Hardware/tech question related to external drives and Android devices

[jprosser]

Hi, I hope someone here might be able to help me with a hardware/tech problem that has plagued me recently.


I use an Android tablet to read digital comics. Recently, I hoped to use a 2tb external drive to store files. However, I soon discovered that pairing a standard external drive to my tablet created as many problems as it solved...


I hoped that using a wireless external hard drive might solve the problem. I bought an Asus wireless drive to give it a test drive. While the device paired with my tablet just fine, I discovered that the Asus app that goes with the drive did not support .cbr files. (Worked fine for .pdf files, music, photos, etc.)


So here is the question: Does anyone know of a wireless external hard drive that works with Android devices... AND has software/app that will support .cbr/.cbz files.


Or, any other suggestions for 1 or 2tb external drive storage that plays nicely with Android and .cbr/.cbz files?


Thanks for help.


Feel free to email directly at mr.movie@comcast.net (as I don't always check the forums here).


-Jerry

[JonTheScanner]

I don't know the answer, but there should be no problem at all with the external drive and cbr cbz files.  Those are just rar and zip files with a different extension. Now it's possible that the Android device's comic book reader isn't liking the files for some reason, but I don't see how they could be a problem for the external drive.

[jprosser]

In the case of the Asus drive, it was incompatible software. The app that allowed the Android tablet to use the NTFS formatted wireless drive did not recognize .cbr files. (Worked fine with other types of files, though.)


I basically need a terabyte plus equivalent of a USB flash drive that will work with Android.

[Yoc]

I still can't fathom why the external HD would not recognize a cbr file.  Very weird.

One solution would be to convert any cbr to cbz files before moving them to the external HD.  Rename the cbr to rar, extract to a folder, and then recompress to a zip file.  Rename to cbz and copy to HD for reading.

Personally I have a large SD card inside my Samsung Galaxy tablet and use ES File Explorer's 'view on pc' to transfer files from my PC via a FTP connection for viewing.  I use Perfect Viewer to read all file formats.

Good luck,
-Yoc

[CBpop]

Not sure if this is the same problem, but I had trouble downloading to and from my PC with my Android tablet.  Samsung provides a free download for the Android to sync between PC, mobile phones etc.  You may want to check it out ... Google Samsung Kies 3 for information and free downloads.


Spaceman's Luck 
Ed

[jprosser]

Thanks, I will have to look into that.


I was able to solve the issue. Just not the elegant, wireless solution I was hoping for. But, until I can figure out a sexier workaround, this will get the job done.


If anyone else is having issues with a portable NTFS hard drive, and an Android device, let me know and I can give you a quick rundown of what I did.

[narfstar]

I am not sure if peazip works with android but it handles rar files. Rar is different from zip. Your android normally handles zip. You first need a file that handles rar that allows your comic reader to handle cbr. You could see if peazip is available or another program for rar on droid.

[Yoc]

No, not really Narf.
I'm running a Samsung tablet with Android.  I installed Perfect Viewer and it can read rar, zip, cbr, cbz and PDF.  No problems.  This is why I find the original problem so odd.
I suspect if he could just move the file onto his tablet some way Perfect Viewer would see it and work fine.

-Yoc

[narfstar]

This was how I fixed the problem many years ago. At the time rar was new. Probably much more simple now.