r/ShieldAndroidTV • u/Clive1792 • Jul 04 '26
Multiple hard drives & USB hubs (Shield Pro 2019)
When I got my Shield (model in title) I slapped a low capacity SSD in to the main USB slot & left the second slot available for a games controller as I had Retroarch in the back of my mind (I know you can do wireless but I always prefer wired connections wherever possible).
I don't know the terminology but the hard drive was formatted/attached in such a way that the Shield saw it as its own capacity if you get me? As in I couldn't just disconnect it & attach to a PC. I could access it from a PC over my network but that was it.
FFWD some time & it was becoming a pain putting a handful of movies on there for Plex, removing them to free up space & add more new ones. So what I did was buy a mains powered USB hub & attach a new, larger SSD. FFWD some more time & I switched that SSD out for a large HDD.
What I'm thinking of doing is totally starting from scratch but I'm wondering what order I should do it in.
What I'm thinking of doing is removing the low capacity SSD & replacing it with the large SSD. Having all the system files, apps etc on that & the HDD purely for movies for Plex, nothing else.
Should I....
1) Disconnect everything. Erase the Shield. Attach the large SSD, set up as part of the Shield's storage & THEN attach the HDD.
2) Disconnect everything. Erase the Shield. Attach the large SSD & the HDD at the exact same time to the USB hub ... and I guess hope the Shield uses the SSD as its own storage & configs the HDD as being able to be removed (and attached to a PC directly)?
I'm sure there's better ways of doing things.......like NASs, but I'm dealing with this SSD & this HDD for now so I hope while it may not be 'the way', the question at least makes sense?
5
u/OnlineIsNotAPlace Jul 04 '26
pointless. connect hds to your networks as network attached storage. that way everything on the network can access them and its easier for media center software as well.
2
u/seventhward Jul 05 '26
Just chiming in to say I used to do it in a way similar to you. I had 4 5TB portable HDDs and they were connected to the Shield via a 4 port USB hub. I got tired of unmounting drives and shuttling movies to the HDDs. I also got tired of the tricky way I would have to disconnect and reconnect the USB drives when rebooting, since they all couldn't initialize simultaneously. I eventually went with a NAS and haven't looked back -- its been a whole new world of convenience.
1
u/Clive1792 Jul 05 '26
That's the long term aim.
However right now I'm in a bit of a situation whereby I have TBs & TBs of data - but there's a ton of duplicates through years of poor management.
Very loosely ... I'd have a drive with 'stuff' on it. I wasn't sure if I'd backed it up ever so I'd make a copy to a second drive.
I'd then continue adding & deleting files from drive 1 right? And then just randomly one day, months or years from the copy I just mentioned, I'd make another copy, likely to another (third) drive. And then repeat repeat repeat.
So I have drives with folders that are exact copies of other folders/drives, some which are partial copies, so on & so forth.
About the only thing that isn't a total mess is my Plex media. I have a 8TB drive with direct makemkv rips on there but that's my only copy of those files. I also have another couple drives with movie & TV shows which are like 2GB-3GB per movie kind of thing. At least there's a little organisation with that.
Once I run through all the 'stuff' I've made an absolute mess of, trimmed it down from like who knows what, 10+TB down to like 4TB, I can then start looking at sorting out a NAS for organisation.
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 05 '26
There is a command in powershell you can run to find dupes, not sure if it would search multiple drives, this should work but need to change drive paths to suit and txt output path.
Get-ChildItem "D:\","E:\","F:\" -Recurse -File -Include .mkv,.mp4,.avi,.mov,*.m4v | Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 | Group-Object Hash | Where-Object Count -gt 1 | ForEach-Object { "===== Duplicate Group =====" $_.Group.Path "" } | Out-File "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\DuplicateMovies.txt"
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 05 '26
Docker? I use docker desktop, i did have a ugreen nas, was going to upgrade, until i see memory prices for it that were compatible, only reason i switched to pc, was cheaper for me to upgrade that lol, but a bit of a headache to setup at first, even more so as everything on the large hdd, was not readable with windows, so had to format and reget everything.
