External hard drive troubles

[DaveSt]

Wow ... that airstash server is one very slick device. I might have to get one of those myself.

 

[addiosamigo]

i'm really not getting this airstash! i can use my camera connection kit, my jailbroken ipad and an SD card or USB stick, fill it with movies and music, then using VLC or cinexplayer I can play all my movies and using ifile i can play all my music.
what can't I do that airstash can? and for the $99/£70??

 

[DaveSt]

The feature I like about the airstash is that it allows multiple connections at once. I wouldn't use it as a replacement for the camera kit + jailbreak, but it would be nice to use on vacation with multiple family devices.

 

[addiosamigo]

I got it working!!! I followed shays guide and got it working straight away. My problem was that was using a USB extension and it wasnt plugged in properly. So I mounted it and saw the contents. Then I saw a folder that said recycle bin, I deleted this folder and then it wouldn't work. So I deleted the lines added to the ifile plist, and deleted the EXT shortcut, and rebooted. When I loaded it back up I plugged in the drive and hey presto! I'm so happy!!

If you use links to files though you need backgrounder to keep ifile open, otherwise ifile loses it

 

[iVan]

I got it working!!! I followed shays guide and got it working straight away. My problem was that was using a USB extension and it wasnt plugged in properly. So I mounted it and saw the contents. Then I saw a folder that said recycle bin, I deleted this folder and then it wouldn't work. So I deleted the lines added to the ifile plist, and deleted the EXT shortcut, and rebooted. When I loaded it back up I plugged in the drive and hey presto! I'm so happy!!

If you use links to files though you need backgrounder to keep ifile open, otherwise ifile loses it

Just curious, can you get any app on the iPad to open documents on that drive?

 

[addiosamigo]

If you jailbroken then I guess! I just use the documents folder of the app (cinexplayer, pages, etc, anything that can fileshare) then either put a link in the docs folder or the actual file.

Also using ifile you can click on say an .avi file and file will give you a choice of what to use, i.e cinexplayer, Oplayer, although it takes litterally a minute to load! So it's quicker just putting links in the docs folder!

Works great!

 

[Rich Gibson]

I got it working!!! I followed shays guide and got it working straight away. My problem was that was using a USB extension and it wasnt plugged in properly. So I mounted it and saw the contents. Then I saw a folder that said recycle bin, I deleted this folder and then it wouldn't work. So I deleted the lines added to the ifile plist, and deleted the EXT shortcut, and rebooted. When I loaded it back up I plugged in the drive and hey presto! I'm so happy!!

If you use links to files though you need backgrounder to keep ifile open, otherwise ifile loses it

Thanks, we're finally getting somewhere. I have a few questions. Your description seems out of order.

- You're saying a USB extension (between what, the IPAD and the drive, or the drive and the power source?) was the first problem keeping it from working? Sorry, but the first four sentences in your description implies that it worked, then it didn't because of the improperly hooked up USB cable.

- Then you deleted the recycle bin...from what? The contents of the external hard drive?

- what EXT shortcut? Do you mean you removed the EXT folder link from Goodreader?

Sorry I seem so dense, but I'm having trouble following what you did.

Thanks

 

[addiosamigo]

- You're saying a USB extension (between what, the IPAD and the drive, or the drive and the power source?) was the first problem keeping it from working? Sorry, but the first four sentences in your description implies that it worked, then it didn't because of the improperly hooked up USB cable.

the usb lead is rather short (the extra power part), so to power the hard drive i used a usb extension, it was this that the lead wasn't plugged into properly as it has a plastic ridge and the port is recessed. the other part, (the main cable) went to the ipad

- Then you deleted the recycle bin...from what? The contents of the external hard drive?

i believe this is a hidden file (or folder) which i have set to be shown. within the hard drive directory. there is a folder called "recycle bin" just leave it, i deleted it and seemed to screw everything up.

- What ifile.plist? What lines, are you referring to this

nano /var/stash/Applications.xxxxxx/iFile.app/Info.plist (“xxxxxx” is a series of numbers after “Applications”. If you type “/var/stash/Applications” and hit the “Tab” key, it will fill in the rest for you. 5. The nano text editor will now open. Please add the following lines below the first “<dict>”, in the document (this makes iFile look much better on the iPad):

part of Shay's blog?

yes, when you add the lines:
<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
<array>
<integer>1</integer>
<integer>2</integer>
</array>

(this tells the app to work natively on the ipad, and is used universally accross some apps that support it, kinda like what fullforce does, but without the editing!)

you are adding them to the ifile.plist, so I went to the ifile.plist, within ifile.app and deleted the lines from the plist, as this is no longer needed, and i've only just figured that out while writing this!

