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What if I don't have a USB port?


tigs

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I have a board which has very limited number of USB ports. I would like to conserve them. the board has an mSATA and an onboard storage for operating systems.

 

Can I use the msata to boot and install xpenology onto the onboard flash?

 

This is the board I am talking about:

 

Turris Omnia router board

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/turris-omnia-hi-performance-open-source-router#/

 

 

Thanks, Xvortex.

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i'll recommend to use a CD-ROM drive instead, if you can not boot from USB.

 

booting from any SATA will cause problem after you install XPE-DSM, it will become part of the system, and you'll lose the settings.

 

 

Thanks for th quick reply.

 

Will a PCIe/MSATA-to-USB converter/adaptor work? There are abundant of cheap pci-to-usb adapters available. I just wonder these behave exactly the same as native USB ports. I want to use one of these tiny board to create an internal USB port for xpenology booting and the two external USB for hard drive connection.

 

The reason I prefer USB drives to SATA drives is that I found that the file system on the Xpenology attached USB drive is still accessible to plugged to computer. While the sata drives are not. IF the system crashes, for whatever reason, ( I made a mistake upgrading to DSM 6.0, and lost all the file on the internal sata drives.), the USB files are readily retrieved.

 

Thanks again.

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There is a simpler solution to what you want to accomplish.

 

Assuming you have only 2 USB port in that computer running XPEnology

 

you can use 1 of the 2 ports for the XPE boot stick.

and then plug in a USB 4 port (or more) switch to the 2nd USB port, now you get 4 ports to connect any USB storage you want to add.

something like this, https://www.amazon.ca/Plugable-10-Port- ... B00483WRZ6

pick a something like that with the amount of ports you plan to use.

 

regarding the PCIe/MSATA-to-USB converter, I do not know which chipset will work for sure, check the hardware thread see if anyone had previous experience with the chipset you plan to buy. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10267

 

There are lot of other options like going eSATA, or USB3.1, etc... but I'm under the impression you are trying to setup a low cost solution.

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errr...

 

The spec says its an ARM board - hence won't work with XPE/DSM (x86/x64 architecture)

 

you could look at this which might work

 

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 50343.html

 

could add a mini pci to sata board and build a 3 disk system - but given the overall spec, having 5 ethernet ports seems overkill - unless you are planning to run a hypervisor and virtual router/XPE VMs?

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