and see what happens. Thanks!

Gaines, I made two partitions. I put an mp3 in each partition. Loaded it into G Tab and it sees one of the partitions and the mp3. It does not see the other partition. FTR, I am not using a powered USB, just plugging straight into the G. (formatted fat 32 on the external hard drive).

Success
Ok here's what I did to make things work in FAT 32
I downloaded a partition software called EASEUS Partition master Home. It was free. I fromatted again the whole 1TB hard drive (931GB available). here are the following tests I did:
Partition 431GB successfully seen in G Tab
Partition 531GB successfully seen in G Tab
So since I broke the 500GB threshold I tried to partition 631GB and it was good. So then I just repartitioned for the whole 931GB available and it is now being seen in Sniffer and Root Explorer. So it's fine.
However, the G Tab still cannot recognize NTFS.

You need a kernel that supports ntfs. Android does not recognise ntfs natively

[Q] XOOM and portable hard drive

Does the XOOM pair well with a portable hard drive? Im noticing I am traveling more, and need my laptop less and less in the process. The XOOM seems to take care of a majority of my needs, but I was wondering if I am able to plug in an external portable hard drive, and have the XOOM pull data, and add data to the hard drive. I'm sure I would need an app to do this (if possible) as well?
Your help is greatly appreciated

anyone know this?

If you use a USB Drive enable kernel (like Tiamet) and the drive is powered and does not contain a USB hub (like the one I tried), it might work.

I actually tried this yesterday. My XOOM is rooted and configured to use a USB Host adapter to accept USB storage. I've tested with several thumb drives, all seem to work. Yesterday I hooked up a 320GB self powered USB HDD and unfortunately it did not work. It could be just this drive, so only way to find out is test with others =)

StirCwazy said:
I actually tried this yesterday. My XOOM is rooted and configured to use a USB Host adapter to accept USB storage. I've tested with several thumb drives, all seem to work. Yesterday I hooked up a 320GB self powered USB HDD and unfortunately it did not work. It could be just this drive, so only way to find out is test with others =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your problem is most likely that you don't have the drive formatted as FAT32. I tried a 250GB drive and it worked nicely. In this thread I have a link to a site that offers you a free simple solution (Windows itself does not allow formatting of such large drives with FAT32).

funnycreature said:
Your problem is most likely that you don't have the drive formatted as FAT32. I tried a 250GB drive and it worked nicely. In this thread I have a link to a site that offers you a free simple solution (Windows itself does not allow formatting of such large drives with FAT32).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know what, you are 100% correct. I forgot I had this drive formatted at NTFS for something else I was toying with. I just tried a FAT32 self powered USB drive (120GB) and it worked just fine.

StirCwazy said:
You know what, you are 100% correct. I forgot I had this drive formatted at NTFS for something else I was toying with. I just tried a FAT32 self powered USB drive (120GB) and it worked just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I LOVE easy solutions! Enjoy your HDD and don't forget to thank the guys that enabled the USB hosting!!!

so I should pick up a hard drive (portable), and then format it to fat32? Ill use the link from your post and I'm good?

kasrhp said:
so I should pick up a hard drive (portable), and then format it to fat32? Ill use the link from your post and I'm good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read the thread carefully people mention issues with certain thumb drives that have indicator lights because they might require too much power. However, when I connect my iPhone all it does is charge So my interpretation is that the HDD needs to have its own power source

Sadly the problem with fat32 and Android in general at the moment is that you can't use files >2 gigs. You could on Androids internal storage which is usually a file system that supports large files(RFS,EXT3/4...) if your device has that much internal storage available.
Does anyone know what our internal file system is? I haven't messed with it enough to know yet - but assuming because the thing mounts in Windows. - its FAT(at least the part we can mount and write to from windows).
And all of this boils down to Windows and their lack of reality in that we don't all run NTFS, and that maybe, possibly, someone MIGHT WANT TO HOOK UP A GOD BLESSED EXT DRIVE!
But i guess I could just format all of my stuff as NTFS, because the open source community is actually smart and Linux can read it. But then again maybe I would need to work on someones stupid ass Mac and need to write a file to said NTFS drive - OH WAIT CAN'T EF'IN DO THAT!
/rant

You could probably use ext2 on the hard drive - it can be configured to be readable and writable in Windows. It's similar to FAT32 but doesn't have the limit on file size.

