iPad Mini Lighting to USB to 2tb Hard drive

To use a 2TB conventional hard drive with a Lightning port equipped iPad, first the drive needs to be formatted with a Mac and formatted with a single partition as a MacOS extended ( journaled ) format.

Next you need to purchase this Apple Adapter.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MK0W2AM/A/lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter?fnode=6980f87a01a0ff0e4a752dc2d558e052cc5028dbb1f88a80547836eb6f133a4c78f7074291e73f0d261a15eb06830ee762eb32fa1032b44c2c64810991e63fb24d6d6b9bb326444918089ee1a6f34c2dfac80a00e825fc22453a58f162bbec04dc3cf79468fbde4b4ee82bd5d1e66b52&fs=f%3Dadapter%26fh%3D4588%252B45b0

Next.

You need to connect external power to that hard drive and connect the iPad, via its charging cable to the power port of the adapter and to its power/charging adapter block.

Then plug the hard drive into the USB port.

Hopefully, all of this will supply enough power to power your hard drive and it functions through the iPad.

Best of Luck to You!

iPadOS provides limited support for external Hard Disk storage.

An external HDD can be connected to your iPad with the Apple adapter appropriate for your model of iPad - if the HDD is both partitioned and formatted appropriately (i.e., a single partition - formatted as FAT32, exFAT or APFS). 

You should also note that the iPad is not capable of providing sufficient power to run an HDD. If the HDD does not have its own source of power- then external power must be supplied to the HDD using the connecting adapter (e.g., an Apple Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter and Apple Charger of at least 12W) - or by connecting both the iPad and HDD to a powered USB hub.

Assuming that your iPad can be updated to iPadOS 13/14 and that you have the required adapters - if the HDD is correctly partitioned and formatted, you’ll be able to export Photos from your Camera Roll to external storage.

I hope you find this to be helpful in providing some useful clarity.