Problem with connecting 2 identical drives to the R9000.

[Marcin_Rydza]

Hello,
I have a problem with the R9000 - Nighthawk X10 AD7200. I am trying to connect 2 identical drives (ST2000LM 015-2E8174) through 2 identical USB adapters (Vendor: usb 0x1e1d "Kanguru Solutions", Device: usb 0x20a0 "JMS579") but if both are connected together either neither is visible or any operations are possible for only one of them. Even if both are listed (U: \, T: \), any share change affects both items in the list, and actually only one drive.
In the options: Advanced settings - USB settings, if I want to set only the allowed devices, I can add only one drive, even though both drives are listed.

It looks like one is only a link to the other.

Each of these drives separately connected works without a problem.

Regards.

[plemans]

It could be that they're requiring to much power when connected at the same time. 

Are they powered usb devices? or unpowered?

[Marcin_Rydza]

Thanks for the answer.
Seagate ST2000LM015-2E8174 (2.5 inch) drives are connected via the Icy Box USB 3.0 - 2.5 "(IB-256WP). They are powered by USB, but both drives keep spinning and LEDs indicate normal operation on both drives all the time.

Regards.

[plemans]

right but if they both work while plugged in seperate, it isn't a router issue. Its more than likely they require to much power to be powered over the usb bus for both devices. 

[Marcin_Rydza]

Ok, I'll check this set up using a cable with separate power, but it'll take a few days.

Regards.

[Marcin_Rydza]

Hello again.

I tested such a set:
Disks: 2 x ST2000LM015
Enclosures: 2 x Icy Box USB 3.0 - 2.5" HDD/SSD (IB-256WP)
Power cables: 2 x Delock 83176
Power source: Hama 2x USB-A 4.8 A (173608)

It still has the same effect. Only the same drive is visible under 2 locations (U: \, T: \).

Regards.

[FURRYe38]

Would be curious to see if this happens on 3rd party FW, Voxels FW is set up for the R9000. Something you can try and see if same thing happens, if not you can revert back.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-r9000-r8900-v-1-0-4-54hf.74434/

[Marcin_Rydza]

I checked it on FW: V1.0.4.54.2HF Router Firmware Version (Voxel).
No changes. Both drives (U: \, T: \) are assigned to one drive. A change to one of the drives in the list produces the same change to the other drive (in the list). In fact, only one disk is seen.

[FURRYe38]

Wondering if the router only supports 1 USB drive connected at a time...

[Marcin_Rydza]

The router can handle 2 disks at the same time. For example, when replacing one of the ST2000LM015 drives with a Verbatim flesh (pen), the problem no longer occurs.

[FURRYe38]

Possible same model convention used between two same model drives is confusing to the FW. 

[Marcin_Rydza]

Yes, it probably is.
Any change of disk format, files (dos, gpt, fat32, efat, vfat, ntfs, ext4) doesn't matter.

Regards.

[FURRYe38]

Ya seems like if you have two same brand and model drives, seems confusing to the router. 

I'd try different brand and model but same size and go from there. 

[Marcin_Rydza]

It is very possible that different drives will work. It is also very possible that you need to use SATA-USB connectors from different companies. Unfortunately, this does not solve the core problem, which is the FW bug.
Regards.

[FURRYe38]

Well something to let NG support now about.

[schumaku]

Different Volume Labels in place? Not expecting this to make a difference ( I know one NAS vendor does allow automatically creating shared folders based on the USB volume label - smart eh?).

More essential: When connecting both "same" enclosures with the disks to a WIndows system, do both show a different Volume ID (Volume Serial Number, VSN)?

[Marcin_Rydza]

Both disks connected to the PC together are OK. They have different ID and different Label (given during formatting).

[Marcin_Rydza]

I checked drives of the same type with Icy Box (IB-RD2253-U31) raid enclosure configured as "Single".
In this configuration, everything is OK. Both disks are seen correctly.

Regards.

[FURRYe38]

Nice. Glad you figured it out. 

Please mark your thread as solved so others will know. 

Enjoy. 

[Marcin_Rydza]

I wrote that the other hardware configuration is working fine.
The main problem has not been resolved. The main problem is the FW bug.

Regards.

[Marcin_Rydza]

I have a few comments that appeared during the fight with this equipment:

Cooperation with ext4:
The disk with clean format works without any problems. It can be unmounted from the router and mounted again.
The problem occurs when the drive is mounted in the PC. Once unmounted in the computer and connected to the router, it will never be visible again in router.

Cooperation with exfat:
The saving files seems to be Ok, but with more directories only a part of saved directories are seen using the linux command like this:
mount -t cifs //192.168.1.1/Multimedia / mnt / smb -o username = admin, password = admin, iocharset = utf8, rw, vers = 1.0
The problem does not occur when using the graphical network share in linux kde.
An interesting fact is that this problem does not occur with ntfs.

Errors using the SMB 3 protocol:
Random errors in writing and reading files using SMB 3 occur. Randomly, files are corrupted.

You cannot disable the SMB 3 protocol, even though the official firmware has such an option in the menu.
It is also possible that all SMB protocols do not work properly if there is SMB 3 in the router.

Regards.

[FURRYe38]

---

@Marcin_Rydza wrote:

I have a few comments that appeared during the fight with this equipment:

Cooperation with ext4:
The disk with clean format works without any problems. It can be unmounted from the router and mounted again.
The problem occurs when the drive is mounted in the PC. Once unmounted in the computer and connected to the router, it will never be visible again in router.

Interesting. If you unmount the drive from the router. Then re-mount it back to the router, does the router see the drive? 

Cooperation with exfat:
The saving files seems to be Ok, but with more directories only a part of saved directories are seen using the linux command like this:
mount -t cifs //192.168.1.1/Multimedia / mnt / smb -o username = admin, password = admin, iocharset = utf8, rw, vers = 1.0
The problem does not occur when using the graphical network share in linux kde.
An interesting fact is that this problem does not occur with ntfs.

Errors using the SMB 3 protocol:
Random errors in writing and reading files using SMB 3 occur. Randomly, files are corrupted.

You cannot disable the SMB 3 protocol, even though the official firmware has such an option in the menu.
It is also possible that all SMB protocols do not work properly if there is SMB 3 in the router.

I don't believe these routers have SMB3. Highly doubtful. 

You might check with Voxels 3rd party FW and see if maybe he updates his stuff.

---

[Marcin_Rydza]

FURRYe38: "Interesting. If you unmount the drive from the router. Then re-mount it back to the router, does the router see the drive?"
Yes, but the disk cannot be used (mounted) outside the router.

FURRYe38: "You might check with Voxels 3rd party FW and see if maybe he updates his stuff."
Yes, I checked Voxels FW. There is no SMB 3 in Voxels FW and no file transfer errors.

Regards.

[FURRYe38]

Sounds like something happening with EXFat if NTFS doesn't produce this problem. 

[Marcin_Rydza]

Yes, there are problems with exfat in the router.