HDD through USB Hub is unpredictable, file explorer crashes with +7 HDD

I am probing the X9S (FW=1.2.7) limitation on USB HDDs usage.....

Single USB HDD on each port works fine as far as I know, but as soon as I connect more USB HDD through USB hubs, then the whole thing becomes unpredictable.

One USB2.0 and one USB3.0 4-port usb hub with a total of eight 4TB seagate USB drives connected, each hub is powered by a 5V 5A supply. The file explorer sees them all with "8" shown on the HDD icon on the left pane of the file explorer, click on left pane shows first 6 HDDs, I can access the contents of all first 6 HDDs, then tried to scroll down to see #7 & #8, file explorer crashes and ended in the home screen. This is very consistent with the scroll down and crash.

Here is the unpredictability, reboot X9S, with all 8 HDDs still powered and attached, file explorer sometimes indicate 7 HDDs, same thing happens as above, crashes on scrolling down to #7. Reboot X9S, now file explorer sees only 4 HDDs, but now I can only access contents of 3 HDDs. Unplug one hub and reboot, still indicate 4 HDDs and only 3 can be accessed, while in this state, I plugged the other USB hub with all 4 HDDs still spinning, file explorer does not pick up any new HDDs. Reboot and now I see and access 6 instead of 8.

Can someone reproduce this?

 

Never tried 8 but 7 do work flawless even on a single USB3 port (4-port HDD docking station plugged into a 4 port Hub). Using 4x HDD and 3x Thumb Drives for that test.
Can connect something on SATA and on the other 2 USB ports as a further test. Also 8 using 2 USB ports is a possible test. Will let it know here.

 

ok, I have narrowed down the issue to 7 or more "4TB" USB drives that causes the file explorer to crash.

Instead of using both usb3.0 and usb2.0 on the X9S to hook up the usb hdds, I followed your approach to have all usb devices hook up to usb3.0 port only. I have X9S usb3.0 to 7 port hub chained to 4 port hub to have 10 usb devices on at the same time, file explorer runs fine, as long as there are only six 4TB HDD or less active, seven or more 4TB HDD will crash file explorer just by scrolling down the left pane. Six 4TB plus one 2TB HDDs along with 3 flash drives didn't crash.

Rebooted the X9S several times using the USB3.0 port only with no unpredictable events like yesterday. I will experiment more with the above setup using X9S usb3.0 port only to see how stable it is, and push the limit more with more HDDs but with only six 4TB HDDs.

BTW, the device info on the left pane appears in random order instead of the expected sorted order.

 

what if you use other file explorer ? from play store ? does it work ?

 

Good to know where the limits are and what happens when exceeding those. Sounds like a memory / buffer limitation somewhere to me. The USB3 port uses a different driver and may have other limitations than the USB2 ports?

Have seen memory/buffer limits also with other media players. These where triggered by the total amount used/occupied space and not directly related to the mere aggregated mounted volume size. I presume these 4 TB HDD are pretty much filled?

There is also always the Android build-in file explorer accessible via setup. Running Total Commander myself which is good and for free to test with to see if it is File Browser APP specific or an underlying OS related limitation.

 

When I had the setup using both usb2.0 and usb3.0 with the X9S file explorer crashing on scrolling down, I installed the ES file explorer and it is pretty pathetic in that none of the HDDs were accessible and the App kept crashing sometimes without doing anything.

 

that sure is strange. i asked once a zidoo tech guy to plug in 7 USB devices. it worked. i think they where on USB 3.0
they should test the limit tho. And post a official number.

 

3 x 4TB are >95% filled, 3 x 4TB are >70% filled, the 2TB is 60% filled....anyway, could it be that 4TB requires GPT partition format and is limited by OS allocation to handle that particular kind of partition?

Android build-in file explorer via setup.....where exactly is that located? The X9S file explorer is by far, far, far the best one I have come across, the others are just crap with one that is local media access only, while the other has network access, but it has no alphabetical sorting, no way I can use that with 1000s of videos and folders in random order.