- what EXT shortcut?

when you add these lines:
mkdir /Volumes
mkdir /Volumes/EXT
ln -s /Volumes/EXT /var/mobile/EXT

that makes the directorys Volumes and EXT, (mkdir, make directory)

this is the "shortcut i deleted, its not a shortcut but an actual folder in the ipad directory (your see it in ifile when you click on the home button.

i can no longer see it in ifile but if i use iphone explorer on my pc i can see the folder, i'm not deleting it incase i muck something up!

hope this helps, use this guide to make sure hard drive is formatted correctly, Fat32 Format – Format larger than 32GB | Portable USB Pen Drive Applications

just a side note. when you plug in a usb, it flashes then after a while a message will pop up saying device not supported, ignore this and then "flash drive" will appear in the side window.
this doesn't happen with a hard drive, you wait a while, say 30 secs then "flash drive" will appear then you can browse the folders or files on the hard drive

also i followed the guide completely, then when the hard drive wouldn't show up as rdisk1s1, i checked the cables and thats when i found my problem.
so i found the drive, mounted it and accessed the files. I then decided that id try to see if ifile would just recognise the drive, (which it did) but i'm not sure if this is because of the mounting script or not?. the only thing making me believe its not is ifile shows it in a different directory (mnt) not Volumes, so i figure that its ifile finding it on its own, if that makes sense.

good luck!

 

[Rich Gibson]

Thank you very much for taking the time! I have a Mac and formatting for msdos is a bit different, however when I do the "ls" command I see disk1s1 on the drive. I don't have the extra text in my plist file. I can't eliminate the EXT link from Goodreader for some reason.

In any case despite mounting properly (using iSSH from the App store) all I see is an empty EXT folder. Since you have a PC this is as far as I can go without additional help from a Mac user who has successfully connected their hard drive.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain. Funny how I can see both an SD card and a CF card from a USB card reader, but not the hard drive. Maybe some kind soul with a Mac who has gotten it to work can provide some more assistance.

 

[addiosamigo]

Have you checked the folder within ifile? Not goodreader? Have you gone into the folder, back out and gone up a directory? I used that issh, worked really well (changed my root password with it)

Also why don't you format the drive to hfs and see if that works??

 

[Rich Gibson]

Have you checked the folder within ifile? Not goodreader? Have you gone into the folder, back out and gone up a directory? I used that issh, worked really well (changed my root password with it)

Also why don't you format the drive to hfs and see if that works??

Yes, I checked it exclusively in iFile and the EXT folder is empty. I tried hfs once, but that was early on. Note for others, Shay's instructions states: mount -t HFS..... this is incorrect according to another site it is hfs, not HFS.

Can't get an hfs drive mounted. the command mount -t hfs /dev/disk1 /Volumes/EXT yields "invalid argument" error.

 

[addiosamigo]

That's what happened to me when I was trying to mount an msdos hard drive that was actually formatted in ntfs

 

[fkick]

I'm on a mac using terminal to ssh into the ipad. When I go to actually mount the drive in terminal I get the following error:

root# mount -t HFS /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT
mount: exec /System/Library/Filesystems/HFS.fs/Contents/Resources/mount_HFS for /Volumes/EXT: No such file or directory



I can see both the Volumes and Volumes/EXT folders in iFile without issue. And disk1s1 is clearly visible in the dev folder.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[diddl14]

I'm on a mac using terminal to ssh into the ipad. When I go to actually mount the drive in terminal I get the following error:
root# mount -t HFS /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT
mount: exec /System/Library/Filesystems/HFS.fs/Contents/Resources/mount_HFS for /Volumes/EXT: No such file or directory

Try mount -t hfs /dev/disk1s2 /Volumes/EXT
This worked for me (lower case hsf and mount disk1s2 instead of disk1s1).

 

[fkick]

Thanks diddl14, that worked like a charm.

Now if I could just get VLC to play files from symbolic links instead of copying avi's over manually, all would be grand

Thanks all!