IODD ST400 virtual flash drive possible?

[remcomeeder]

So, I know the IODD ST400 can work with VHD files to create virtual hard drives. They (IODD) also list the possibility to create virtual flash drives. This is the part that I am really interested in since I work with instrumentation that only supports USB thumbdrives for data export and updates. A USB SSD does not show up on these devices because they identify themselves differently to Windows. Is the ST400 capable of emulating a USB stick/thumbdrive? If it can do that it would be a huge advantage in my work.

[twin_savage]

Welcome!

It would depend on how the instrument is precluding other storage devices beside flash disks.
The IODD is going to use the exact same driver stack as a generic flash disk in Windows, but if something wonky like GP only allowing devices with the device description “Flash Disk” to connect, then there might be problems because the IODD’s devices description is “External HDD”.

In my experience when test equipment claims to only support flash disks and not external hdds or ssds, the issue is with the amount of power that the device can provide over the USB bus rather than a software configuration locking it out.

[remcomeeder]

It is absolutely a software issue. In a special service mode the Windows desktop is accessible and it shows up fine there. It’s only in the custom UI application where they only show thumbdrives. The system boots to a custom application directly with no access to Windows to the end user.

[twin_savage]

ahhhh, I think you’d run into problems with the ST400 then because it is being handled as an External HDD by Windows.

[remcomeeder]

My only hope was the text on their own Wiki.

“…VHD and VMDK (Virtual Disk Drive), RMD (Virtual Flash Drive), IMA (Virtual Floppy Disk Drive) are supported…”

I was hoping that VHD would be identified as a removable drive and RMD would be identified as a thumbdrive.

[twin_savage]

You might be right, let me try feeding a .RMD file into the VHD mount option and see what that does.

edit:

so feeding an .RMD file and using the VHD mounter gives this:

not sure if that would satisfy the instument, for reference a generic flash drive reports like this:

[twin_savage]

oh hold on, if you press the 6 key the VHD mounter changes from this

to

and then reports as a USB flash drive:

I didn’t even know the IODD could do that.

[remcomeeder]

Thanks for testing this! It looks quite promising.