external USB HDD and flash drives share

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movx2000
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external USB HDD and flash drives share

#1 Post by movx2000 » 2019-04-16 10:58

Hi,
I need to share via Filezilla server different type of USB attached external devices.
Is this possible and if yes, how?

Lot of different USB HDD's and flash drives are connected and disconnected to the PC and I want them to be accessible via ftp. The problem is that when they are plugged in, Windows mounts them and assigns them a drive letter. Upon disconnecting the external drive is unmounted and the drive letter disappears. In my scenario it is possible to connect up to 4 external devices, which has different letters.
I also has two external USB devices which are more specific - Sony SxS card readers. They use specific driver, and are not visible to Windows if no card is inserted inside reader. When a card is inserted, then card reader becomes visible, mounted and a drive letter is assigned to it.

For the time being I use windows share for these purposes, however as it is well known, there are a lot of problems and bugs in windows sharing. Also If Windows is a desktop rather then server version, a limit of 20 simultaneous connections apply. Also it seems that even when a connection is not used anymore, it prevents in some way other connections to be established. Lots of other problems arise because of that, so I think it will be perfect solution to my situation if I can use ftp share instead of windows share.
In my case I do not care about any security - all is inside closed network environment, not connected to internet. No need of passwords, just need files to be accessible through the network.
Any ideas will be much appreciated. Thanks.

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botg
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Re: external USB HDD and flash drives share

#2 Post by botg » 2019-04-16 12:39

For FileZilla Server a removable drive is no different than a fixed drive. You can share directories on removable drives like any other directory.

movx2000
500 Command not understood
Posts: 2
Joined: 2019-04-16 10:35
First name: Dimiter

Re: external USB HDD and flash drives share

#3 Post by movx2000 » 2019-04-16 12:45

Thank you for your reply but it seems that you didn't understand the task and my question.

Yes, one can share a directory on a removable device but what happens when the device is removed?
And another one is connected to it's place?
No device, no letter, no mount.
How should I share a device which does not present all the times?
I need every external HDD which has been (if it is connected) connected to the PC to be shared.

E.g. I can share a DVD device, but it is visible and has assigned letter all the times, no matter if there is a media inserted or not.
In the case of external HDD I don't know how to do it.

I don't want to share a directory on a removable device, as I don't know what will be the content on the external device.
External devices are lot of, and with totally different content and directories.

Just different people bring to me different external HDDs and flashdrives to bring a content which no one knows what will be. No way to have a known directory which to share. Also I am not sure in advance which letter will be assigned by windows to HDD connected.

Sony SxS USB card readers will be loaded with a cards with a video content shot. It could have standard file structure but different and content different number of folders etc.

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botg
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Re: external USB HDD and flash drives share

#4 Post by botg » 2019-04-16 14:35

The list of shared directories isn't automatically updated. If a shared directory does not exist, attempts to access it just fail. If it at some point happens to exist again, attempts to access will succeed again.

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