Will rooting give me Mass Storage USB?

Hi all. I hope I'm posting this in the right forum.
I got my Asus TF300T about a week ago and am enjoying it so far. I don't like the MTP mode for USB though. Will rooting this bad boy give me Mass Storage USB mode?

1. Sorry, this is the wrong forum. Questions generally go in the question/answer section.
2. There may be an app that can do it, but rooting by itself won't give you UMS, and I'm not entirely sure any apps can do it. You're welcome to try a couple of the UMS apps and report back.

Root and use SAMBA
its an app that lets you connect via SMB/CIFS from any network device.

Wait, this app doesn't say anything about Mass Storage device... :/

no since with ics and JB the sdcard is a mounted folder on your internal memory - so the only one close to it is either use an ftp server/client (kinda clunky) or use SAMBA which you can use like a network share and works with Win/OSX/*unix.

To clarify things, there is a reason that ICS and JB use MTP and not UMS: filesystems. Before ICS (actually, Honeycomb, I think), manufacturers just shipped phones with microSD cards formatted as FAT32. This is convenient because all computers can read this filesystem. All the phone has to do is turn the SD card into a disk drive, and the computer will mount it. Now, with ICS and JB, manufacturers are using internal storage formatted as ext4 (the most common Linux filesystem), but there's a problem. Windows computers can't read ext4 (or ext2 or ext3 or anything besides FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS for that matter), so turning the storage into a disk drive isn't an option because Windows computers will completely ignore it, and since Windows is the most popular OS, that would alienate most of the potential customers. The solution is to mount the internal storage as a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) device. FUSE isn't a real filesystem. It's more of an intermediary solution. It kind of "translates" from one filesystem into a generic one. That is then sent to the computer as an MTP or PTP device.
Pretty much the only options if you can't find any UMS apps are to reformat your internal storage as FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS (which would cause other problems) or use a network-based solution as suggested. It doesn't have to be SAMBA, though. There are apps that create either an HTTP or FTP server on your phone so you can connect from your browser (or an FTP client) over Wifi. That's what I do because Linux doesn't play nice with MTP or PTP, and I refuse to use Windows unless necessary (it nearly killed me to root my GS3, because it requires Odin in Windows; finding and installing drivers again reminded me why I hate Windows). So, I'm in roughly the same spot as you, but I'm coping with it. Until Windows is finally killed or MS decides to support more than just its own filesystems, we don't have much choice.

EndlessDissent said:
To clarify things, there is a reason that ICS and JB use MTP and not UMS: filesystems. Before ICS (actually, Honeycomb, I think), manufacturers just shipped phones with microSD cards formatted as FAT32. This is convenient because all computers can read this filesystem. All the phone has to do is turn the SD card into a disk drive, and the computer will mount it. Now, with ICS and JB, manufacturers are using internal storage formatted as ext4 (the most common Linux filesystem), but there's a problem. Windows computers can't read ext4 (or ext2 or ext3 or anything besides FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS for that matter), so turning the storage into a disk drive isn't an option because Windows computers will completely ignore it, and since Windows is the most popular OS, that would alienate most of the potential customers. The solution is to mount the internal storage as a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) device. FUSE isn't a real filesystem. It's more of an intermediary solution. It kind of "translates" from one filesystem into a generic one. That is then sent to the computer as an MTP or PTP device.
Pretty much the only options if you can't find any UMS apps are to reformat your internal storage as FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS (which would cause other problems) or use a network-based solution as suggested. It doesn't have to be SAMBA, though. There are apps that create either an HTTP or FTP server on your phone so you can connect from your browser (or an FTP client) over Wifi. That's what I do because Linux doesn't play nice with MTP or PTP, and I refuse to use Windows unless necessary (it nearly killed me to root my GS3, because it requires Odin in Windows; finding and installing drivers again reminded me why I hate Windows). So, I'm in roughly the same spot as you, but I'm coping with it. Until Windows is finally killed or MS decides to support more than just its own filesystems, we don't have much choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah thats the TLR version put it on wiki - nice summary! - was to lazy to write it up
i suggested samba since you dont need a client to access it - just an OS for simplicity. and uploading via http is a pita imho. Samba shows you a folder structure plain and simple (like ums would have) its just not as a device on "my computer" but as a connected network share
but nice summary - btw - windows ain't so hard - had more probs on my gentoo with my droid tbh.
cheers

Honestly, I just never looked up how to set up SAMBA, but I've considered it. I got used to using MIUI File Explorer, which had a built-in FTP server. With gFTP or FileZilla, it was dead-easy to set up a connection. SAMBA would probably work well in my house since there are a couple Windows computers, but since I don't use them (they belong to others), I have no need to access them. Still kicking it over in my mind.

