Wednesday, September 2, 2009

USB Drive for iPhone beta is available

USB Drive for the iPhone platform (CE2I to name it short) let you use iPhone or iPod Touch as USB Mass Storage device.


This is a beta release, please expect bugs. Read the following text carefully, it contains important information. Seriously.

USB Mass Storage protocol is widely supported by modern operation systems and consumer devices, USB thumb drives and photo cameras are good examples of devices which implement USB Mass Storage protocol. Since this device class is likely supported by your operation system you do not need any additional drivers or complex (read: any) setup, this makes information exchange much easier.

USB Drive let you create one or more virtual disks for use as USB Mass Storage volume, thus you can allocate some of your iPhone space to carry desktop files with you.



Current limitations (I hope some of them to be resolved in the future):
  • Files and folders on virtual disks are not directly accessible for iPhone applications nor desktop OS can read or write iPhone files. Basically we have two worlds - desktop and iPhone and these worlds are isolated.
  • Only 8 virtual volumes can be created at a time.
  • USB Drive will automatically format new volumes using FAT16 or FAT32 filesystem only.
  • USB Drive will disable Picture Transfer Protocol support when it active. Switching between USB Mass Storage and PTP requires a system restart.
  • PTP protocol is being used to transfer pictures to the iPhoto or direct print on compatible printers.
  • Application requires jailbroken iPhone and cannot be downloaded from AppStore.
This beta version is free.

Application was tested with iPhone 2G and iPod Touch 1G only at this time. While I almost sure it will work as is please if you  aren't familar with iPhone internals and do not have ssh installed on your device do not attempt to install on iPhone 3G,  iPhone 3GS until I get confirmation it works properly. Thanks.

INSTALLATION AND USE
  1. Install USB Drive from my Cydia repository.
  2. Launch USB Drive.
  3. Create some disk. It takes a while to allocate large amount of data
  4. Switch to the Mass Storage mode. 
  5. Reboot
  6. Connect USB Cable
  7. Enjoy!
  8. Email me you results, what do you like or what do you dislike






UNINSTALLATION

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE APPLICATION WHEN IT IN USB MASS STORAGE MODE. FAILURE TO SWITCH TO PTP MODE BEFORE UNINSTALLING APPLICATION WILL MAKE YOU A LOT OF TROUBLES. ITUNES SYNC AND USB CHARGE WILL BE DISABLED.

YET ANOTHER TIME: BEFORE UNINSTALL YOU NEED TO SWITCH APPLICATION TO THE PTP MODE AND RESTART THE IPHONE.

In order to stop spreading outdated beta versions, this beta version expires 1 Oct 2009. Expired version will let you copy all your information from virtual disks using usb mass storage, but will not let create new disks or write data to the virtual volumes.

88 comments:

SomniusX (Macopoulos) said...

The App is working fine on iPhone 2G (1st generation) on 3.0 firmware :D

-Somnius Macopoulos

dmp said...

evripidis, Macopoulos, thank you for the great news :)

Unknown said...

3G: Mac - works
XP SP2 - works
XP SP3 - doesnt works, Windows stuck at boot, when iphone is plugged :(

ninoulito said...

And what happens after october???? it will be useless if a normal version isn't distributed...

dmp said...

ninoulito, I am going to release few update before 1st of October. These updates will extend beta period if needed.

Experience shows that there are a lot of people who install software from museum and ask me about problems which were fixed years ago. This beta version is expected to have number of problems and I want to avoid using it for years.

ninoulito said...

i can't say anythind :D you are the man . perfect job (Y)

panosha said...

Is there any problems to install USB Drivers in Windows 7 ?

Unknown said...

Problem occured on Windows 7 RTM. It just can't find a driver for USB Mass Storage. Tested on iPod Touch 1G. Worked great on XP SP2

Unknown said...

Got it to work on Windows 7 after removing Apple Mobile Device Support. It seems it has some conflict with it.

dmp said...

Thank you, radionoise, this issue in my short list :)

Unknown said...

dmp, thanks for you work! No need of iTunes on other computers as wished! Keep going! :)

limneos said...

This is the best app ever!

Some notes,cause I've been testing it thorougly:

1. It works so well, that you can even set the partition to active , and boot your pc using your iphone (e.g. with grub4dos and several ISOs or Windows 7/Vista/XP setup)

2. In every Windows system, if you have iTunes installed, in order for the USB Mass Storage to work properly, you need to go to Device Manager, select the Apple Mobile usb driver, choose update driver , manuall, select from list, and select the secondary available driver "usb mass storage". This will make iphone dissappear from iTunes. Do the same using the other driver to bring it back.

