I’ve searched for this topic numerous times and hate to ask it again but I can’t find a direct (definitive) answer. Some say 2TB and some say 4 TB. Some answers refer to NAS applications. I rolled back to version 2.01.86 because the latest version was acting crazy in every regard. But, I have a 3TB Toshiba drive attached and it works great! …with far less bugs …but still weirdly buggy at times.
My problem is that the drive is full and I want to use the second USB port to add another drive. When I hook up another drive to the front USB port - all heck breaks loose! The drives keep compiling and sometimes they disappear from the list. It’s a **bleep** shoot if the SMP works and most of the time it doesn’t. I am now keenly aware that the SMP can’t run two 3 TB drives. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use the two ports and if so what is the max capacity?
Thanks ahead of time and please forgive if you feel that the question is redundant.
4TB is the Max (i’ve tried my 4TB WD drive, works fine. will try hooking up my 3TB WD MyBook and see how it goes [should be fine as well] )
For NAS … Network Attached Storage, in theory, there is no limit
eg. you could use a WD MyCloud EX4 24TB and it will work fine … but may take a long time navigating through your media (if it’s not organized efficiently) though
For the “Media Compiling” message … that will take a long time if for example you have many files. 100,000 mp3’s or if you PC data (usually backups) on your drive.
You could always turn your Media Library off to speed things up
Thanks for the responses. I assume the answer is 4TB total. I’m asuming that I can only add a 1TB drive to the front port. Hopefully the SMP will work correctly.
I’ve been using a Segate 5TB for about 6 months from the front port, just added a 1TB WD drive to the rear port just for MP3 files and a couple of BD movies. I’ve had no issues at all.
Didn’t know there was a recomended max size. I was planning on adding another 5TB drive on the front port with a powered USB hub for a total of 10TB.
ibantu - are you adding the drive while the SMP is powered up? I’ve seen it act like you describe if it was already powered up. I always do a full (hold power button down for 5 seconds or more) shutdown of the SMP before moving/adding/removing USB drives. And are you using a hub or a powered hub to put two drives on the font port? The SMP cannot handle the load of more than one drive if there is no external drive power.
I connected a powered 10 port USB 2.0 hub to the rear usb port of SMP. To this hub I connected a WD Mybook 4TB and WD Mybook 2TB hard drives (both usb 3.0 drives).
This setup is working perfectly for me. To keep the contents of two drives separate, I used the filter “Folders”. Now I have Two Drives showing up and I can navigate any drive.
