Running OMV from an USB Key ?

  • Looks like my USB finally gave up. Just one day I couldn't access OMV. It stopped booting at "can't access tty; job control turned off". I thought it would be faster to install OMV 0.5 from scratch than figuring out the problem. It installed fine on an old 80 GB drive, and my LVM setup was still intact.


    I see a clear improvement in memory and CPU usage, but I don't know if that's due to the new version of OMV or having the OS on a hard drive?


    When I tried doing anything else with the USB drive afterwards it was bricked. Anyway, I thought it did a good job for 1.5 years :!: RIP :cry:

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    This issue was resolved some time ago.


    With the flashmemory plugin, using a USB drive to boot OMV is safe and, given a few compelling the advantages, many prefer them over traditional hard drives.

  • Hello,


    I am interested in buying a piece of hardware (Odroid H2) and install openmediavault (OMV) but before doing that I would like to try it on a PC or something similar.
    I do have a Gigabyte mini PC where I would like to run the OMV from USB stick or better a 2.5 HDD.
    Would it be possible to run it directly from USB or do I need to remove the SSD inside the mini PC to avoid deleting Windows 10?
    How can I run the OMV from external USB drive/stick/micro SD without the need of installing anything on a PC?
    Is this even possible?
    I’ve done some searching but maybe not in the right place….
    Thanks for support.


    The mini PC is below one.
    I have 8 GB of RAM
    http://www.cel.ro/calculatoare…-nohdd-noram-pMiA3NDIq-l/

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    You need to write the OMV install image to the USB stick and instruct the PC to boot from USB. To avoid problems you may also want to disconnect all other drives before attempting to install OMV. When OMV is installed you can reconnect the drives and share their content using OMV. All this is the normal procedure when installing OMV. Except that you typically want to wipe the drives you will use as data drives.


    Also note that the performance of OMV may be very disappointing if you use a windows native filesystem like NTFS and/or connect data drives via USB.

  • You need to write the OMV install image to the USB stick and instruct the PC to boot from USB. To avoid problems you may also want to disconnect all other drives before attempting to install OMV. When OMV is installed you can reconnect the drives and share their content using OMV. All this is the normal procedure when installing OMV. Except that you typically want to wipe the drives you will use as data drives.


    Also note that the performance of OMV may be very disappointing if you use a windows native filesystem like NTFS and/or connect data drives via USB.

    OK, I can disconnect them before installing but if USB stick (HDD) has already the image to be installed, where it will be installed? On the same USB stick / HDD from where the OMV will be installed?
    Regarding the performance, I just want to check if I am able to do some of the settings I want to do in OMV before buying dedicated equipment.
    I am now thinking to buy Synology DS218+ vs Odroid which is much cheaper.
    BTW, can I install it on a WDMyCloud storage device? this is the current cloud version which is not working properly anymore.
    Thanks.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    When you install OMV to a USB stick you write an image of OMV to the stick. This is OMV. By writing the image to the stick you installed it on the stick. However it is not yet fully installed. When you boot from the USB stick the first time OMV will be fully installed. OMV may adjust partition sizes and reach out to the internet for upgrades. Again, this is the normal procedure to install OMV. Nothing special. Use at least a 16 GB USB stick or SD card to make sure that OMV can resize partitions OK. 8 GB might work.


    I use Odroid HC2s and they work great. I upgraded from a Synology 411j. I still have the 411j but only use it for backups now.


    I don't know anything about WDMyCloud, except that it sounds like something to avoid. ;)

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