EndlessDissent said:
To clarify things, there is a reason that ICS and JB use MTP and not UMS: filesystems. Before ICS (actually, Honeycomb, I think), manufacturers just shipped phones with microSD cards formatted as FAT32. This is convenient because all computers can read this filesystem. All the phone has to do is turn the SD card into a disk drive, and the computer will mount it. Now, with ICS and JB, manufacturers are using internal storage formatted as ext4 (the most common Linux filesystem), but there's a problem. Windows computers can't read ext4 (or ext2 or ext3 or anything besides FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS for that matter), so turning the storage into a disk drive isn't an option because Windows computers will completely ignore it, and since Windows is the most popular OS, that would alienate most of the potential customers. The solution is to mount the internal storage as a FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) device. FUSE isn't a real filesystem. It's more of an intermediary solution. It kind of "translates" from one filesystem into a generic one. That is then sent to the computer as an MTP or PTP device.
Pretty much the only options if you can't find any UMS apps are to reformat your internal storage as FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS (which would cause other problems) or use a network-based solution as suggested. It doesn't have to be SAMBA, though. There are apps that create either an HTTP or FTP server on your phone so you can connect from your browser (or an FTP client) over Wifi. That's what I do because Linux doesn't play nice with MTP or PTP, and I refuse to use Windows unless necessary (it nearly killed me to root my GS3, because it requires Odin in Windows; finding and installing drivers again reminded me why I hate Windows). So, I'm in roughly the same spot as you, but I'm coping with it. Until Windows is finally killed or MS decides to support more than just its own filesystems, we don't have much choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bugger.

I think in this article/video You will find some answers:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/easy-ums-usb-mass-storage-and-media-transfer-protocol-xda-developer-tv/
Cheers

invertedskull said:
Bugger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I didn't mean to rain on any parades. In fact, the way I'm thinking is, since FUSE more-or-less emulates a generic filesystem, it should be possible to get it to broadcast as UMS. But if it were that easy, why would the hardware vendors use MTP instead?

since a couple of you are linux guys like me, I'll mention NFS is also an option
well at least I'm able to mount my ubuntu-server NFS shares on my TF300
have been doing this daily for a while now
then about a week or so ago and I found a nice package botbrew-basil
which allows installation of packages from emdebian
NFS common runs just fine on my device
I did not look for the NFS server daemon
but should also be possible

EndlessDissent said:
Honestly, I just never looked up how to set up SAMBA, but I've considered it. I got used to using MIUI File Explorer, which had a built-in FTP server. With gFTP or FileZilla, it was dead-easy to set up a connection. SAMBA would probably work well in my house since there are a couple Windows computers, but since I don't use them (they belong to others), I have no need to access them. Still kicking it over in my mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
install the samba app start it up, set username and pw then enable it. then use ur filebroeser/finder/explorer and browse to your device ip or name - done. easy .. takes 1 minute tops and nice thing is my gnex can talk to my tabs an vice versa with i.e. es file explorer
cheers
edit: kad79
nsf mount is nice but perm connections drain my batteries i feel. i use es file explorer to access any nsf/smb share and just fav it for easy access.
cheers
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I'm surprised
es file explorer can do NFS??
I've actually got es file explorer installed, will have to take a closer look
but I don't think it can do NFS (Network File System)
NFS shares usually must be mounted before you can access them
editbuster99 - I checked es file explorer does not do NFS
it can't even detect that they are available on the network

radekula said:
I think in this article/video You will find some answers:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/easy-ums-usb-mass-storage-and-media-transfer-protocol-xda-developer-tv/
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ta mang, will watch that in a moment.
A thought... What if I unlocked bootloader, and installed a custom ROM built from Honeycomb? Chances of me doing this are very slim, just a thought though.

