Samsung galaxy S3 OTG for USB 3. hard drives

Maazyazdani · Oct 11, 2012

Hi there,

I have a samsung galaxy S3 (rooted) and have recently purchased OTG cable. The problem is that when I connect s3 with Hitachi Touro (mobile USB 3.0) through OTG cable hard drive does appear in files. I have installed paragon NTFS and stickmount apps but it doesn't seem to connect even though a message keeps appearing "usb connector is connected". Hard drive gives a clicking sound when it is connected with S3 but works perfectly with the computer.

Does anyone know solution to this?

Thanks and regards

DocHoliday77 · Oct 11, 2012

I've heard of some people having problems when connected to a usb 3.0 port on their computer and have to connect to a 2.0 port instead. Maybe related?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

elesbb · Oct 11, 2012

DocHoliday77 said:
I've heard of some people having problems when connected to a usb 3.0 port on their computer and have to connect to a 2.0 port instead. Maybe related?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

USB 3.0 I don't think is supported. What I've seen people do is use a 2.0 cable extension with their 3.0 device. As this downgrades it to 2.0 because they should be compatible with 2.0 just won't have the insane speeds as 3.0. Or you can get a USB hub and plug it in that way.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

splatdotsplat · Oct 11, 2012

Sounds like the Hard Drive is not getting enough power (The clicking), do you have it plugged into an external power supply?
*.*

Maazyazdani · Oct 11, 2012

splatdotsplat said:
Sounds like the Hard Drive is not getting enough power (The clicking), do you have it plugged into an external power supply?
*.*

Thanks for all the replies. Hard drive is not connected to power supply as it is portable.

Yatyas · Oct 11, 2012

Maazyazdani said:
Thanks for all the replies. Hard drive is not connected to power supply as it is portable.

Splatdotsplat is correct. That clicking sound are the heads resetting to the park position. This usually happens when drives are not getting enough power. When the drive spins up it peaks its power consumption and cuts out because there is not enough so the heads reset. Portable or not that is the issue. I have seen this happen with some portable drives on computers (especially larger capacity). A lot of times the solution can be as simple as using a shorter cable. Sometimes it doesn't work.

teshgnex · Oct 12, 2012

as stated above, the only way to run external hdd's of any kind is to be sure they're powered, even some thumbdrives will draw more power than the phone can provide and you'll notice your batt life take a steep dive (as did my Galaxy Nexus w/otg on an HP 16gb thumbdrive)

power the drive through a powered hub and you're good to go!

elesbb · Oct 12, 2012

splatdotsplat said:
Sounds like the Hard Drive is not getting enough power (The clicking), do you have it plugged into an external power supply?
*.*

This is why i recommended using a USB powered HUB as the HUB will give enough power to the external hard drive.

jonny68 · Dec 14, 2012

elesbb said:
This is why i recommended using a USB powered HUB as the HUB will give enough power to the external hard drive.

Having the same issue myself, otg cable with Samsung portable 500GB external HDD and stickmount pro works fine with my Nexus 7,but won't work with my Galaxy even though it recognises the HDD, so do you think a USB hub would be the solution, and can anyone recommend one

Thanks

jonny68 · Dec 16, 2012

Anyone?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

kemaro30 · Dec 22, 2012

i wish there are people who are willing to investigate/try this thing out, it would be awesome to make a portable hard drive works on our S3..

esqueue · Dec 24, 2012

kemaro30 said:
i wish there are people who are willing to investigate/try this thing out, it would be awesome to make a portable hard drive works on our S3..

Just to throw in some info. I do agree about the hdd not getting enough power as the cause for the clicking. I have a 500gb hitachi drive that does that if a long usb cable is used. The drive didn't come with a power adapter but instead came with a short usb cable that had two heads. allowing it to draw power from two ports. It also had a port for an adaptor though.

When testing with my Samsung Galaxy sIII It doesn't work unless I have the hd running via external power or have the second usb connector on the cable connected to a charging usb cable. Both options charge the phone while the hd is connected to the phone.

The usb cable with the double ports actually works well for me. I have the first port connected to the otg cable that I made and the second connection connected to a usb extender that is connected to my 2A tablet charger. That way I can charge at the same time.

suhrm · Jan 1, 2013

esqueue said:
Just to throw in some info. I do agree about the hdd not getting enough power as the cause for the clicking. I have a 500gb hitachi drive that does that if a long usb cable is used. The drive didn't come with a power adapter but instead came with a short usb cable that had two heads. allowing it to draw power from two ports. It also had a port for an adaptor though.

When testing with my Samsung Galaxy sIII It doesn't work unless I have the hd running via external power or have the second usb connector on the cable connected to a charging usb cable. Both options charge the phone while the hd is connected to the phone.