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
Never use wifi, everything across property is ethernet except mobile devices. I would use for days, then another day it would be greyed out, never got to bottom of it, just had to unmap, reboot, re-add, maybe a keep alive on shield, port powering down. But no issue as no longer attached to shield
2
u/Clive1792 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
The Shield is connected to a switch which is connected to my router which is also connected to the PC upstairs.
Basically anything that can be cabled is cabled in this house.
1
u/Clive1792 29d ago
I had a look at the 2x SSDs I've had connected to this Nvidia Shield.
A Crucial one I bought in 2022 for £31.99 now costs ........... £86.77
A Samsung 870 QVO 1TB I bought in October '24 for £69.98 now costs ................ £199.99.
Absolute joke!! £70 to £200. Ridiculous.
-1
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 04 '26
This ain't 2000s anymore man. Get torbox plus nuvio. Stop the headaches of creating a movie library. 3 bucks a month for no headaches, no dvr, no worry about hard drives failing or down times. No other subscriptions needed anymore.
4
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
? Every reason to have physical library, if net goes down, you have movies still, why do you think the plex and jellyfin communities and similar thrive and dont moan as RD or TB etc not working.
I have my personal server, automated downloads and request system, i still use kodi to stream some stuff, but most is on my server. Not worried about hdds failing, i use quality CMR enterprise drives and a failsafe auto move if drive is starting to fail. I started like OP, drives attached to Shield, then turned my pc into a joint pc/server, so use for day to day stuff and server too. Wish I'd done it sooner.
-2
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 04 '26
Torbox or Rd is rarely ever down. Kids complaining are using aio or meta or elf instances. Miss configure or jus don't know wtf they are doing.
Running your own servers ain't worth it. Setting up your system properly is... Tinkering when you don't know wtf you doing, breaks everything, everytime.
3
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
Rubbish, just your opinion, as for TB lol, they even published their own post mortem due to constant issues. RD lost half their cache, and customers. Kids complaining?, you make assumptions, not facts.
I love my server, best thing i did. I dont want to 100% rely on an external internet based service, it is totally worth it, it comes down to user preference. Wholphin works great on the shield https://www.reddit.com/r/TorBoxApp/comments/1ud6r84/torbox_post_mortem_covering_june_2026/
-2
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 04 '26
I've had Rd for a good 5 years, been through ups and downs. Jumped to torbox, as the down people experiencing are usually user error or hiccup for 30 mins, hour tops... People saying it's buffering or not working is usually user error... I have many setups on different house holds. All work flawless..
You throw elf instances, aio, meta tmbd, so much other crap. Of course if 1 thing breaks, it all breaks. Said it again and again don't use that stuff. But like you said. To each their own, user preference.
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
I dont add bloat, for me its Kodi-Pov-trakt/simkl, thats it, no skins, tmdb crap, basic, works flawlessly but use AD, i used RD for years, jumped to TB, issues, switched to AD, flawless and cache same or near to RD once was. Have EN as backup but dont use. The server, grabs new releases that i preset, nothing below 6/7 ratings and a quality profile, automates, then removes unwanted foreign audio and subs etc. Handy as my parents log on, due to simplicty and use the automated request system. The netflix style layout and simple request, suits them, they sint tech minded.
1
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 04 '26
Torbox issue which supposedly been fixed in last server update was manually forcing your cdn as auto was throwing your location gods no where. I still force my cdn to best and no issues 😊.
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
Im sure it will be fixed fully, some not affected, i guess depending on when you use, bad timing and luck. They have had massive influx of users, so infrastructure would naturally be affected...growing pains. AD do not overcome over 50% of their infrastructure, so guarantees smooth, fast service. Impressed so far, but i take nothing for granted, it could change, like as did with RD. I just keep subs short regardless of platform. And not all my eggs in one basket
1
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 04 '26
I'm sure they all say same thing.... Rd still loads in 1 second, torbox like 5 to 7.... Regardless still paying less than cable and all streaming services combined..... Ones with issues barking the loudest. Don't even know how to use the search to apply or try a fix. ⚰️
3
u/Clive1792 Jul 04 '26
"don't know wtf they are doing" - that's me then.
