Can I connect Surface RT and PC with USB cable?

Anonymous
2012-11-30T00:08:13+00:00

I have a Toshiba Thrive running Android. I can connect it to my PC with a USB cable and access files on my Thrive on the PC. The PC treats the Thrive as a hard drive. Can I connect my Surface in the same way? I have tried and the PC does not appear to see the Surface.

This is a pain, one of the reasons I bought the Surface was to be able to do this type of hard connection and not have to use "iTunes" or the Cloud.

Surface | Other

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Anonymous
2013-03-05T02:57:40+00:00

Greetings SaeedR_706,

That is a good question, however I would suggest rather then using the USB cable, to transfer files over your WiFi network to a shared folder on your Windows 7 Laptop.

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Anonymous
2012-12-05T00:46:39+00:00

Hello Rrccw,

No, you cannot connect the Surface to the PC via USB. However, you can setup Shared folderson your PC. Once you have that, have the Surface connect to the same network via WiFi and then go into Network from the Desktop app, select your PC and then see the Shared Folders. From there, the Surface should have Read/Write access if you gave the permissions on the PC.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-19T00:29:53+00:00

    First I want to apologize to anyone who answered my question since last Octorer. The first response I received was by EricAltman on 2/18/14.  I believe I posted the original question about a year ago.

    Anyway, thank you Eric, I have purchased the device you mentioned. My question is answered.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-18T10:22:23+00:00

    USB is Client-to-Host system. A host needs to negotiate with a client and they will then proceed to communicate in an agreed upon manner. There are devices to do what you want, and I will link to one on Amazon. 

    It works because it has a client-side device on the cable with built-in transferring software which allows communication not with the two USB host directly, but rather allows both USB hosts to communicate with a USB client which handles the data transmission.

    http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-USB-File-Transfer-Device/dp/B002VFFA5M

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-13T16:28:19+00:00

    Several people have responded to you already, and you continue ignoring them.  This is not something a USB host can do.  In order to do what you want, the device would have to be significantly dumbed down.  Surface/Windows RT has all kinds of capabilities all other tablets lack.  A tradeoff is that just like a full Windows or OS X PC, you can not randomly connect things together through USB.  You do however have all sorts of other, usually easier methods of transferring files which no other tablets poses.

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