Use the app Airdroid. Its quick, simple GUI, and user friendly.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have AirDroid, and forgot it does this. I only just got my wifi working again so I was looking primarily for a wired solution, but it looks like I'll either have to put up with MTP or use a wireless method.

External HDD

I just picked up a WD Passport 1TB drive, and I thought I would try connecting it to my S4 (I337M) VIA USB OTG. The GS4 recognizes that it is connected, and seems to power it just fine. But the phone is saying "blank or unsupported flie system". with no option to format. Is there a chance I can get this going? I've done some searching and have not seen much. I would like to be able to not take my PC with me for 2 months of training in Arizona in the new year. Survive on my S4 and Nexus Tablet, backing them up nightly on a portable would be perfect as its commercial flight training! Weight is an issue Hauling my laptop around seems SO 2010!

S4 or android for that matter do not support ntfs file format natively. If you are not rooted, there is an app called NEXUS MEDIA IMPORTER and it's a paid app, but it will enable you to read and copy files off from the hard drive. The only thing is that you wont be able to write to the drive.
Now if you are rooted, all you need is to search "ntfs" from the Play store and you'll find lots of apps that will enable you read and write to ntfs file format hard drives.

The other option would be to format the drive to FAT32. There are tools out there for Windows that can do this. Big drawback is that the drive does not support files larger than 4GB's. If your device is rooted installing NTFS support would be the better option.

pilatus34 said:
The other option would be to format the drive to FAT32. There are tools out there for Windows that can do this. Big drawback is that the drive does not support files larger than 4GB's. If your device is rooted installing NTFS support would be the better option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OR you could format it to EXT3 or 4, and use applications in windows to mount it. I used to do this all the time to share files across my windows and linux installations.

Thanks! I'll give all that a shot. Thanks for the replies! Very appreciated!
Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Playing music via external SD card

Hello. Just got the Pixel. I have an external USBC Satechi SD card reader that I would like to play music from. When I put in the SD card it does read it. I can play music.
I would like to use an app such as poweramp to read the folders on this SD card. Is this possible?
I've tried poweramp and mortplayer with no luck.
Thanks.

I don't know if @Chainfire 's StickMount app has been updated in a while. Until I started writing this I actually forgot about the app. I'll have to try it as on three different devices now, starting with Lollipop 5.1.1 or maybe it was 5.0.x, USB access seems to be harder to achieve. What workarounds I find for particular apps on one device don't necessarily work on another, and I haven't had any success on the Pixel at all yet, but going to play with StickMount if it's been updated lately and see if that solves the issue for all apps.
Edit: It should be noted that I've had zero trouble accessing USB drives from TWRP on the Pixel, therefore it's definitely only a software issue.
Edit 2: No luck. I wonder if in my case it's related to the fact I use ExFAT on my USB drives though? I'll have to test tomorrow with a spare smaller drive formatted FAT32. Both StickMount and X-Plore File Manager (the latter has a USB checkbox in it's settings that appears to work similar to StickMount but just for that app) report no recognizable partition to mount.
I don't know if Google doesn't make kernels that support Microsoft's licensed ExFAT format, although maybe another kernel might if not. I'm using the PureNexus kernel FYI, since I'm on the PureNexus ROM. I had the same trouble on stock Pixel whether rooted or not. On other devices I can usually find the USB drive listed under root/mnt/media_rw/xxxxxxxxxxxx, but not on the Pixel. I'll try to update tomorrow if I have time to test a FAT32 drive.

Update: Confirmed that my 32 GB USB 2.0 FAT32-formatted thumb drive mounted automatically with StickMount installed and configured. Likely using my file manager of choice X-plore's USB option probably would've achieved the same thing. Note that at least using StickMount (and probably would be the same with X-plore's option) that I still had to navigate to root/mnt/media_rw/xxxxxxxxxxxx in order access the drive, at least from X-plore. No idea if the behavior is different with other file managers.

Thanks I will give this a shot!

I just noticed that you must be rooted for this software. Unfortunately I am not...

Last I knew, any device that comes with a external SD card has to pay Microsoft a license fee, this is why you won't ever see a SD card on a nexus/ pixel/Google device.
Sent from my Pixel using XDA-Developers Legacy app