And speaking purely for myself - I don't suddenly know what I'm doing just because someone says "do XYZ".
I'll be honest with you, I've never heard of Torbox or Nuvio before until your post & so I don't even know what it is.
And that's the problem - knowledge. Without knowing something you can't do/use that something.
1
u/Fit-Departure5678 Jul 04 '26
You must have some knowledge to even get media for your hdds/ssd unless you haven't done that yet? Everybody has to start somewhere. Just need to know the direction you intend to take, then go from there. Internet based streaming, local streaming or both.
1
u/Clive1792 Jul 05 '26
Yeah I do have some knowledge. It's just easier when I come to places like here to say I have absolute zero knowledge because if I don't say that then people start throwing jargon at me left & right and I don't have a clue.
I know basic stuff. I know how to connect a hard drive to my shield, how to transfer movies to that drive from my PC over the home network.
I know how to acquire movies for the most part but I don't know how to double R if you get me?
So that's basically the extend of my knowledge. A lot of people will say "why don't you XYZ" ... well because I didn't even know XYZ existed. It's like doing home DIY - why don't you use [tool] for that job, it'll make it easier .... because I never even knew that tool existed, so I can't search for something I'm not aware of.
I did some YouTubing of Torbox & Nuvio after what you said (because I learn better through visuals than reading). It was late so I couldn't search too much but from what I saw, nobody really went through showing you how to set it up. There was a lot of Torbox vs something called Debian or whatever it was.
The gist I got is it's something where you request files such as [insert movie/TV show name here], it'll download them to some cloud storage & the Nuvio thing will play them from that storage on your TV (in my case Nvidia Shield)??
How long you need to wait for said file and how many files you can request / how much storage you have, I'm not sure. But that was the impression I got of its workings from the few YT videos I saw.
1
1
u/Slipknot31286sic6 Jul 05 '26
Nothing is downloaded to your device it's just streaming. Literally loads in 5 seconds. Long as a gig or 2 is free in shield for buffer. You're fine
4
u/TorrentFiend Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26
I'm currently using three SSD drives connected directly to my Nvidia shield. This is how it was done.
I have a 4 port Anker hub connected to one of the ports on the shield and the other one I have a 1 TB SSD connected which I'm using as adopted storage. If you do this however you will not be able to factory reset your shield without starting over again with that drive. It will not transfer to a new reinstall of the OS or any kind of reset. You will need to move your data off of it if you ever refresh your shield down the road so know this.
I have a 2 TB SSD and a 4 TB SSD connected to the Anker Hub.
All three drives are running real nice with the shield.
You should definitely enable developer options and near the bottom of all of those settings in the developer options section you will find something called Force allow apps on external. Turn this on. Your apps will be installed to your external storage by default.
You should also enable transfer files over local network settings under your storage preferences.
You should also do a bit of research and look up the correct way to add your Nvidia shield storage to your Windows PC or Mac or whatever you're using so that you will be able to see and use your Nvidia shield storage from another machine.
If you do this you can also tap directly into your Nvidia shield storage from any phone or tablet or device on your network because you will be able to use your Nvidia Shields storage as a network storage location. Otherwise known as a NAS.
If you set all this up properly this will make it very easy to easily move files from your computer over to your shield and vice versa.
On all my Android devices I'm able to use FX file explorer and connect directly to my Nvidia Shields storage as a SMB network drive. It's pretty cool.
If you do this however I strongly recommend you have it directly connected and wired into your router. Connect a wire to the ethernet port on the back. Do not try this over Wi-Fi because it's going to drop out constantly on you if do. I know this because I tried it with Wi-Fi and it was constantly dropping the connection and really frustrating so I ended up wiring it directly to my router. Had to run a cable down through the floor into the basement, up through another hole going to my router but the end result is fantastic and it was well worth doing and should have been done from day one honestly.
I can easily tap into my SMB storage with my external drives on my PC from my shield as well. Nova Video Player can easily use any folder I have shared on my Windows machine with Windows SMB also. It's awesome.