This is topic Why won't USB drive mount? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-10-2013, 09:54 PM:
For a matinee, I converted a DVD to DCP using the now-famous DVD-O-Matic. But when I went to transfer it to our server, the drive would not mount. I get an error message, "unable to mount usb/firewire device." So we ran the show using the DVD, which worked fine.
The drive is formatted NTFS, and it reads fine on any other computer I've tried it on...what gives? Any ideas? I tried all the usual rebooting, etc. with no luck.
Server is a GDC SX2000 and the drive in question is a Seagate 3TB. Other USB drives (including thumb drives and a 2TB external) can mount fine.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-10-2013, 10:16 PM:
How are your other external drives mounted? I'm not sure if GDC can read NTFS formatting.
Posted by Yinghong Wu (Member # 6908) on 08-10-2013, 11:55 PM:
I use DVD-O-Matic also,it works fine for our server which is DOLBY DSS100.SO why not use ext3 with inode 128 to format you disk.
Posted by Frank B. McLaughlin (Member # 6683) on 08-11-2013, 08:37 AM:
I have used both FAT 32 and NTFS. If you use FAT 32 you will encounter a limited file size cap.
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 08-11-2013, 08:59 AM:
I've found various USB drives that don't mount on some servers and projector touchscreens. usually a store brand or novelty drive. Try transferring the content to another drive you know works on the server?
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-11-2013, 09:14 AM:
A lot of servers have trouble mounting 3GB drives. Most of these dedicated linux or other embedded OS's are lacking support for drives larger 2GB.
- Carsten
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-11-2013, 11:16 AM:
Brad - all of the drives I've tried have been NTFS formatted. If you use FAT32 you're limited to 4GB file size.
I do wonder if it's the 3TB size that's making this drive not work. Carsten -- you did mean TB, not GB in your post, right?
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 08-11-2013, 01:42 PM:
Yeah, right, 3TB. e.g. Doremis can not use 3TB drives, not via USB, not within the RAID system. 2TB currently is their max individual drive size. It's one of these addressing schemes that causes trouble every major step in capacity.
I guess their OS needs a major kernel or driver upgrade to support it. And don't these older GDCs still use a WIN XP base (XP embedded)?
I think current versions of Dolby DSS200 software do support 3TB drives - from around 4.3.x on or so...
- Carsten
Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 08-11-2013, 02:16 PM:
I've been having trouble ingesting content off the trailer hard drives of one of the major distributors of digital entertainment to my IMAX digital server. No problems with the trailer hard drives from the other major distributor of digital entertainment, though.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-11-2013, 02:30 PM:
Mike, you can format ext2 or ext3. That's how all Hollywood content comes.
I know we ran into an NTFS/GDC issue somewhere along the line (film festival), but I've no idea if that was older firmware or what the circumstances were. I can verify Dolby and Doremi can read NTFS just fine, but I've never tried with more than a 2TB drive. There IS an issue with NTFS going over 2TB.
Dolby supports up to 4TB drives in their DSS200 software of 4.5.x and higher. The 4.3.x software did not accept anything higher than 2TB.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-11-2013, 04:14 PM:
Well I'm guessing that must be the problem because I have two different 2TB drives here and they both mount just fine. Only the 3TB one will not.
I'll try moving the DCP file over to one of my 2TB drives and see how that works. Shouldn't be a problem, I'm guessing, but I hope they come up with an update to allow the larger drives to mount. (I know I know...time for a new server)
Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 08-11-2013, 05:31 PM:
Hi Mike and all
The 3Tb thing sounds the most likely problem, but just on the off chance I've had one report of a server which didn't like bus-powered USB drives, preferring those which had their own power supply. I've not seen this problem with my own eyes, though...
Carl
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-11-2013, 07:36 PM:
Carl - These drives all have their own power supply.
Posted by Frank B. McLaughlin (Member # 6683) on 08-12-2013, 09:30 AM:
I have used a 32gig Lexar USB without a problem.
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-12-2013, 03:45 PM:
Mike
If you are writing DCPs on a regular basis, I highly recommend adding a CRU drive to the computer where you're writing the packages - assuming it's a desktop. Doing this has saved so much time in terms of transfers and headaches with USB transfer rates and mounting.
Even if you were to write to the CRU via USB on your computer, it would still make ingesting easier. The other advantage is you can archive content you want to save.
