Connecting Samsung Galaxy Tab to USB Drive

[Henrykjr]

Hey folks,

I figure I would ask experts. I work from home and run multiple home based business'. Our office is completely digital consisting of a lot of .pdf documents, microsoft office files and some MP4's and MP3 files.

I am looking to purchase a new Samsung Tablet that has some type of an advanced Fil Browser in it.

The idea is to be able to connect a large hard drive to the unit up to 4 TB (drive is powered from wall power), Connect up to a 256GB thumb drive, or 8 to 16GB Micro SD cards.

I do not need a data plan so wifi only.

I will be storing the device in a safe deposit box along with the data for emergency retrieval in case my house burns down.

So I need to have a view that is similar to File Browser on Mac or Windows file browser.

I'd like to keep the tablet as small as possible but from what I understand the minimum size for a file browser is a 9" tablet.
I want to base software in the Tablet itself without downloading apps.
I'd like this to be budget friendly

I am unfamiliar with all the Andriod OS features in their software.

Thoughts on what I need?
HK

 

[svim]

The basic plan behind this project sounds like you want to set up a non-cloud, internal back up solution for a small business, yes?
I know you added 'budget friendly' but just my opinion I think that's the wrong approach in this matter. Similar situations for individuals typically involve just personal and emotional issues, but for a business taking random, piecemeal items and putting them together as a manual backup solution is risky, You have some pretty specific requirements that while you can get plenty of opinions and anecdotal replies on a public forum like this one, you should instead give serious thought into hiring a contractor/vendor to set this all up for you.
Just my opinion on the matter.

 

[Henrykjr]

The main backups we have exist on Raid 5 and then are backed up additionally on another 4 TB drive. Additionally the most valuable files are backed up on a 128GB thumb drive stored separately.

So long story short my digital office is technically backed up 4 times over.....plus the mac computers themselves are backed up 3 times over.

My pc's only one backup.

The big pain about this....would be the loss of lets say the laptops, and the biggest raid drive.

This is where the Android comes in....it's portable and can run a range of options including micro sd, usb and a wall powered drive.

In the end I'll have the data duplicated again across those 3 storage devices.

Call the android as being part of a "prepper option". I know they have USB on the go and I know some of the tablets have a file manager that can do this.
I just need really the smallest device.

Almost every non essential app would be removed.

Thoughts?

 

[Dannydet]

If you buy a tablet, make sure it supports USB OTG, as some do and some don't.
Check your connectors also, as there's micro usb and USB-C on newer devices.
But I'd do as svim suggested and go from there to play it safe

 

[Henrykjr]

Cool so that's all I need? All of the devices come with File Manager?
Then just buy the OTG and I'm good to go?

 

[svim]

Some tablets do have a file manager app but there are plenty of viable options available from the Google Play Store. But even with OTG and a good file manager, it's not like a laptop or computer, with Android you'll only have very limited access to the entire file system. If you root your tablet -- and that's going to depend on which model you get as some are easily rooted, some require a lot of skill, and some models will just result in a hard-bricked device -- you can then get access to pretty much the entire file system. And in any case because Android tablets run a different OS with a different file system, you will have even less access to the file system when viewing the tablet through Windows (Windows Explorer) or a Mac (Finder). But also keep in mind that a rooted device isn't covered by a warranty, and there's a security issue involved as once you root it, you then take on all responsibility for the maintenance and upgrading. The automatic OTA updates that get applied to a typical non-rooted device 'can' be applied but at great risk of bricking the device. Also once rooted, you could un-root it, but that process is 50/50 likely to work out. If it doesn't, you need to re-reflash the stock ROM. (Flashing the ROM is essentially the same as reinstalling the operating system on a laptop/computer.)
Offhand I would think a laptop would be better suited than a tablet for what you've described. You'll have more control over the laptop with complete access to the entire file system, and you'll be able to add/delete whatever applications you need to. With an Android tablet, you can uninstall some general apps but for apps installed by the manufacturer and/or carrier as 'system' apps those can't be removed unless the tablet is rooted.
If time isn't a factor, maybe wait a few months for more Android version 8 (Oreo) tablets to hit the market. There are a lot major changes in Oreo, many make rooting less relevant. Updating will be less carrier-dependent, and user control over their own device is improving with each version release.

 

[Henrykjr]

Thank you fro the advice.....for the moment I think I'm going to dumb down the project and shift over to USB and SD cards.

The reason for the Android it so I can lock it a safe deposit box with the data.

 

[svim]

... SD cards.

microSD cards use a variant of FAT as the default file system (fat32 or exFAT). The problems with FAT are many -- it's proprietary and no longer actively supported, it's very outdated so modern aspects like multi-platform file/folder permissions and metadata support are limited, and it's not very robust so file corruption and instability are sadly not uncommon.
Years ago USB-IB, the standards board that determines USB protocols and such, opted to go with FAT because it has limited support with multiple file systems giving it more or less 'universal' compatibility, but it failed to take into account the resulting long term problems with such a weak file system. Cards are great for storing a large amount of data in such a tiny component, but as long-term archiving they're not very reliable.
You can of course increase stability by formatting your cards with other file systems, but then you also lose some of that multi-platform compatibility.