SATA Disk Support...

[davidw]

While I am not yet sure I will actually use this, I decided to connect a spare, 80G SATA disk to my new S95 Telos. I found the FAQ on this and did the connection correctly. Once I turn on SATA in the settings, I see a new USB drive reported that is the drive I connected. But I cannot write to it for some reason. I can read its contents using a file manager. But I cannot create a file or folder on it. At first I thought maybe this drive was formatted NTFS or something else that isn't supported except read-only. So I disconnected and checked under Windows. The drive is indeed formatted FAT32, just like the external SD card. I can read and write to that no problem. Any suggestions? Also, can the drive be formatted NTFS and still work? Anyone have any experience/knowledge? Thanks

Here is a bit more info on this... I find that in an SU shell in my terminal emulator, I can create files on the SATA drive. Looking at the ls -l for /mnt/media_rw/udisk0 and all it contains, I can see that the permissions are rwxrwx--- so I wonder if this is the problem since everything is owner and group media_rw. Seems like it is since I can do what I want as su (since I have rooted my device).

[davidw]

Thinking that perhaps this issue is related to something I recalled being a problem on SD cards on some devices, I tried this app <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=en> and now I seem to be able to read/write. This does require root and a reboot though. Not sure it will stick over time. FYI

[davidw]

I can now confirm that the "fix" provided by the app mentioned above seems to stick over time. I am not sure but I believe it updates how media_rw is mounted so once that change is made, it does not need to be done again unless the system is reset (and maybe after an OTA update).

But I can also state that the SATA ON preference does not carry over system re-starts. I confirm that SATA is enabled and I can see/write to the SATA device before rebooting. But afterwards, the device is no longer available and when the SATA ON preference is checked, I can see it is OFF. Is this intended behavior? It seems to me that this greatly limits the value of having a SATA hard disk attached.

[RISCy Dude]

I think Tronsmart stated that it was done to protect the HD or its data, I don't know why. However, the SATA port on the Telos is connected thru a USB to SATA bridge(adapter), so the benefit is much the same as having an external USB to SATA adapter. That is to say, a somewhat limited benefit, more of a convenience.
You may also notice, that as long as the Telos' power LED is red or blue, the SATA port connected HD will spin. Only way to stop it is to disconnect the HD or use the S95's remote to perform a "hard" shutoff.
BTW There are 3 modes of power control to the remote's power button.
1.)Short press=sleep.
2.) Long-press(2-3 sec)=bring up power dialog box.
3.) Extended long-press(10+sec)=hard off(no led).

[davidw]

As always thanks for the response. I did read the following in the FAQ <http://forum.tronsmart.com/forum/vega-s95-guides-faqs/1400-vega-s95-frequently-asked-questions#.V4MkDB4j0cU>. Is this what you are referring to? If so, I guess I really did not think of my use case as being a hot plug or unplug. Maybe it is. I think of "hot" in the sense of plugging the device in or removing it while the machine is up and running. In my case, the SATA device is just plugged in, enabled via the switch in settings, and left alone. Cheers


3 Why vega s95 telos can't read my SATA?

Please note, because SATA hard driver don't support hot-plug/hot-unplug, so in order to protect your hard drivers, we make a switch in setting, make sure you open the SATA setting, and then connect your SATA device.

[Pauz]

Hi All,
How can I switch on the SATA port in OpenELEC or in any LINUX version?
Thx,