Can A81G USB host flash drives?

Ned Lud

Member
Feb 21, 2011
10
0
Hey,
Pardon what might be a dumb question... but with the full USB host, can the A81G/capacitive also read & play media off flash drives? I understand that it's got the microSDHC slot that supports up to 16 GB... But what about flash drives in the USB?
Thanks

PS: MP4nation raised its price, btw. No more pre-order $250 special. Now it's $270. I only recently decided to order one but the timing was bad for me because I knew I'd be away for a week and might miss the delivery. Now that hesitation will cost me an extra $20, even though I knew in my heart that it was highly unlikely that I'd get the thing in under two weeks. Or was I right to wait? Seemed like a crap shoot. Anyway what's done is done. Now I'm just curious about flash drives in the USB, if anyone knows about that.
 

DanU

Member
Mar 4, 2011
130
16
I have the same question. I can get the device to recognize a flash drive when I plug it into the i/f, but I can't figure out how to find the data that is loaded on it. I have observed that the USB, if not unmounted correctly, can impact the status of the SD card, so it made me wonder if the device sees the USB drive like an SD card. I removed my SD card and tried to mount the USB drive using the SD menu under settings, but no luck.
 

DanU

Member
Mar 4, 2011
130
16
And the answer is...

You must root the device. Mine came with Z4Root installed and it worked fine. Then install an SD card mounting app that can mount multiple SDs. I found a free one called Multi-Mount that you install then add as a widget on your home. It appears that when you use it, it mounts-unmounts all of the 'SD cards' it finds. So if you are running your device with SD card installed and wish to use the USB, you have to use the widget to unmount SDs, plug in your memory stick, then mount SDs. Use a file manager that can find the new folder. I used Astro, which sees the memory stick as disk0. :)
 

Ned Lud

Member
Feb 21, 2011
10
0
Hey, that's great, DanU! Thanks for the info. Can't wait to get mine. It's currently in shipping limbo, so I'm just trying to keep my spirits up and expectations realistic for when it will arrive.
 

DanU

Member
Mar 4, 2011
130
16
Mine took almost a full month to arrive, so hang in there. I have capacitive display envy LOL!
 

OutaDaDark

Member
Mar 18, 2011
19
1
Hi all,

I had this problem with my device too, but the issue was somewhat more puzzling.

I'm running 2.2 FROYO and although my A81G recognised a host HDD (2.5in 80Gb SATAII in an external USB case, drawing power from the A81G when connected, battery or mains powered!!), it only recognised one 16GB USB Flash stick though both were identical (Sandisk Cruzer Blade).

I followed DanU's resolution and bought the Multi-Mount app, rooted with Z4Root and plugged in my devices. All Multi-Mount would say is that the USB drives had been unmounted. Even activating the Multi-Mount app as a widget, Auto scan etc didn't work.

To make matters worse, my External HDD is no longer recognised and causes my MID to shut down, requiring a reboot to start up again.

The solution to the USB Flash Drive issue is to simply format all the USB Flash units you intend to use with an Android device with the HPUSBDisk application, FAT32. This doesn't affect the use of the USB drives in Windows and allows use of the built in Android Mount/Unmount facility. A File Explorer that sees, and allows selection of, mounted devices can then be used to access these drives.

Now I'm off to try and figure out what Multi-Mount did to break my system and see if I can get my external HDD working again....
 

bowie

Member
Mar 18, 2011
1
0
new witstech capacitive ; why does the sd card slot does not read my sd card?

Hello ,

I have another sttrange problem wit my sd card slot on my witstech ( or maybe a bad sd card ? ).
Does anybody know how to use a sd card on the capacitive witstech to avoid memory problems?
I have already downloaded app2sd but I can not install any app on my device to my sd card.
 

diordna

Member
Mar 20, 2011
1
0
Hello all, newbie here...

I have a Witstech A81G+ Capacitive... to access my usb drive I have simply connected to the A81G, launched astro explorer and located my files in /mnt/disk0/

hope this helps, no rooting done for this to work.
 

DanU

Member
Mar 4, 2011
130
16
Weird - I did the same thing on my A81G and it shows the USB device mounting but I could not see it in Astro
 

mal_k100

Member
Apr 14, 2011
18
1
It is very important to format sd cards with the appropriate HP format utility. The varied responses are probably due to using wrong formatter. Eve when I had mine working I experimented with other formatters, and even the newer HP one did not work.

Sent from my MID using Android Tablet Forum
 

fatmanwalking

Member
Mar 26, 2011
38
4
I'm not sure if this applies in your situation or not, but I had plain 2GB microsd cards get errors on me on both my LG Optimus phone and my A81H tablet. Heck, my LG came with a plain 2GB microsd card.

I read on the web where the LG Optimus problem was solved by using a class 4 or better microsdhc card. The hc cards seem to rated at classes from 4 to 10. Using the class 4 card fixed my problems with my LG Optimus and so I applied the same solution to my A81H. Fixed the problems there too.
 
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