Excellent work!

limneos said...

dmp, I have made a full tutorial on how to make iphone a bootable usb disk to boot several OSs or ISO images. (like a multiboot flash, with grub4dos)

It might be useful for you and your tests. Please contact me if you need it. (let me know here and I'll email you)

Amazing work, been looking for exactly this thing since I got my iPhone.

Unknown said...

Great work, limneos!

If you e-mail me a link to your tutorial and I will post it here.

Ramses said...

How this appli works with OS X ??

Unknown said...

I want to use the image file as a virtual drive with the "mount" unix command. The problem is in the File Systems, because the image is a Fat32 fs and the operative system "IPhone OS 3" dont supply any support to fat, msdos or fat32 file systems.

Does anyone know some tool to mount fat32 fs on Iphone Os?

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I've been testing your app.
When uninstalling it, my phone is still keeping the 1Gb in memory. Please advise.

MultiTechGuru said...

Drive+iTunes doesn't work on iPod touch 2Gen 8G. Default and Drive only work.

Prashanta said...

Thank you very much ... works like a charm... brings smile to my face... tried on iPhone 3G, WinXP SP3

sahar said...

Hi,
i used the app to relocate all my free space which was 6.99 gb and tried mass storage mode only.
now the app wont open...
neither does cydia or anything else.
help...
please

Unknown said...

I installed your app and allocated 1GB, at the end of the process it just quit and now it doesn't open. Where's my 1GB? How do I get it back?

Unknown said...

Works Also on a PS3 just like Any USB Drive plug&Play

chamar... said...

i just installed on my 2g, 3.0..wont boot up..wtf...i clicked on drive+itunes, and let it reboot, now when it comes to the apple sign, it just cuts off...

Anonymous said...

When using Drive Only mode, lose ability to pair with Bluetooth devices.

Unknown said...

How to delete vurtual space taken by the volume ... I deleted the volume but still my space is not empty ... pls suggest
www.crezyn.com

Anonymous said...

Hmm... Unfortunately my iphone doesnt boot up anymmore... it stucks in the welcome screen with the apple logo ;-(

Unknown said...

I just intalled Beta 3 and it works great.

But, is there a way to move my files from Volume to any other Folder without using a PC ?

Anonymous said...

DMYTRO OR ANYONE ELSE THAT CAN HELP.

I have noticed a lot of people have posted that they UNINSTALLED this and CAN NOT regain their virtual partition. DMYTRO, how do you regain this. How do you delete the virtual partition?
Thanks

Chlomo said...

I installed beta 3,create a volume then choose drive only ,reboot started ,after that unable to slide unlocked then reboot start again automatically in loop and still unable to slide unlocked.

Somebody can help , thks

dmp said...

if you have openssh installed you can remove USB Drive and restore changed files by executing the following commdand from the command prompt:

# dpkg -r me.dmytro.cardexport

Chlomo said...

DMP

After excuting the command :
# dpkg -r me.dmytro.cardexport

the following message appears :
cp: cannot stat `/var/UsbDrive/Backup/com.apple.usbptpd.plist': No such file or directory

What else can I do in order to unlock slide ?

Thks in advance.

Anonymous said...

Me also.

Delete the Volume via Edit-mode.

Still is 1 Gb in memory. How can we get this back?

Please an answer to this...

Regards
Tom

Anonymous said...

How do I view USB contents with ifile??

Unknown said...

Hi I've installed this app and it works great, but when I have created two or more virtual disks and I plug the usb into my computer it only shows one. Is this normal or should it show all? This is in drive only mode.

Also, is there any way to increase the writing speed as it only writes at 2-3MB/s.
thanks

Ash said...

Working fine on my 3G with Mac. I also uninstalled and got the space back. Reinstalled again without problem.

Definitely worth paying for once the uninstall dangers are ironed out.

Good job.

StarWolf said...

I install USB Drive Beta 3 on my IPHONE 3Gs (3.1.2), was working fine. I create a virtual disk of 4Gs and put some file. Wow good stuff.

But I can't use anymore ssh or vnc via Itunnel.exe (use to work just fine before I install Usb Drive beta 3).

I test it on 3 mode and reboot each time iphone and my PC, still have the error in itunnel windows:

NETWORK error: Software cause connection abort.


