Finding external_sd on your PC

[sopranosv]

Ok...so I'm not sure if this have been resolved, but I have read that when connecting your Acer Iconia A500 over your USB cable to your PC/Laptop, the external_sd (which actually is the additional micro SD you have inserted on your tablet) shows up on your explorer (if updated to 3.2) but when double clicking/opening it, no folders show up and if you copy something then you can't see it on your tablet using your favorite explorer.

Well, this is what worked for me:

- Open your explorer on your PC/Laptop
- Double click on "Acer ICONIA TAB A500" or whatever the name of your tablet becomes when connected via USB
- Double click on "Internal Storage"
- Open "mnt" folder
- Open "external_sd" folder
- There you will find all the folders already created
- I tried copying and pasting an *.mp4 movie and its subtitles (*.srt) and it worked like a charm

Hope this helps...

 

[Desso]

Thank You!! I've been searching all morning on how to do this. I could see "Internal Storage" and "SD Card" under Acer Iconia Tab A500 on windows explorer, but "SD Card" was empty when I opened it. Seems strange that Acer wouldn't show the contents here?? Hmmm...

 

[Icebike]

Yup, the Acer presents itself on the MicroUSB port as an MTP device, not a normal Fat32 disk drive.
(This is why it never gets assigned a drive letter in Windows, and why the Linux auto-mounter
doesn't see it at all unless you install special software).

This is where a lot of confusion arises, we expect it to be a USB disk or thumb drive. But its not.
It uses Media Transfer Protocol which was designed for music players. Its one of those things
Acer/Android is licensing from Microsoft.

Tail your linux Log as you plug in the device and you will see it report as an unknown mtp device.
Amarok and some other players will know how to deal with it an play music directly off
the acer, but I don't think you can get access to the file system without installing the
windows MTP driver (which is built into Win7/Vista).

Its a huge Kludge if you ask me, but it allows them to prevent the deletion of critical
files via the USB interface. You really can't turn windows loose on a Linux file system
without something standing guard, and MTP was cheap and small and lightweight.

You would think they could pass-thru access to the Fat32 MicroSD card, even if internal
storage is all EXT3/4. But they chose not to do it that way, probably because it was
very risky.

 

[frnkws]

Ok...so I'm not sure if this have been resolved, but I have read that when connecting your Acer Iconia A500 over your USB cable to your PC/Laptop, the external_sd (which actually is the additional micro SD you have inserted on your tablet) shows up on your explorer (if updated to 3.2) but when double clicking/opening it, no folders show up and if you copy something then you can't see it on your tablet using your favorite explorer.

Well, this is what worked for me:

- Open your explorer on your PC/Laptop
- Double click on "Acer ICONIA TAB A500" or whatever the name of your tablet becomes when connected via USB
- Double click on "Internal Storage"
- Open "mnt" folder
- Open "external_sd" folder
- There you will find all the folders already created
- I tried copying and pasting an *.mp4 movie and its subtitles (*.srt) and it worked like a charm

Hope this helps...

I use single click, Did not realize people still use double click.
so I opened "internal storage" and there is no "mnt" folder.
Besides, once I open the A 500 it already shows "internal storage" as well as SD card.
And if I open the file manager on my tablet I do see everything I added to it.