 

you should try GPT. seems to work better on android then NTFS

 

Yeah, 7 usb devices on usb3.0 sure works well, as long as they are not all 4TB HDDs.......Here is what I found that causes file explorer to crash to home page.......

7 x 4TB
6 x 4TB + 2TB + 1TB
5 x 4TB + 2TB + 2 x 1TB

I think you are getting the picture that 8 HDDs will crash file explorer, not to mention the 7 x 4TB configuration.

If I chained 7 port hub to another 7 port hub with less than 7 HDDs, it also crashes file explorer, rebooted 3 times in this config, same crash. If I chain from X9S to 4 port hub then to another 4 port hub then to 7 port hub, it works fine even with 7 HDDs, one usb3.0 128GB SSD, one 128GB thumb drive, two 64GB thumb drives and one 32GB thumb drive all active at the same time.

There are infinite number of ways to make or break large number of connected usb devices, at least I know I can have at most 7 HDDs plus N number of thumb drives. If the X9S is meant to be someone's wet dream of low cost ultimate storage/media server, the tech people need to work on getting more HDDs connected without file explorer crashing. 10TB drives are available now, so they should test with them. Also, each host usb can support up to 127 usb devices, I am not a corporation, but I know 12 works with what I have.

 

well. to be honest. if you have money for a 10 TB hdd. you should stick it in a proper NAS.
but i do agree. file manager should not just crash. if it hits the limit then give a warning or something.

 

On NAS.......thats where I came from, J1900 does not support 4K, AM5000 is not fast enough to play 4K, other solution burns too much power. I just want one solution that serves and play, for me, the X9S is the perfect fit for my need.....small, power efficient, plays 4K H265 with HDR

 

It is not GPT versus NTFS. What should be used is GPT in combination with NTFS (don't use MBR).
GPT defines the disc structure (initialization) and NTFS is the Files System (formatting) often both are lumped together in a single action.

I prefer SAMBA Server on a media player above a NAS. Much more cost effective and flexible if you don't need/want RAID. True Plug & Play with any number of HDD using the right Docking.

 

could you get a log for me?
use this tool
http://www.zidoo.tv/Support/guide/g...e_faq/cbhb9TXiwyE=/faq_page/9nCdOWqz+dw=.html

 

Sorry, its not practical to change the format of the USB drives. I dread the thought of unloading up to 4TB per HDD, change the format, and load them back, over 8 HDDs.... I may do that when I get another on sale 4TB HDD to avoid the load back.

 

If the problem is only to change drive partitioning type and/or partition filesystem format, you may use the free version of Minitool Partition Wizard https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html that can do this jobs lossless.

 

How do I send you the two log files privately?

Anyway, here is a new bug submit for this forum......WHERE IS THE CANCEL OPTION TO REPLY?

 

I think I have a work around to have lots and lots USB HDDs without crashing file explorer. The solution is to have all the USB hubs with individual on/off switch for each port, turn on only the HDD port you need, one or two at a time, seems to work fine with a 7 port switch hub. I will provide update when more USB switch hub arrives.

Beware you don't over tax the power availability of the X9S. You should not provide power to the USB hubs, otherwise the power from the hub will back drive to the X9S and cause a power down hang, which can be harmful. I will post a new thread to warn people.

 

The bigger problem is not able to play Atmos or TrueHD files properly. v1.2.7 didn't fix the problem

 

With my Zidoo Z2000 Pro I have some issues when i connect 4 HDD using a usb hub 3.0 through the usb 3.0 port on Zidoo. It reconizes all HDD but sometimes can only scan 1, 2 or 3 ( not everytime the same). Another issue is when start playing a movie through the usb hub it crashes but it works fine if the HDD is connected directly to the usb 3.0 port on Zidoo. I'm going to try with a different hub ( with Inatek hub usb A 3.2)