I switch back to mode default as mention before uninstalling. Still same error. But when I connect it, I can see my photo and Itunes can see the device.

BTW: I able to connect via WIFI to vnc and ssh so the service work fine. Also my firewall was at off.

Any idea which file have been modify I can replace?

Thanks,
Starwolf

Starwolf said...

Erratum:
it's ssh client (putty) who say:

NETWORK error: Software caused connection abort.

not itunnel.exe...

Anonymous said...

Great software. This lets me do more with my iPhone. Thank you very much.

Robin said...

Hi,
I erroniously uninstalled USB Drive and tried resetting my iphone. in the process my itune is not identifying my iphone. I know I screwed it up after the warning message posted there. how do I fix this now please.

IPanther said...

heyy, good job man,it works fine,but the problem is How do I view USB contents with ifile??
nd can i copy,delete,rename ??!!if its possible it'll be the top ten APP MAN....regards from KSA..we need the answer DEV

Anonymous said...

Hi I just reinstalled this app to my 3gs again (i had to restore for an unrelayed reason). Just wanted to say that this is a fantastic app!! Thanks very much, when you release it officially I'll definitely buy it.

Anonymous said...

Wow!

I just followed the instructions at:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-and-boot-ultimate-boot-cd-ubcd-from-a-usb-device/

I created a 300 MB partition, formatted it FAT32, and turned my iPhone into an ultimate boot cd (UBCD for USB)!

Dallassoccerkid said...

Works perfect on I phone 3g without ssh installed!
Email me at antonio09500@yahoo.com with subject help if you need any help with this or anything that you might want on your I phone (easy jailbreaks,free AppStore apps,download music or movies strait to iPod without pc,etc...)
thanks;

RyanRayLA said...

I'm not really sure if I've screwed something up, but I was using the USB Drive App (which worked AWESOME! and saved my life). When I was finished with it, I deleted the partition I had created, switched back to 'Default' mode and then uninstalled the app. Now, however, itunes doesn't recognize my iphone anymore and I can't seem to get it back. I've reinstalled the USB Drive App and tried changing to every mode (rebooting after each change) but still haven't been able to get sync to come back.. Any suggestions? Anyone?

SzymonS said...

Hi guys,
I downloaded and installed the USB drive. When I rebooted it locked up. I tried to reinstall blackra1n to fix it. The screen back lit with the Blackra1n installation picture and froze. How do I undo this? I don't have openssh installed on my phone.

Please help!

Unknown said...

I having a problem with slow transfer rates. I'm only getting 844 KB/s sec transfering a 2 gig file to my windows 7 pc. Is this normal? It started out at 1.2MB but has slowed down.

Thank you

Anonymous said...

you can deletes the drive with ifiles
go to var, and look for volumes
you can deletes them and reboot it
should work , it did for me
good luck

Anonymous said...

Very good app, will definitely buy to support! Any chances to make Drive + iTune to be support in Windows (at least XP and 7)?

Anonymous said...

seems that the beta version has run out, won't let me write anything to it...is another beta coming out or is the full version coming out and if so when and on what source?? thanks

Anonymous said...

really great app!!
i have been waiting for this since i got my iPod 2g in 2008 =D

i get very slow transfer speeds tho (~800 KB/s write and ~1.5 MB read on a 5 GB drive)

MichalJMo said...

This is an awesome app just 1 question. I'm using ifile to locate my files where would they be stored in the iPhone?

Anonymous said...

Very Nice App. I have the same ifile question. It would be nice to be able to access the files on the partition from the phone (like in ifile) so you can email them or view them, etc. Is this possible?

Anonymous said...

first i created a 4gb partition and had 3 gb left.i deleted usb drive and using ifile accidently deleted the usb drive folder. when i reinstalled it had only 3 gb left when i should have had 7gb

Anonymous said...

i installed it. then i created a 256MB disk in drive only mode, i put a file in it.
i changed back to default mode, I checked in Itunes I lost my 256MB.It's fine.
Then, I changed to drive only mode and deleted the disk.
Back to default mode, in Itunes i got my 256MB back.
So, this apps I think is working.
I'll try to uninstall it, what will happen?

