This topic

BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 12:34:43 GMT

I want to get an SSD drive to connect to my router's USB port and just want to get confirmation that the port is USB type A female. It's just too difficult for me now to climb the stairs and scramble under the desk to check it myself though someone is going to have to to connect the SSD. If I've got it wrong I will have to get my order changed today. TIA.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

imjolly — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 12:51:01 GMT

just a standard USB port

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

licquorice — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 17:49:01 GMT

Bear in mind that it will be very slow as it is only USB 2 and you will need to enable SMB1 on any devices you wish to connect to it.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 17:58:56 GMT

So am I probably wasting my time fitting an SSD? My hope was to send my MR images to it from three networked computers, typically 30Gb files? It can take about 2 hours for each at present using a spare HDD.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 18:33:15 GMT

Ok I bought a SSD but Windows isn't seeing it. I'm guessing that's because the router's USB port is not powered as the drive is being recognised when plugged into a computer. Disappointing - looks as if I shall have to revert to the slow HDD I was using before.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

licquorice — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 07:12:54 GMT

The hub will power an SSD drive.

Have you enabled SMB1 in Windows?

Have you mapped a drive letter to //192.168.1.254/usb1 ?

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 09:16:39 GMT

Hi Licquorice, yes and yes.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

WSH — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 10:10:27 GMT

I take it the SSD is formatted?

The SH2 probably needs FAT32 anyway, in which case you’re wasting your time trying to put a 30GB file on it. FAT32 has a 4GB limit. Theoretically, you could chop the file up in to 4GB pieces but that’s likely to be even slower, of course. ExFAT might be worth a try, if the SH2 can handle it.

You’re wasting your time anyway. It’s not the speed of the SSD that’s going to be the factor here but the speed of the USB 2 port (480Mb/s max) and the speed of the connection to the router, especially if over wireless.

Your best bet for this is to have the SSD internally mounted in your PC and formatted for NTFS.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 14:09:58 GMT

This is so frustrating! I can plug this SSD into any spare port on any of my computers and it behaves normally, i.e. I can read it and write to it. However it is not accessible at all when plugged into the SH2, unlike the HDD it was bought to replace. SMB1 is enabled but I'm unable to map a drive letter to \\192.168.1.254\usb1

Functionally I can use the SSD when plugged into another networked computer but that's not a very elegant solution. I want it always to be available to any system that joins the LAN.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 09:55:16 GMT

It seems this SSD is an SCSI drive. Might that be the reason it cannot connect to the Smart Hub 2 but can connect to PCs and laptops?

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

naylor2006 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 10:40:18 GMT

@Earthling said:
It seems this SSD is an SCSI drive. Might that be the reason it cannot connect to the Smart Hub 2 but can connect to PCs and laptops?

Erm...really?

How are you connecting the SSD drive, is it via some SATA to USB cable? I mean you can get an SSD inside an SCSI enclosure, SCSI just really being the interface, but you are mentioning USB?

Can you explain what you have?

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 10:58:45 GMT

This is the cable I'm using. Works fine when connecting the drive to a computer but I was hoping to connect it to the USB port on the SH2 but it isn't being seen by the SH2.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

naylor2006 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:04:08 GMT

Yeh but the SSD itself then, this is just an SSD inside a USB-C enclosure?

Does it have any light indicators on it to suggest its being powered up?

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:23:46 GMT

This is the SSD. Up to now I've kept a standard HDD in the SH2 port and was simply hoping to upgrade to SSD. No external lights but I have checked that the port has power

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

naylor2006 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:35:15 GMT

Most USB HDD drive issues I come across are down to power, IE there not being enough to power the attached device, even SSD's can sometimes suffer from this even if their power footprint is smaller than a HDD....which for you currently works. That is why I was interested if it was powering up the USB SSD.

I think the issue may be more nuanced though, I'm a little out of my depth now as I dont know the specifics of the SH2 USB port, but it wont be a compatible as a USB port through a typical windows system.

The drive is apparently an NVMe with a USB-C interface which you are converting to USB-A, now that shouldnt be an issue and yes everything should be backwards compatible, but I doubt this drive was ever designed with a USB2.0 port in mind and further still one attached to a router. Have you tried the included USB-C to USB-A adapter rather than the cable you have bought separately ?

Anyway, other folks on here will probably be able to answer further, I have zero experience of using the SH2 USB port, im just talking from a general computing angle.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:02:13 GMT

If there was an included adapter I must have lost it. The ad doesn't mention it though as far as I can see. I you look at my #5 lack of power was my first guess but the port does power up other external drives so that isn't the issue. Also, the HDD I was using previously had its own power adapter.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

naylor2006 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:16:06 GMT

Just looks like on that Amazon listing there is a USB-C to A.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

Earthling — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:14:26 GMT

Thanks, I'll go have another mooch

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

naylor2006 — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:16:45 GMT

A USB-C to USB-A cable should yield the same results, but its worth a shot.

Re: BT Smart Hub 2 USB port

licquorice — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:21:57 GMT

@Earthling please delete the links to Amazon, it is against forum rules.