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USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:21 pm
by Swainy
Yes it’s the same old story, I’ve bought a WD Elements 2TB USB hard drive and I can’t get it working with my MiSTer that has a powered USB hub and I’m using a 5amp power supply.

I’ve set up a games folder on the hard drive which contains two more folders. MegaCD & TGFX16-CD

The MegaCD & TGFX16-CD folders on my SD card are empty and I’ve even tried deleting them to see if that makes any difference but no joy.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 6:48 pm
by Hackshed_Carl
I always start by copying the "games" folder from the SD onto the HDD.
This way, you know the folder names are correct and MiSTer should see any games inside the subfolders on the HDD

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:01 pm
by Swainy
Cool. I’ll give that a try.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:11 pm
by jca
What filesystem are you using on your HD?

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:17 pm
by Swainy
Well it’s NTFS by default but I’ve also tried exFAT. I’ll report back on how I get on copying the games folder direct from my SD card once I get a chance to try it.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 9:46 pm
by Higgy
I also had to add the command to stop the HD from powering down (sorry I can't remember it, but it is on here somewhere).

I found that it didn't take long for the HD to power down which caused detection problems.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:42 pm
by jca
With NTFS you will have problems with case sensitivity better use exFAT.
For HD spinning down look at my posts, it is somewhere on the forum.
Got it, viewtopic.php?p=14964#p14964

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:15 am
by misterious
did you mount the fs from MiSTer?

mount /dev/yourdevice /mnt/mountpoint

aside from that , the first (cheap) HD that I tried was consuming too much power and kept stopping, tried another one and worked like a charm

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:18 pm
by jca
USB drives are automatically mounted on /media/usb0 if they are the only USB drive connected.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:20 pm
by Swainy
misterious wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:15 am did you mount the fs from MiSTer?

mount /dev/yourdevice /mnt/mountpoint

aside from that , the first (cheap) HD that I tried was consuming too much power and kept stopping, tried another one and worked like a charm
How do I do this? Sorry, still fairly new to the MiSTer.

Re: USB Hard Drive - Can’t get it working

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 5:48 am
by misterious
Swainy wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:20 pm How do I do this? Sorry, still fairly new to the MiSTer.
just ssh into mister
create the mountpoint

Code: Select all

mkdir /mnt/hd
then type

Code: Select all

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/hd