Anonymous said...

hi Dmytro im trying to run usb drive with both drive and itunes as i need them both to run heres the problem im trying to sort out an easy way for people to use their tranfer method if i run disk aid form the phone drive it will run but then i need disk aid to find the phone or i have to restart the phone in default mode but then the drive will not be there this way anyone could just make a small partition disk aid could auto run and find the drive hey presto hope you can help thx in advance

Anonymous said...

hello i cant get this on cydia
always tell me are not possible get the link why


any link of the ipa or deb direct download


anyways i look this form ages


good workkkkkkkkkkks ; )

thanks

GH1987 said...

thanks for the program it really helped I download it it worked just fine until suddenly it wont let write or create any new drives it give a message every time i open it "this version has expierd please visit the http://dmytro.me/ for upgrading instructions your virtual disk is now read only" please help thanks in advance.

Jay said...

My USB Drive app will not open anymore. It is currently stuck in USB mode. So when I connect it to itunes it does not respond because it identifies it as a usb drive only. What should I do?

I saw on this page that I will get many problems if I uninstall it while it is in USB mode. So I reinstalled it and restarted and rebooted the Ipod Touch 2G many times. The same thing keeps happening. It crashes.

I tried many things such as deleting other apps both jailbroken and from the App store. I tried working it in Safe mode and it did not help. What else can I do? I would prefer not to use SSH. I have Terminal. Is their any code I can enter to make it work again. Can I get something from Cydia or Installous to make it work and operate again.

Thank You in advance.

Anonymous said...

if you deleted a drive and your space didn't return back
using iFile
goto var\Volumes
you can delete the images manual
but it preferable to check the direcoty setting that has the follwoing
owner as root
group as mobile
the access permission for User and Group Read,Write,Execute
Work Read,Execute

Anonymous said...

thank you for the great job dmytro
I have an issue.
after creating the Volumes direcotry manualy and create image drive form with the application I clicked "Drive only" then it asks me to rebot after that the indecator keeps circling and device did not reboot
any help ?
PS ( I think this related to the bug where the app initially was unable to create the Volumes directory and set the proper permission)

Unknown said...

hi, i deleted the app, and now i have some problems with my iphone 3gs, it dont install again, and windows cant see it any more,
what can y do to solve this,
thanks!

Anonymous said...

I have been using the app and it's great I just have one question can I copy paste files within my iPhone into the volume folder so that wen I connect it on my pc I will be able to copy it to my pc cuz I use ifile to browse my file and transffer them to other folders once I download them and I want to be able to export them by placing them in the volume folder please advise my email is hackbot89@yahoo.com

Jeff Wolach said...

Is there an update that works on IOS 4.01?

Meg said...

i tried to install it yesterday but now i cant use it..whenever i connect my ipod to the pc it will detect it as a removable device and cant out it into DFU/recovery.ifile and itunes cant detect it anymore...another thing is that (dunno if related)cydia,settings et al apps wont work...so what do you think?thanks in advance

Anonymous said...

Great app!
But, it is lacking one thing. Some sort of indicator that it is reading/writing / using the USB port.
Just a suggestion for the next release.
Thanks

Jeff G. said...

I'm wondering if anyone is having problems running USB drive and backgrounder at the same time. I am unable to access usbdrive with backgrounder installed. It automaticly closes as soon as it opens. Works great without backgrounder installed.

ashraf said...

THE APP IS WORKInG FINE ON MY iphone and IPAD.
MY QUESTION IS: DOES ANY ONE KNOW HOW TO SEE OR ACCESS THE FILES ON THE IPHONE\IPAD.
I'm using ifile to locate my files which are stored in var\Volumes.
the problem is that it is one img file!!!can access or see any of my files.

is there any solution to see\access my files on my iphone\ipad by using ifile!!!

thanks

jinryu said...

the repo was down, i cant access it.. im really desperate to turn this iphone to a bootable flash drive

minnecrapolis said...

Thapp is awesome except for the most major flaw it has....

You can't access it as an iphone for iphone screen caps or anything you "save" from email, etc.

If you plug it in and you have saved media from the iphone don't expect to EVER get it back unless you uninstall the software.

As a program that runs purley as a USB drive +++

As a program that remains accessible by your computer -----------------------------

Try again.

In eBay terms....bad program, bad delivery, bad execution. Will not buy again.

Unknown said...

i cant seem to open it up when i click the icon on my ipod touch it goes back to my springboard

Unknown said...

