Talk about excitement… I was setting up the Pi for a backup server and connected one USB drive, no problem. Everything seemed to work and I was in great shape. Then I decided to add the second drive. Upon doing so, BAM! CRASH! BOOM! etc. Raspberry Pi was down for the count and was not getting up. Want to take a guess what happened?…

Well, the main piece of information I left out was that the two drives were USB powered drives and relied on the Pi for their power. WHOOPS! A raspberry pi doesn’t have enough power to provide the power to maintain two USB drives. Hence, drives attached = Pi no more…

SOLUTION

You didn’t honestly think I gave up there right?!?

So I needed the drives connected to the Pi but an external power source for the drives to work and the Pi not to crash.

You get where this is going yet…

All you need is a powered USB hub. I picked mine up at a local best buy since I wanted it that day. If you plan ahead you can probably get a better price online if you want.

At any rate, if you have USB drives that need power from the USB they connect to and you are trying to attach them to a Pi. I highly recommend a powered USB hub.