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USB File Sharing-Drive size?

Started by RW-obi, October 03, 2016, 01:36:05 PM

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RW-obi

I know someone will say this is posted, but I've searched and searched and can't find the answer. I'm trying to find out what size flash drive the USB port can support for file sharing. Some systems have a limit at 32 Gb. What about the Obi200? Does anyone know what size drives and what file systems are supported for USB file sharing? Obihai doesn't seem to want to reveal that info.

I have to say, my Obi devices have worked well, but Obihai customer support is the worst. Even with the forums it is really hard to get any answers about these things.

LTN1

Let me try to understand where in the official promotions by Obihai that it gave you the impression that you can use a flash drive in their device for file sharing? (Minus the fact that there is a USB port)

If there are no official documents from Obihai promoting the use of a flash drive, do you think that just because a device has a USB port, it should allow for file sharing through a flash drive?

drgeoff

Quote from: LTN1 on October 03, 2016, 02:15:12 PM
Let me try to understand where in the official promotions by Obihai that it gave you the impression that you can use a flash drive in their device for file sharing? (Minus the fact that there is a USB port)

If there are no official documents from Obihai promoting the use of a flash drive, do you think that just because a device has a USB port, it should allow for file sharing through a flash drive?
Ahem! http://www.obihai.com/OBiDeviceAdminGuide#_Toc367543013

LTN1

Quote from: drgeoff on October 03, 2016, 05:17:16 PM
Quote from: LTN1 on October 03, 2016, 02:15:12 PM
Let me try to understand where in the official promotions by Obihai that it gave you the impression that you can use a flash drive in their device for file sharing? (Minus the fact that there is a USB port)

If there are no official documents from Obihai promoting the use of a flash drive, do you think that just because a device has a USB port, it should allow for file sharing through a flash drive?
Ahem! http://www.obihai.com/OBiDeviceAdminGuide#_Toc367543013

I stand corrected. Thank you.

RW-obi

I should add, I have successfully used the USB file sharing feature on my Obi200, using an old 2 Gb flash drive, and it works. File access is through a browser or by FTP. I wish I access it as a network share in Windoze, but the firmware doesn't support that.

Now I want to buy a larger flash drive to use with it, since they're getting cheaper. I thought maybe someone would know if an Obi20x can work with flash drives larger than 32 Gb, which is a limit for some devices. Thanks for replies.  :)  Thanks to *drgeoff* for providing the link to the brief section on file sharing in the admin guide.

drgeoff

First let me say that I don't have an OBi20x so cannot experiment with what works in the USB port. And I don't have any more inside knowledge than what I already linked to.

Generally there are three aspects. The size, the number of partitions and the file system(s) . The native formatting utilities in Windows will not format larger than 32 Gbyte as FAT32. They only offer NTFS. Also Windows only acknowledges the first partition on removable devices.

Partitions larger than 32 Gbyte can be formatted FAT32 using other formatting programs and/or other operating systems. There is an efficiency penalty - the larger cluster size means much wasted space especially around small files.

I expect that OBis will support only FAT and FAT32. I won't guess at whether they support FAT32 partitions larger than 32 Gbyte. Now will I guess whether they support multiple partitions.

If anyone else is able to perform the necessary tests,  the results would be of interest.

Lavarock7

#6
UPDATE: I copied the item description since the link requires login.

I have a sneaky suspicion that THIS DRIVE will NOT work!

The reviews of these devices are generally good but I have to be skeptical!!!

Hot Promotion Smart Phone Tablet External Storage Usb Memory Stick U Disk Pen Drive Pendrive Usb Flash

Drive Size: 1TB
Was:  $189USD
Sale:  $4USD

Shipping adds another couple of dollars to the price :-)
My websites: Kona Coffee: http://itskona.com and Web Hosting: http://planetaloha.info<br />A simplified Voip explanation: http://voip.planet-aloha.com

RW-obi

I couldn't open that "wish.com" link. It required a signup/login. Newegg has good deals on flash drives though, many with free shipping.

For anyone curious. I did some more testing. I tried a 32 Gb, fat32 formatted micro-SD card in a USB adapter, and it worked fine. I assume a 32 Gb flash drive would work the same. Then I connected a 1 Tb Seagate Backup Plus USB-3 external drive, formatted with NTFS. It worked too, powered by the Obi, no problem. The Obi200 USB port only supports USB-2 but the drive is USB-2 compatible. It's not speedy though. I downloaded a 500 Mb file and it took about 140 seconds, within my local wired network. Painfully slow. I transferred the same file directly from the drive to my old XP computer through a USB-2 port in 17 seconds.

I did one other test, just for completeness. I plugged the microSD/USB drive into an unpowered 4 port USB hub and plugged the hub into the Obi USB port. It worked. I knew it would but it was easy to test it. The Obi20x USB port does support multiple devices, with a hub. I think that's even documented somewhere. Overall, the Obi firmware team have really done a lot with the USB port. Bluetooth, wifi, file sharing, and external FXO, and all at the same time. Still room for improvement, but credit where it's due. It is impressive. If they could support bluetooth headsets, manage Samba file sharing, and support auto-failover on the FXO port, I'd be even more impressed.

So the remaining question is whether the exFat file system which is used on >32 Gb flash drives, is supported. And for curiosity, if any linux file system is supported, but that's beyond my needs. Probably if I reformat the flash drive to NTFS, any size would work, but I'm still hoping someone has tried this and has the answer. Somebody out there must have an Obi20x and a yuuuge flash drive. It would be nice if Obihai would publish specs for this.

AS for multiple partitions, I suspect only one partition would be seen by the Obi. I did plug in a 2 Gb Sandisk Cruzer flash drive which has a U3 system partition and a data partition. The data partition was recognized but there was no sign of the U3 partition, which mimics a CDROM disk. (Windows assigns the first available drive letter to the U3 partition, as a CDROM, so I guess it's first on the flash drive. The main fat32 partition gets the next drive letter.) Judging from the Obi200 interface, I very much doubt that an Obi will work with more than the first FAT or NTFS partition on any drive.

ob202_learner

Quote from: RW-obi on October 04, 2016, 12:01:05 AM
I should add, I have successfully used the USB file sharing feature on my Obi200, using an old 2 Gb flash drive, and it works. File access is through a browser or by FTP. I wish I access it as a network share in Windoze, but the firmware doesn't support that.

I am able to access mine with http://{obiIP}/obi_share.  How did you get the ftp access to work?
I tried ftp://{obiIP}/obi_share with no luck.

Any help appreciated!

DeniseF

I'm late to this thread because I'm just setting up my Obi200; I have a 500GB USB drive connected to the Obi USB slot. Works fine for the most part & I've created a shortcut to it in the Documents folder.   [http://<obi ISP address>/obi_share]  The only annoying thing is that I can't save directly to the drive; I have to save elsewhere & then upload, somewhat like the old Google Drive, but I can view & download if I need to modify anything. (I'm signed in as Admin so it's not my credentials; it's just the way Obi works, I guess.)

HTH,
Denise

Pohlman

Can anyone share if they have been able to reenable filesharing on the obi200

Pohlman

Will someone please help me re-enable the USB storage share. I am willing to pay a 3rd party if need be to repair it to meet the advertised specifications

https://www.freelancer.com/projects/voip/enable-OBI-file-sharing/details

3rd tier support hasn't called as promised and it has been over 2 weeks

Star255

I should add, I have successfully used the USB file sharing feature on my Obi200, using an old 2 Gb flash drive, and it works. File access is through a browser or by FTP. I wish I access it as a network share in Windoze, but the firmware doesn't support that.