USB to memory card adaptor - GUID fixed or dynamic - collecting models/options


NAS

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I/we are looking to collect a list of USB to memory card adapters.

 

unRAID will happily boot of just about any of these which means that the bit that usually breaks (the memory card itself)  can be replaced without requesting a new license.

 

The problem is that most of these adapters have one GUID per model/line meaning that you cant license them with unRAID.

 

There is no way to know if the GUID is unique without physically having a device to test and it is not practical for me to buy 50 of them to test.

 

This thread is a long term effort to find the perfect unRAID USB to memory card adapter. Ultimately it will make unRAID even more reliable.

 

Update:

 

Summary listed here http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/USB_Card_Readers

 

Feel free to edit and fix the formatting.

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I absolutely agree that what unRAID should do is check the licence/GUID fromm one key but boot from another medium. This way it doesn't matter how much you hammer your flash drive as the GUID would be almost untouched and RO on an alternative key

 

But thats in the hands of the gods.... this USB adaptor thing is in the realm of the mortal users to be able to sort out. And both could compliment each other anyway

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  • 4 weeks later...
Kingston MobileLiteG2 - Card reader ( SD, MS PRO Duo, microSD, SDHC, MS Micro, microSDHC, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo ) - Hi-Speed USB

 

This is the one I'm using, with an SD card.  It has a slide-out cover to protect the flash card.  The only concerns are about its size - firstly, it may obstruct adjacent ports - secondly, it is quite heavy which, if unsupported, may result in a poor connection at the usb port.  I have already had one occasion when the machine failed to find the boot device, requiring a 'jiggle' to get it working again.

 

It has just occurred to me that both of these shortcomings could be addressed by using one of the short male-female usb leads, and strapping the reader to a nearby fixing point.  I will give this a try in the morning.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I absolutely agree that what unRAID should do is check the licence/GUID fromm one key but boot from another medium. This way it doesn't matter how much you hammer your flash drive as the GUID would be almost untouched and RO on an alternative key

You can boot from ANY device.  It is not necessary for it to be the one labeled UNRAID.  There is at least one post on the forum where a user described how they use two flash drives, and one is just for the GUID check.   

 

Found it:  See this thread for  how one user boots from one flash drive, but uses the second "official UNRAID" one for the license check.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3846.msg34018#msg34018

 

Basically, you boot from one flash drive labeled FLASH

Then, unRAID  mounts the flash labeled as UNRAID at /boot, but you then use the mount --move option to move it out of the way, and move the other into place at /boot.

 

Joe L.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

I had a usb reader and class 6 or 10 micro sd til it was blacklisted. Now have a cruzer fit.  Not much difference.  It's painful to load all those dependencies especially if you have apache, xbmc, deluge. It's another reason I was happy for vm's.

 

Most systems I have won't boot from usb3 and then you'd need the drivers loaded.

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Maybe we need to fork this off and speak to limetech about an alternative location on the cache drive.

 

yah keen to discuss as many options as possible but want to keep this thread clean just on devices if possible

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  • 1 month later...

just to chime in the Kingston MobileLiteG2 does indeed work fine for me, been running with this for just over a year now with no issues, i have heard reported issues of the newer usb 3.0 version of this NOT working correctly though, possibly due to motherboard and/or unraid driver support for usb 3.0, link:-

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-Multi-Card-Reader/dp/B007PFQ0PC

That is the one I have.  It works but only one of the slots, I don't remember which.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I use several of these. The g2 will boot only from the SD slot if you want to use a micro as you will need a micro SD to ds card adapter. The g3 is black listed but if you want a free version it does boot but only to the micro SD slot.

 

I hope I am more understandable. By the way it is not that they just won't boot it is that the Unraid name on the drive is not available causing a error that won't let Unraid run correctly. If you place a SD and a micro sd and try it you will see what I mean.

 

Have a great day

 

Thornwood

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  • 1 month later...

Anybody using the Kingston G4 yet?  The G3s are getting hard to find.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-MobileLite-Multi-Function-FCR-MLG4/dp/B00KX4TORI

 

Asked on Amazon and got:

 

After consulting with Kingston Support, the answers are:

1) Yes. It has it's unique GUID

2) No, it cannot boot from any of the two ports

Kingston Technology U.S. Sales Support - End User +1 (800) 835-6575

U.S./Canada Technical Support +1 (800) 435-0640 +1 (714) 435-2639

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  • 4 weeks later...

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