Adding 128GB of Flash to the Venue 8 Pro

Okay as requested I made a small album while at work. If you need better pics I will have to do it tomorrow I'm trying to juggle two projects at the moment and this is not one of them

Also if you float around my photo bucket you can get an idea of the solder experience I have and how long I've been doing what I do so well.

Please excuse the wiring I do not have my glue gun at work. I'll fix it up later on when I get home or just leave it since its my own Dell Venue and I don't really mind since I don't see it.

Dell Venue 8 Pro Photos by xboxexpert | Photobucket

 

I will do speed tests but I only have the 64GB Models.

 

Note: So I've been messing with the Recovery Partition and I've successfully migrated the entire partition to one of these 64GB Sticks formatted to FAT32 and to test I'm recovering the tablet though adding a custom BIOS entry in the system. Its successfully recovering the device off one of my USB's internal to the device! This is awesome because if successful I can literally wipe the recovery partition off the C:\ and keep the space for installing programs like Office 2013 and such freeing up some space since the tablet "SSD" is limited to 32GB :/

Followup: Venue 8 successfully recovered off the internal USB I had in there. This is awesome. It will not work if the USB is formatted NTFS and it will only work if you migrate all the data to the main root of a USB then create a entry in the bios to load off the EFI file.

 

Any response to this? I'd love to have it done.

 

$60 on Newegg is the Kingston DataTraveler 101 G2 128GB Flash Drive Model DT101G2/128GB
I'm sure if you look around you can find one cheaper.

Also I dont have a Venue 11 so I cant tell you if this can be done. I will however research the pcb if someone has a layout available on the "google". I'd be willing to test on anyone who would like to send me one. I can only go by the image available (http://blog.parts-people.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/venue_11_5130_wirelessAntennaCables.jpg)

If you look on the top next to the ribbon that connects the rear camera there are two 4 point spots that MAY be USB bus points. I have no idea. Lastly I'm not sure if there is enough empty space in there for one usb let alone two..

 

Is there any advantage to this over a large micro sd card? I purchased a 128GB micro sd card for $120 from Amazon and it works fine on my DV8P. I know some people need/want more storage but with the cost, time involved, plus the fact that this upgrade would void your warranty, it hardly seems worth it other than for bragging rights.

I think it's cool that it can be done but question whether it's practical or not.

 

For me the key factors are;

1. You can boot to recovery off USB you cant off SD so. So for those who want to migrate the Recovery partition off the internal SSD, to gain the 5GB extra space, and onto the USB for direct booting through the bios menu it works.

2. I didnt have a huge SD Card like that to use so I figured this would be cool.

 

Good point about the recovery partition.

 

Hi xboxexpert, wonder if 256GB usb 3.0 flash drive will work? I saw you have 2 flash drive in yours, and looking at the wiring you posted, are the power,ground, data+, data-, just parallel for both the flash drives? thanks in advance.

 

ANY USB device will work you will just have to solder to the USB 2.0 points on the drive. As of current we have not found USB 3.0 points. Keep in mind the size limitation of the USB PCB chips there is a limited amount of space in there.

Looks like MAYBE I can fit two CORSAIR Voyager Slider 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model CMFSL3B-256GB