Portable drives for iPad

mcgyver — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:46:08 +0800

Just want to share the latest findings I got.

I was able to successfully use a portable drive for iPad.

My iPad now can read my 1 TB hard drive, my 120gb iPod Classic, and any other SD cards and thumb drives.
It can even copy files to it and vice-versa. It can even directly play supported file format.
It's just like a normal HDD connected to the iPad, and the iFile serves a true Finder.

Awesome...

What you need:
1. The iPad camera connection kit.
2. Latest version of iFile from Cydia, download it if you don't have it. It cost $4, but it's worth it.
3. External power source for portable HDD
4. Split USB cable to connect the portable HDD to iPad and external power source.

Requirement:
Your iPad should be in latest iOS and should be jailbroken.

The catch...
- In order to read the drive, it should be formatted in FAT32 (tried and tested). I will try to use NTFS later.
- The iPad has low USB power so it cannot power-up a portable drive, so you need an external power source. I use those cheap powerbanks or extended batteries for mobile gadgets.

Here we go.
- First, I tested my 120gb iPod Classic. Since it has its own power supply, you can directly connect it to the iPad using the camera connection kit (of course you need the cable).
- Open the iFile, click the Sidebar, and there you go, you will see the familiar Finder just like in Mac. You will see the Flash drive, click it and you are now browsing the entire content of your iPod Classic. In case you want to know the specific folder to browse, its on the /var/mnt/mount1
- try to play some files such as MP4 video, open some documents, etc, and it's just awesome. As long as the file is supported by the iFile's built-in viewer, it will directly play from the iPod. No need to copy to the iPad.
- You can even use other application to view it, but, if you do that, file will be uploaded to the Applications folder before you can play it.

- Then i plugged in my 8gb thumb drive using the connection kit, click the Sidebar, and just like the iPod Classic, you can browse, copy/paste, play video, etc direct from the thumb drive.

- The next one is my 1TB HDD, same goes with the previous storage, you can browse its content.

- For the 2.5" portable HDD, you need to connect the drive on the external power source using the split USB cable to power the drive (I use the cable that comes with my old USB DVD drive), and then the other end of the cable to the iPad. As long as you power-up the portable drive, you can do the same as the previous portable drives.

I use the following gear for testing:
-The New iPad 32Gb WiFi only, with iOS 5.1.1 Jailbroken using Absinthe.
-iPad camera connection kit (the original from Apple), not sure if other connection kit will work, you can try though.
-iFile version 1.7.1-1

Please comment if you're able to make it work.

Have a good day

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Portable drives for iPad