Cannot install Roon core

[Alan_McMillan]

Roon Core Machine

QNAP TS251, Celeron, 8GB RAM

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ethernet, Netgear unmanaged switch

Connected Audio Devices

Meridian 218 Zone Controller

Number of Tracks in Library

27,000

Description of Issue

I have just bought a new 120GB SSD for Roon to operate from as the old one died. I plugged it into my NAS, downloaded a fresh copy of RoonServer and configured it to look at the new drive which I labelled /RoonServer, just like the old one was.

The difficulty I have is that once the database location has been chosen, the new location comes up as only 16MB in size, i.e.Roon is ignoring 99% of the drive and only seeing 16MB of it, which is useless. I have tried reformatting the new SSD but the result is always the same.

Chris Rieke’s (@crieke) website has instructions but they are less comprehensive than they were when I first installed Roon in 2017. There is no mention of what I need to do to get round this issue of the drive misreporting or indeed formatting with a small recovery partition which is all Roon seems to want to look at.
Help!

Here are screenshots from my NAS that say contradictory things about how big this SSD is:

The NAS appears to agree that this drive is 120GB but the Roon Server app doesn’t.

UPDATE:
I had an idea last night. I pointed Roon at a copy I have of the database which resides on one of the NAS’s spinning discs. It worked perfectly well and Roon was up and running without even a noticeable drop in speed or performance. I then thought I’d try dropping that copy of the database onto the new SSD entirely from within the NAS’s operating system rather than having Roon create a new database which it has been unable to do because of the SSD’s reported 16MB size.

I formatted the SSD (I have tried both exFAT and NTFS) within the NAS and copied the database over. It went though without issue and checking it within the File Station I saw that everything was there. I then restarted the Roon Server app and pointed it to that new copy of the database on the SSD. The core reported as “ready” but when I clicked the “connect” button, all I got was the endlessly pulsing Roon logo in the middle of the screen. It’s been doing that for nearly an hour now but without throwing up any error messages at all when in the past if there has been an inability for the remote to connect to the core an error message comes up pretty quickly. When I did the exact same thing for the database on the NAS’s spinning disc it connected within seconds and operated normally.

I then started to suspect my new SSD might be faulty so I tried using a USB3 thumb drive. I formatted it, labelled it /RoonServer and pointed Roon at it. It too came up within the RoonServer app as only 16MB in size when in reality it’s 64GB and the NAS’s File Station app confirms that fact! I have to say I did this once in the past as an experiment to see if I could use a thumb drive instead of an SSD since at that point I had one but not the other. It worked perfectly and I ran Roon like that for months.
Is this maybe a bug of some kind? I’m at a loss to explain it.

[Alan_McMillan]

Why have I not received any kind of response to this question? From anyone!

[noris]

Hi @Alan_McMillan ,

Thanks for the report. I looked over similar cases and I noticed that this issue has been reported a few times in the past:

Adding Music To Library spinning infinitely (QNAP)

Hi Noris, Thanks very much for getting back to me there is something strange with how Roon now talks to this drive, its been fine but something has gone wrong. Ive reformatted the drive and tested it with writing and erasing files etc, and Ive reformatted. Its seems to respond fine to other interactions outside of Roon. Ive done as asked and created a subfolder. When I point Roon to that, I get the following (screenshot) [Screenshot 2020-11-24 at 13.37.48] When I change location to jus…

This seems to happen when you select the root of a directory. Can you try selecting a sub-folder and check to see if you if get the same issue?

[Alan_McMillan]

Hi@noris
I copied the entire database from another location onto this SSD and pointed Roon at the RoonOnNAS folder rather than the RoonServer root. I couldn’t get it to use that subfolde and it still seemed to want to only look at the RoonServer directory which then misreported and wouldn’t work. I have found that if the SSD is plugged into the USB3 slot on the QNAP this problem shows up. If, however, I plug it into a USB2 slot and restart the server, the SSD comes up correctly and Roon can use it…but not every time. Sometimes I have to reformat and recopy the database over from a backup. Roon cannot create a new instance of it as each time I try that the drive misreports its size regardless of where it is plugged.

[Alan_McMillan]

Hi@noris
Are there any updates to this issue?

[Suedkiez (Just a fellow user like you)]

When you missed the space in Hi@noris, the tag didn’t work. I am not sure if you replied to his post directly or to the thread (the forum software doesn’t make this clear), but if the latter, he might not have been alerted.

Therefore: @noris any news?

[Alan_McMillan]

Thanks for that @Suedkiez

[Alan_McMillan]

Hi@noris
Are there any updates to this issue?

[noris]

Hi @Alan_McMillan ,

@Alan_McMillan

I have found that if the SSD is plugged into the USB3 slot on the QNAP this problem shows up. If, however, I plug it into a USB2 slot and restart the server, the SSD comes up correctly and Roon can use it…but not every time.

Can you please upload the log sets from your QNAP after each of these two tests, e.g. one with the USB3 not working and then one log set when it’s working on USB2? You can upload both log sets here and let me know once uploaded, thanks!

https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/collection/8i5239cc05950ac07456889838d9319545a82/external

[Alan_McMillan]

Hi @noris
I’ve found that your earlier suggestion of pointing Roon at one folder down in the hierarchy has worked after all… The problem I had earlier was caused by the root of the drive being named “RoonServer” as was originally required, as far as I understand it, since that is the way the system was the set up after reading Chris Rieke’s instructions back in 2017 and I had never changed it. This time I thought of reformatting the SSD and naming it “RoonSSD” and putting the “RoonServer” foilder one level down and having the “RoonOnNas” folder one level below that. Pointing at the “RoonServer” folder then worked, and the drive reported its correct 64GB size. A restored backup later and there was music once again!
The server’s USB3 slot is on the blink but I can live with it…I’l just buy a USB hub to give me the extra capacity.
Thanks for your help on this one.