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
    2014-01-07T23:33:44+00:00

    OK, that transfer finished in about 46 minutes. This has me curious. I'm going to delete again and double check the time required for a USB transfer, to get a sense of what would be possible if the Surface could act as a USB client.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-07T23:26:59+00:00

    For anyone interested, 45 minutes later this wireless transfer is 90% complete. The transfer has been simple, it is just the duration and the swamping of the wifi network that are issues.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-07T23:21:15+00:00

    I got my first DSLR camera in December 2012. I've copied this many files about half a dozen times since. If I had more time I'd do it more often and other certainly do. My network consists of 3 desktop PCs connected by ethernet, 2 notebooks, 4 android phones, 2 android phones, 1 windows phone and 1 windows tablet connected by wireless N. If it was just me crippling the network with a 14gb transfer would be a non-issue. It isn't just me. I can see that the Surface suits you, although not enough to own one. The issue I raised is an issue for me and for some others who have posted here. YMMV.

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