External Storage Hack for USB Devices

What is Hacking?

"Hacking" tends to have a bad rap. On it's own, there is nothing illegal about hacking unless it violates the law in some way, or is used maliciously against others. Hacking itself just refers to improving a certain technology, or to gain access to new features that were otherwise unavailable in a device or program.

An Example Today

I want to talk about an interesting hack that I use for many of my electronics that are USB or Firewire based, and have some form of internal storage. Such storage can be based in flash or a hard drive, or it might use external medium like memory sticks. Such devices include the PSP , the Ipod, and memory card readers. What this hack allows me to do is to store files on these devices and use them as external storage, or memory sticks. Of course, this hack is a well known one, and is frequently employed by people who don't know what to do with the glut of space their many portable devices have. Even modern cell phones these days have expandable memory options, or otherwise internal drives like the iPhone. A lot of space goes unused in other words.

How Do I Hack It?

To do this hack, you first need to own a portable device that has storage capability. An iPod or most mp3 players will suffice. The more the space, the more you can employ for backups or extra storage. Think of your mp3 players, cell phones and portable gaming devices to be similar to external hard drives.

Attach your device to your computer, and wait for the prompt. Open the removable media device and start adding files through your file manager. Don't expect these files to be viewed on your device per-say - they are files that are meant to be read on your computer. For example, your Creative Sansa or Apple Ipod will not display many file formats because they are intended to be music players. Because you have used your device for something other than what it was intended for, it's a hack.

Why Do This Hack?