Hard drive access at home without jb or airport extreme

[Orangejuice43]

Is there any way to access a hard drive at home from my iPad without the need for a pc/Mac and without having to shell out for an airport extreme?

Thanks

P.s. I am running on 3.2.2 so no jb for me yet

 

[pallentx]

There are some external hard drives that have their own controller with software that can share the drive out on the internet through a web page interface. I doubt those are cheaper than other options though.

 

[iPadCharlie]

While the AirPort Extreme is a very nice base unit, it is, as the name implies, extreme! There is no need to spend $179 (unless you really want to!). I use a D-Link 802.11n router that cost me $20 brand new and it works great!

As far as hard drive itself, is it a "naked" hard drive or are wanting to access a hard drive already in a computer?

 

[Bluesjam]

C4, your making me feel bad. I bought an Extreme last week.

 

[iPadCharlie]

C4, your making me feel bad. I bought an Extreme last week.

Sorry! But I am also notoriously cheap. You should see the moth collection in my wallet!

 

[Sonny Burnett]

Doesn't Western Digital have a new product for the iOS that will accomplish this?

 

[Orangejuice43]

Ok thanks, sorry I forgot to mention, the hard drive is an external drive. So yep it's 'naked' I guess lol

 

[iPadCharlie]

If it is just a plain old external hard drive, then I am afraid that the only way I know of to explore its contents is to hook it up to a "real" computer.

 

[iVan]

Is there any way to access a hard drive at home from my iPad without the need for a pc/Mac and without having to shell out for an airport extreme?

Thanks

P.s. I am running on 3.2.2 so no jb for me yet

I think you're talking about a NAS (Network Attached Storage). This drive is attached to your wifi router.
Most are not natively accessed with iPad but can be used with the FileBrowser app.
You can also specify your iTunes library to be stored there, freeing space on the computer.