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sweloop64

New Member
Feb 28, 2011
10
0
0
Sweden
Personally I'm avoiding anything USB 3.0. I've had major issues with USB3 across systems. I went through a lot of HDD docks, hubs and nothing was ever very stable. Random BSoDs, aborted file transfers, etc.
Early USB3 items(not leaving out funky BIOSes and drivers from hell), esp cheap ebay stuff, was like a game of russian roulette, overall it seems to be way way better now...

I like the idea, so I ordered one of the USB3 versions. I'm hoping to replace a rather large stack of install disks.
If I remember correct(correct me if I'm wrong), max supported isos in the _iso folder is 32 if the firmware is old and 64 if you update it... Lots of jog flipping...

If you want a more portable solution, checkout my Easy2Boot USB Flash drive project here which can boot most ISOs (linux, Windows Install, PE, AV, etc.)
It will boot 99% of the ISOs that the Zalman can boot, but has the advantage that you can add unattend.xml files or drivers folders etc. and can install from an XP ISO to an AHCI computer without needing to modify the XP ISO at all.
Easy2Boot was also designed to work from a Zalman so that you can either boot from the Zalman as a virtual CD and pick an ISO using the jog wheel or as a USB HDD and run Easy2Boot and pick an ISO from the Easy2Boot grub4dos menu.
Very nice features! :cool:

For drivers, the Zalmen works well. You can initilize the device in "dual mode" which makes it look as 2 seperate drives, an ODD and an HDD. Boot the ISO, browse to the Drivers foldier.
Windows 7 will take a bit longer to install if dual mode is activated, not sure about Windows 8 and Server 2012r2.
 

33_viper_33

Member
Aug 3, 2013
204
3
18
If I remember correct(correct me if I'm wrong), max supported isos in the _iso folder is 32 if the firmware is old and 64 if you update it... Lots of jog flipping...
I can’t speak for the maximum number of files in the root _ISO folder. However, you can have sub folders nested under the _ISO and navigate with the toggle/soft buttons. I have well over 100 ISOs which is approaching 500GB of space on my Zalmen. I have a Technet folder, OS folder and an Apps folder under which is a typical file structure to organize everything. Other than the toggle being a bit of a pain, I have had nothing but great experiences with the device. Only other thing to note is, some USB ports are not powerful enough to get the drive spinning in my VE200. I suspect that the drive's power requirement and device port's lack of current output holds most of the blame for that though. My VE400 and Seagate 500gb hybrid drive has no issue with low power USB ports.
 

33_viper_33

Member
Aug 3, 2013
204
3
18
What format did you use for the hard drive/ SSD?
I used NTFS since it is used mostly with windows machines. However, I have had no issues installing openindiana, vmware, linux, pfsense, etc from it.

In ODD mode, it doesn't care what file system you use. If you intend to use it in HDD mode with OS that doesn't support NTFS, you may consider something more common like FAT.
 
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BThunderW

Active Member
Jul 8, 2013
242
25
28
Canada, eh?
www.copyerror.com
Yup. NTFS here.

Using a WD Blue 500GB drive with current rating of 0.55A. A little too high for my liking, not all USB ports are guaranteed to work with this current (500mA limit). I scored a 320GB drive that has a rating of 0.45A which should work better.

I looked into SSD's but surprisingly (or not) the current on SSDs is actually much higher than 0.5A.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
3,072
973
113
NYC
I need some help as I'm totally lost with this.

Mine has a 240gb SSD in it. I have it set to dual mode (figured out how to access the menu when plugged into my Windows 8 PC). I also formatted the drive and added 3 images to it.

What I can't figure out is how to get it to select which image I want to use.

This is the VE300 btw.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
If you are still having issues, there is another thing to consider: what do you have the first partition formatted as? If you have the Zalman VE2000 set for exFAT or FAT32 and the partition on the drive is NTFS - you will get a "1st Partition" message on the LCD instead of a list of ISOs
 

sergeant72

Member
Nov 27, 2012
31
8
8
What does that accomplish?
Same as navigating in "USB Connect" and selecting "Refresh".
One practical use case when you add a new .iso into _iso folder, I think, it will not show up as a choice until you refresh/remount.

Love the device, hate the buttons - on mine pressing "Enter" doesn't work reliably (actually, the whole line 3,6>,9 and Enter), almost always takes multiple attempts to go through.
 

BThunderW

Active Member
Jul 8, 2013
242
25
28
Canada, eh?
www.copyerror.com
Yeah. I have the V200 and V400 and I must say I like the jog wheel navigation better on the V200.

Same as navigating in "USB Connect" and selecting "Refresh".
One practical use case when you add a new .iso into _iso folder, I think, it will not show up as a choice until you refresh/remount.

Love the device, hate the buttons - on mine pressing "Enter" doesn't work reliably (actually, the whole line 3,6>,9 and Enter), almost always takes multiple attempts to go through.