ZA plug, NTFS, USB 'Security'

[FlintZA]

Excuse the bumper post. This 'plug and play' device has turned out to be anything but! The hardware itself is great, and as far as just plugging into the network and having it pick up and detect and share a drive, wonderful.. but there are some seriously messy areas.

1. I bought the device from a local (South African) retailer, and as an Auzzie mentioned in a previous post, no local plug :( I was just lucky I had a compatible one from a USB hub.

2. No NTFS support out the box should really be made more obvious. Seriously, who uses FAT32 anymore? Ok.. except MS on the Xbox 360 ironically enough :) I did get it working with the newer 'beta' NTFS firmware, yay!

3. Like many (most?) of the people that would buy this device I already had a ton of stuff on the drive that I wanted to attach. Just plugging the drive in and connecting to it from Windows 7 over Samba, all I see is a single folder called "Public". Ok, so I assumed that was the default shared folder and I'd be able to share my existing folders. Wrong. And then I couldn't just move over my stuff connected on USB, because the "PUBLIC" folder the patriot creates on the drive is seriously locked down on permissions and I can't change those permissions. Is this really necessary? Surely just system folders could be locked down and the public folder could be, well, public. I ended up deleting that and renaming my current base folder (Data) to PUBLIC. What scares me is, am I going to be able to access new files I copy over the network if the Patriot packs up one day? Are those also locked down so access from USB is impossible?

I hate to moan and groan like this, but if I've had uphill with this (and I've set up and hacked my fair share of devices) average users must be completely lost! And the access to files over USB thing really worries me, is there any chance of a firmware update that will 'unlock' these folders?

[BadIntentions]

<snip>

1. I bought the device from a local (South African) retailer, and as an Auzzie mentioned in a previous post, no local plug :( I was just lucky I had a compatible one from a USB hub.



I have heard this from others too. Not sure if its patriot shipping the wrong unit, or retailers ordering the wrong unit.


2. No NTFS support out the box should really be made more obvious. Seriously, who uses FAT32 anymore? Ok.. except MS on the Xbox 360 ironically enough :) I did get it working with the newer 'beta' NTFS firmware, yay!


Though this device is sold by MANY MANY companies, Patriot is the only one that I know has NTFS firmware. Just dont try to scan or format with the beta firmware. It doesnt work.



3. Like many (most?) of the people that would buy this device I already had a ton of stuff on the drive that I wanted to attach. Just plugging the drive in and connecting to it from Windows 7 over Samba, all I see is a single folder called "Public". Ok, so I assumed that was the default shared folder and I'd be able to share my existing folders. Wrong. And then I couldn't just move over my stuff connected on USB, because the "PUBLIC" folder the patriot creates on the drive is seriously locked down on permissions and I can't change those permissions. Is this really necessary? Surely just system folders could be locked down and the public folder could be, well, public. I ended up deleting that and renaming my current base folder (Data) to PUBLIC. What scares me is, am I going to be able to access new files I copy over the network if the Patriot packs up one day? Are those also locked down so access from USB is impossible?


I have noticed this as well. No major deal, as NTFS allows the local administrator of the PC (you) to 'take ownership' of the files if need be. Then just add yourself to the file permissions. Sounds complex, but its not. Here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421). The article is for XP, but it works the same on windows 7, server 2k3, 2k8, etc....

[BadIntentions]

I have heard this from others too. Not sure if its patriot shipping the wrong unit, or retailers ordering the wrong unit.


Just a follow up, Patriot_Z confirmed this device was not intended to be retailed in your market. The AC/mains adapter should work in theory*, but will need a physical plug adapter.

*This theory may require a good tailwind, downhill slope, and rolling start.

[crackedatom]

Mine works fine with an adapter.
Just out of interest FlintZA, who did you buy you're gearbox from? Got mine from BuyComputers.

[FlintZA]

@BadIntentions Thanks for the feedback. When I initially tried to get Win 7 to give me access to the folders I had no luck, I'll retry when I get a chance, looking at the link you've given me.

@crackedatom Mine was also from BuyComputers. I thought a US plug adapter would work (the voltage range on the adapter itself is thankfully pretty much ok for anywhere :)), I just didn't have one handy, and had the USB hub one lying around.

[FlintZA]

Well, I tried plugging the drive back into my PC today (it's a Seagate 500Gb drive in a Nexstar LX enclosure) and Win 7 reports the drive needs to be formatted to be able to use it :( Plugging it back into the gearbox, the drive and all it's shares are accessible. Any recommendations on what to do about this?

[FlintZA]

Just an update here to mention that the Patriot is now no more than a print server for me.
While the print server functionality works fine, the storage side of things (the main reason for the purchase) is just unusable. Besides the usb drive being completely inaccessible from windows as mentioned above I found it was magically corrupting files as they were copied over, and dropping connections regularly on large files.