Ran into a charging problem today. Tried charging through USB, and wall charger, and it's showed it was charging but the battery was not moving. So I went into USB Drive and switched over to Drive+Itunes and rebooted and still the same problem. So i tried a reset, and couldn't get it to work. So did some research and someone mentioned turning the wall charger upside down, which makes no sense to me, AC is alternating currents so...i did it anyways and guess what...it started charging...so unless it was coincidence, or the phone decideded to debug itself. Im not sure, but I am sure that it was cause by this programme. I will not get rid of it cause it is very usefull. I split my phones memory in half and loaded a copy of Windows 7. Then used my iphone to install windows 7 on my Desktop computer.lol. Looking forward to any updates. Suggestion, get rid of the three options, put it all together in a nice neat package that is compatible with all.

Anonymous said...

Excelent you save my day!!

Thanks

Jack said...

Hey Dominic, does your iphone shows up on your computer? I've ran into pretty much the same problem as you so it would greatly help me to find a real solution.

Bryan said...

Work great with ubuntu 10.10 Desktop. Installed Ubuntu with Windows 7 Ult 32bit. Had no problem after changing the USB driver for the apple device. However neither Default or Drive work correct in WIndows 7 Ult 64. Unit keeps discconecting saying something about the device can not be charged.

Unknown said...

i did not see this site before uninstalling it. i put my phone in recovery mode and restored it but after all of that it still will not sync with itunes. what do i do?

Anonymous said...

App worked! you're the man! sir, is there anyway i can view the files in UsbDrive on ifile?

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I’m able to use the USB drive however when trying to find the file stored on virtual disk. I’m unable to locate it on my iPhone using iFile.
Please help, let me know the correct path where the files get stored on iPhone

carlos said...

Hola como estan soy un tonto saben me caguen en mi iPhone 4 estoy desesperado no sé que haces sabes necesito su por favor yo utilice la aplicación USB driver y e perdió 10 gb de mi iPhone y no sé que puedo a ser para recuperarlo el espacio perdido aparece en otros cuando lo conecto al iTunes, cuando estaba haciendo la partición con esa aplicación me dio un error ya no salía que avía echo la partición pero sin pre me quito los 10 gb que hago ayuda por favor
Este es mi correo carlos-morales2009@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Hi everybody,
I´ve been using this app fine for a long time on my Iphone 4, now i´ve bought a Iphone 4S, i jailbreaked it with absinthe and if a install your app loose the bluetooth conection with mi handsfree, then i erase the app from the phone and works fine again. I´ve tried a few times and always the same, do you know someting to avoid this issue?
thanks

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot. I was going crazy!!

Anonymous said...

Debes tener instalado iFile de cydia. Ir a var/volume y borrar la partición que hayas creado. A mi me funcionó.
Suerte

carlos said...

hey gracias viejo no me funciono pero re ise una restauracion y si funciono jejje

charanjit said...

Is there any way to music files that I got on my USB drive app or how can I see my files using iFile

Anonymous said...

Omg .. My 4GB is gone !!

I deleted virtual disk.. But my iphone (16G) still retain 11GB

Please Give me the solution dmp!
My Email is Ejrwns95@naver.com
Please help!!!!

Anonymous said...

Did you revert to PTP before you uninstalled?

Anonymous said...

To fix USB sync and for you pc to find iPhone toto ifile and search for 'dmytro' delete folder and file that pops up also delete volumes. Done. Worked great for me.

Anonymous said...

USB sync and USB charge fix:
Ok this is what finally worked for me on my iphone3gs running os verion 4.2.1

(8C147a).
Open notepad and copy the text below into new notepad doc and save as
com.apple.usbptpd.plist (or get a copy of com.apple.usbptpd.plist elsewhere)


bplist00Õ

\MachServices_ ProgramArgumentsYKeepAliveXUserNameULabelÒ

_ com.apple.usbptpd.iokitlaunch_ com.apple.usbptpd.demandÑ

_ LaunchBuddyIOKitLaunchingÑ
_ IOKitPersonalityÒ _ IOPropertyMatch_ IOProviderClassÑ _ US

BDeviceFunctionSPTP_ IOUSBDeviceInterface

£ _ /usr/libexec/ptpdR-

tSusbÑ ^SuccessfulExit Vmobile^com.apple.ptpd



Make sure to uninstall usb drive app before continuing.
Use Ifile to replace existing com.apple.usbptpd.plist file with new one you just

made.
System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbptpd.plist

reboot iphone

I hope it fixes yours like it did mine because if your like me you dont have much hair left from pulling it out over this.

ScottyMac

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to the com.apple.usbptpd.plist file i used in my post above.
ScottyMac

http://www.sinfuliphone.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8862&d=1287854795