To add this to a desktop, you'll need a CRU bay, a CRU carrier, a SATA hard drive, and an add-on card for your computer to connect the CRU (Addonics 2-port SATA PCI Express 2.0 AD2SA6GPX1). The equipment should cost you about $250-$300, and you'll have a hot swappable CRU bay.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 08-12-2013, 06:59 PM:
Mike, have you tried putting the program you're trying to copy on the 2TB drive that is known to mount? Try that.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-12-2013, 09:53 PM:
Haven't done that but I'm sure that would work -- I've used those drives for lots of other stuff in the past. I'll definitely try it for the next matinee we do though.
Justin - thanks for the list, I might just do that. I don't create a LOT of DCPs but I can see myself doing more of them in the future. The biggest problem is finding the time to do it!
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 08-13-2013, 05:20 AM:
Or...just add a 1GIG NIC to your computer (pick a brand) and just FTP the content over on the "Media" network. It is faster than CRU load and many time faster than the USB. Finally, you'd skip the extra step of moving from computer to external drive.
Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 08-13-2013, 02:14 PM:
We have the T.M.S. program for our theatres that allow us to do this. I have created several D.C.P.s on the T.M.S. computer and transferred them over to the screen I wanted to play the film on. I guess since you are a single screen, you don't have that luxury.
Great to know, since we are installing a G.D.C. into a single screen here in a couple of weeks.
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 08-13-2013, 03:08 PM:
Steve: I'm intrigued by this FTP solution. I already have a 1gig NIC on my office computer which is wired into the dcinema network. Can I FTP into the Cinedigm LMS or directly to the GDC servers?
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-13-2013, 04:26 PM:
What Steve said... Big time saver! And you might already have a GB NIC in your down stairs computer.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-13-2013, 08:01 PM:
Well we'll have to figure that one out!
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 03-28-2019, 03:26 AM:
It has been 2052 days since the last post.
Posted by Peter Castle (Member # 1997) on 03-28-2019, 03:26 AM:
Sorry for digging this up again.
I just tried a brand-new SSD drive of 260GB and it failed to connect.
It's format says ExFAT. Is that the problem?
I don't want to change it to EXT format as most PC/Macs have trouble reading that.
Should I just change it to NTFS?
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-28-2019, 05:26 AM:
ExFAT is only supported by Dolby DSS servers. Do not use it.
ext2/3, or NTFS. Macs can read NTFS natively, and write with some third-party tools (Tuxera/Paragon). Third party tools are also available for both Mac and Win to support ext2/3, though. For a 'local' usage scenario, NTFS is probably the best choice, if you do not work in Linux anyway.
- Carsten
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-28-2019, 10:11 AM:
Added to which, exFAT support was only added to DSS servers quite late in the day. I can't remember the exact version, but I think it was 4.8. If so, that would explain why Peter's DSS100, presumably running 4.7 (the final version that worked on a 100) can't read it.
Agreed with Carsten that if your server is a DSS, you do your computing on Windows, and you don't need to send your DCPs to anyone else, NTFS is your best bet.
Alternatively, you could connect your PC or laptop to the same management LAN as the DSS and send your DCPs into it over the wire using FTP, thereby avoiding the need to use physical media at all.
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-28-2019, 10:26 AM:
Seems odd since you do this quite often. If you have never used these drives before the first thing to do is try one you know worked ok in the past.
Mark
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-28-2019, 11:49 AM:
I know about the DSS exFAT support for quite a long time, as it was quite unusual, and I remember it specifically because there is a 'DCP Tutorial' somewhere on a film-making site recommending exFAT for DCP Transfer...they were just lucky with a specific site using a DSS.
A quick search through the Dolby release notes tells me it was added in 4.7.0. That is more recent than I thought. So, users of earlier versions may indeed lack that feature.
- Carsten
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-28-2019, 12:07 PM:
NTFS formatting works fine on the GDC USB.
Mark
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-28-2019, 09:26 PM:
The final version of the DSS software that works on a 100 is 4.7.8.7, and so assuming that this is what Peter's server is running, it should be able to read an exFAT-formatted drive.
However, there are other reasons why it might not, a GPT partition table and/or an EFI partition on the start being two that spring to mind. For this reason, whenever I'm preparing a DCP drive, I will always nuke the partition table and create a new MBR one, followed by a single (usually ext3) partition occupying the entire drive. If Peter's drive was bought from an Office Depot-type place in retail packaging and then reformatted using the Windows or MacOS GUI file explorer, that would not have touched either the partition table or any EFI partition at the start, which in turn could explain why his DSS100 can't see the exFAT partition.