Connecting an external hard drive to an android tablet ???

[Mtucker101]

Hey Guys

I am going travelling in the future to do some photography and was wondering whether it is at all possible to connect up a dslr camera to an android tablet to store photos on it, and then connect an external hard drive to the tablet to transfer those photos onto the hard drive.

I need some way of being able to store my photos, and it needs to be compact, light and easy to use whilst out places during my travels, rather than taking a laptop and external and storing photos that way or even just buying a large number of memory cards for my camera.

I need to know whether this would be a viable option to buy a cheapish tablet with small memory as i am saving money to buy other photography equipment as well as save money to pay for my travelling.

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Mark

 

[PGB54]

Hi Mark,

I recently acquired my Archos 101 android tablet running Android 2.2 (Froyo). I have connected my Nikon D3100 to it through the USB port and it connects perfectly. The tablet shows it as an "external camera" I was able to browse the photos and transfer them to the tablet. I have not tried connecting an external hard drive yet but have transferred files both ways using a USB key. The unit also has a micro SD slot that can take up to a 32Gig card. If a 10" tablet is too big, the Archos 70 is smaller but has the same USB ports. You can also order the 70 with a 250Gig hard drive.

I plan on using mine a a companion to the camera when I travel. The photo software that comes pre-installed works great to look at the downloaded pictures in detail

 

[Mtucker101]

Thanks for the info mate. Greatly appreciated. Will look into this idea then as it's much more viable than buying loads of sdhc mem cards.

 

[pbrauer]

I have also connected my USB jump drives to the USB port on my Viewsonic with no problems, this may be another option for you.

 

[banditrider]

This is something I'm trying to do. My tablet (Android 2.2) can't seem to see my camera or a USB pen drive. Is there some trick I'm missing or do I need to download a special app?

Like the OP, I want to be able to access photos on my camera while on the road and upload them to picasa or my blog.

Appreciate any suggestions, thanks!

 

[AcerIconiaGirl]

check out the eye-fi storage cards and apps. you dont ever need to connect them since they upload automatically
personally, i cannot find anything on my usb drives at all---not sure why--today is day one with my acer iconia

 

[jay34]

as long as you have a USB port on your tablet you can definately connect an external Harddrive or a flashdrive to your tablet, but make sure you format the drive to exfat.

 

[ubmeibeu]

I have a iconia a500 tablet just like mtucker101 i would like to be able to view and store my photo's on my tablet. I have updated my tablet from 3.0 to 3.1 honeycomb i can view the pictures on my tablet, but it does not store them, or at least when i am viewing the pictures it does not give me the option to store them. I am using a usb card reader reading a CF card, should i buy a extra sd card to put in top to store my pictures that is the only thing i have not tried.
If anyone has any suggestions looking forward to hearing from you.
I also downloaded the update for the usb driver from acer it came as a .zip file, i download a app to unzip the file and it worked for me, but left me a .exe file i click on the file and it asks me what to open with, i am new to the android operating system do i need something else to run an exe file as well?

 

[phamtranloi]

I have a Motorola XOOM2 ANDROID 4.4 with 16GB, I have rooted the tablet, load the file manager ES and ASTRO. To access my HDD
500GB NTFS, I have used Y USB cable and ex-powered the HDD thru a laptop USB then I've loaded USBHOST to my tablet, however I could not see files in my HDD, so I disconnect the ex-powered connection from the laptop. At that instant, the tablet sounded "Click"
then went black eversince. What did I do wrong ? How to resurrect the TABLET ?