Panasonic Viera TV - External Hard Drive not connecting

[NoneTechie123]

Hi, I'm not at all technical so please be patient. I have a Panasonic Viera TX-50AS520B LCD TV & have just bought a 1TB Toshiba Canvio Basics External Hard Drive with a USB Connection, I plugged it to my laptop & put some movies on it. I then plugged it into the USB Port on the side of the TV but nothing happens at all. Can anyone give me any advice or tell me where I'm going wrong please? Thank you in advance.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there NoneTechie123,

Is the HDD powering up? In case it is not, you can attach it to a different port. You can try using Y type of USB cable as well.
If the HDD is powering up but not showing, then I guess this could be file format related. In your TV's manual you can find the supported file formats. You can check your HDD's file format when you go to Disk Management. In case it is NTFS but your TV supports only FAT32 let's say, you will need to reformat the drive. Keep in mind that this is a data destructive process and you need to back up the data stored on it before that.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[NoneTechie123]

Hi D_Know_WD Thanks for responding. Yes the HDD powers up when I plug it into the TV. There is only one USB Socket on the TV so I can't try another. I checked through all of the TV menus today & couldn't find a single thing about the supported file yes. The manual isn't very long and seems to be purely about setup.i have no idea what FAT32 or NTFS are but I have looked for them everywhere written in any of the TV system menus or the manual and I can't see anything.
Thanks,
NoneTechie123

 

[D_Know_WD]

Then I guess you can just go to Disk Management and reformat the drive(in case it is NTFS to FAT32).
How to format a drive: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ejw8Sb

In case the issue persists, it may be a good idea to contact the TV manufacturer's Support. There may be some drivers that need to be installed.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[NoneTechie123]

Thank you that's great. I found a small note in the online manual that confirmed what you said so I've reformatted it & I'll try it again when I'm home next week. Thank you. I really appreciate your help

 

[Outlander_04]

If the external drive is portable and powered by the USB port it might not work.
Some tv's don't supply enough current to run them.