DMS v2.0.2.1 Adding multiple USB drives suggestion

[SaturnV]

PROBLEM:
The DMS only has two USB ports. I have more than two USB drives, meaning you have to use a hub. However, I found the attached drives could be recognised with a different label when booting the DMS. If this happens it will cause mayhem to the database, with movies and TV drives being added more than once. This change in drive designation is more stable than it used to be, but it still unreliable when using a hub. The source of the problem seems to be that you can't guarantee the order that the drives come ready. Whether some hubs are better than others I cannot say - perhaps some will ready their ports in sequence?

ONE SOLUTION THAT WORKS FOR ME:
I purchased 3 Seagate Backup Plus drives that have an in-built two port USB HUB. I then daisy-chained these drives together using their in-built hubs.

Drive 1 is connected to a DMS USB port, Drive 2 is connected to Drive 1's hub, Drive 3 is connected to Drive 2's hub. The second DMS USB port is free.

Now when you boot up the DMS, Drive 3 can't come ready until Drive 2 is up and in turn, Drive 2 can't come ready until Drive 1 is up. In short, the three drives can only come ready in the order 1, 2, 3.

I've been running like this for several months without difficulty. The only thing to avoid is doing a DMS restart - which can recognise the drives incorrectly. Instead do a shutdown then wait for a minute before booting the DMS and all is OK.

I hope others find this useful.

[tbrown25]

Thanks for the input. I indeed find it useful.

[wasim27488]

PROBLEM:
The DMS only has two USB ports. I have more than two USB drives, meaning you have to use a hub. However, I found the attached drives could be recognised with a different label when booting the DMS. If this happens it will cause mayhem to the database, with movies and TV drives being added more than once. This change in drive designation is more stable than it used to be, but it still unreliable when using a hub. The source of the problem seems to be that you can't guarantee the order that the drives come ready. Whether some hubs are better than others I cannot say - perhaps some will ready their ports in sequence?

ONE SOLUTION THAT WORKS FOR ME:
I purchased 3 Seagate Backup Plus drives that have an in-built two port USB HUB. I then daisy-chained these drives together using their in-built hubs.

Drive 1 is connected to a DMS USB port, Drive 2 is connected to Drive 1's hub, Drive 3 is connected to Drive 2's hub. The second DMS USB port is free.

Now when you boot up the DMS, Drive 3 can't come ready until Drive 2 is up and in turn, Drive 2 can't come ready until Drive 1 is up. In short, the three drives can only come ready in the order 1, 2, 3.

I've been running like this for several months without difficulty. The only thing to avoid is doing a DMS restart - which can recognise the drives incorrectly. Instead do a shutdown then wait for a minute before booting the DMS and all is OK.

I hope others find this useful.

I too have been using a similar system for months. If I boot the whole system up together using a master switch (including power to the drives) the discs wake up in a predictable order (usually). It would still be better to have a more rational way of addressing the drives (eg using the drive / partition UUID).