The usb cable with the double ports actually works well for me. I have the first port connected to the otg cable that I made and the second connection connected to a usb extender that is connected to my 2A tablet charger. That way I can charge at the same time.

Hi the problem i basically power as in the amount of current your device requires, i know that the standard specifications of the original 2.0 interface is about max 500mA and 5Vdc per port, in some cases the maximum output current is even smaller due to hardware restrictions, this can lead to difficulties when trying to power something like an external hard drive. Therefore a long cable will also give a problem due to the resistance of the material, because the required voltage level is not high enough.

I do not know if there is a spec sheet containing information about the output capabilities of the usb port, if there is one i recommend using that to match an external hard drives, if you do not want to use an external power supply.

Edit: you could also use an external power bank/battery pack but i seems a bit bulky

elesbb · Jan 2, 2013

kemaro30 said:
i wish there are people who are willing to investigate/try this thing out, it would be awesome to make a portable hard drive works on our S3..

Sure go out and buy me one and i'll test all day..

USB OTG works out of the box for low power devices. I havent seen/read anything stating USB 3.0 works on the S3. I have a 1TB hard drive my brother gave me, its not the newer ones that are ssd so it has a power adapter with it and it works perfectly with my S3. Going to be using it in a few minutes to back up my internal SD.

BplusA · Jan 13, 2013

So guys I have the GT-I9300 ( Galaxy S3 ) and I have 1 TB WD My Passport
I'm plannig to buy the OTG piece ! so as of now is possible to connect the hardrive to the phone or not yet !?

KurrentUser · Jan 25, 2013

Is there even a driver and an app to do such a thing? As I see it the USB port is configured as an external storage device to connect to a computer not the other way around. What you are doing is connecting two storage devices together. There's no way I would ever connect anything to my phones USB port that requires power. If I were to, it would be through a powered hub.

maronzet · Jan 27, 2013

Hi Eles

elesbb said:
USB 3.0 I don't think is supported. What I've seen people do is use a 2.0 cable extension with their 3.0 device. As this downgrades it to 2.0 because they should be compatible with 2.0 just won't have the insane speeds as 3.0. Or you can get a USB hub and plug it in that way.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

I have read that you connected your S3 with external powered HDD. I bought yesterday the genuine samsung OTG cable and it is working only with memory stick and joystick controller. Don't know why it is not working with my external powered HDD - 500 GB WD. Any ideea ? My S3 is not rooted.
Thanks,

M.

Maggard · Jan 28, 2013

No, nobody is going to have a recommendation for a powered USB hub.
It's a trivial, generic, piece of kit you buy nearly anywhere for under US$10 (unless you're a complete sucker.) Just make sure whatever you get *includes* a power supply.

Get one in the shape of a person, or a kitty cat, or a Tardis, whatever thrills you.

DsturbD · Jan 28, 2013

KurrentUser said:
Is there even a driver and an app to do such a thing? As I see it the USB port is configured as an external storage device to connect to a computer not the other way around. What you are doing is connecting two storage devices together. There's no way I would ever connect anything to my phones USB port that requires power. If I were to, it would be through a powered hub.

that's not quite accurate. when you plug your phone into your PC, the drivers that you installed will see your phone as a usb device (or media device) and allow you to use your phone as such

an OTG (on-the-go) cable allows you to connect a storage device to your phone, such as a thumb drive or external hard drive (powered or not) and then your phone acts like your PC and uses that device as storage

giovannibgr · Mar 21, 2014

elesbb said:
USB 3.0 I don't think is supported. What I've seen people do is use a 2.0 cable extension with their 3.0 device. As this downgrades it to 2.0 because they should be compatible with 2.0 just won't have the insane speeds as 3.0. Or you can get a USB hub and plug it in that way.

I can confirm that in my case forcing my ADATA HV610 1 TB disk to USB 2.0 mode worked. The trick is to use a standard micro-USB cable (e.g. the one that comes with your charger) instead of the standard cable that comes with the HDD.

More detail:
The common USB 3 cable which comes with most new HDDs uses USB 3.0 Micro-B plug which, in practice, is a micro-USB with a "half-micro-USB" next to it. The part most people don't know is that you can use a common micro-USB cable (as the one from your charger) to connect your HDD to your PC (or other device) with the cost of loss of USB 3.0 compatibility. Which, in our case, is what we need, as this switch makes the HDD less power-hungry.

Post a comment if it works for other hard drives too (I think WD also use Micro-B connectors for their USB 3.0 Passports)

Samsung galaxy S3 OTG for USB 3. hard drives

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