Has anyone had any luck using an external USB HD with a RPi 2? I was under the impression that those boards might not have enough power to power multiple USB devices. If I wanted to use one as an nfs server, with 2 or 3 USB HD hooked up, would it work ok or should I be looking for an RPi4?

I have a powered USB hub but I am under the impression that, while it will allow me to plug in other USB resources (like a keyboard or mouse), the RPi has difficulty finding any HD or thumb drives that are hooked to it.

Thanks!
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Re: Using external HD with an Rpi2?
By: Mike Powell to All on Sun Nov 17 2019 01:42 pm

Has anyone had any luck using an external USB HD with a RPi 2? I was under the impression that those boards might not have enough power to power multiple USB devices. If I wanted to use one as an nfs server, with 2 or 3 USB HD hooked up, would it work ok or should I be looking for an RPi4?

I'm not sure you can supply power to that many external USB devices. Others my chime in as my experience hear is minimal.

I have seen/read of folks powering their USB drive(s) externally (ie: not via the USB cable)...

I dont have any RPi2's anymore, so I cant help you validate anything :(
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I'm not sure you can supply power to that many external USB devices. Others my >chime in as my experience hear is minimal.

I have seen/read of folks powering their USB drive(s) externally (ie: not via >the USB cable)...

I might needs someone to point me towards a USB hub which supports external HDs. I have seen in past on youtube where someone used a bunch of thumb
drives plugged into a hub as a RAID device for their pi, so I know that you
can use externals with a hub if you have the right hub.

The last time I tried my hub and my pi in that manner, the pi did not seem
to be able to mount (or even find) the external storage device that was
plugged into the hub. I am guessing the hub maybe was not meant for that.
As it is a powered hub, you would think it would work. It works just fine
with the keyboard and mouse plugged into it, though. :)


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The last time I tried my hub and my pi in that manner, the pi did not
seem to be able to mount (or even find) the external storage device that was plugged into the hub. I am guessing the hub maybe was not meant for that. As it is a powered hub, you would think it would work. It works just fine with the keyboard and mouse plugged into it, though. :)

Yeah that is strange indeed - unless the powered hub really can't provide enough current for the storage device. Was this a mechanical hard drive or thumb drives?

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Yeah that is strange indeed - unless the powered hub really can't provide enough current for the storage device. Was this a mechanical hard drive or thumb drives?

I think they are neither. They are those WD USB drives that I think are
not actually mechanical (SSD or SSDD or whatever it is called!). I think I tried a thumb drive also.

Maybe I need to try it again and see what actually happens. :)


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