Login at Kodi Home

nikc · 2012-03-09, 20:48

Hi All

Was toying with the idea of dual booting my media centre so i can use Win 7 and Ubuntu, had a quick try and it seemed to not be able to mount my existing media a drive ... a 3TB WD Green drive that's formatted NTFS.

Should this drive be compatible ? Anyone using one with Linux ?

Thanks

Driver 944 · 2012-03-09, 21:01

sudo apt-get install pysdm

how to - http://pysdm.sourceforge.net/

Stranger · 2012-03-10, 03:10

nikc Wrote:Hi All

Was toying with the idea of dual booting my media centre so i can use Win 7 and Ubuntu, had a quick try and it seemed to not be able to mount my existing media a drive ... a 3TB WD Green drive that's formatted NTFS.

Should this drive be compatible ? Anyone using one with Linux ?

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend running your OS on a 5400 RPM drive

steve1977 · 2012-03-10, 03:37

Would love to get some thoughts form the community of using 3TB drives. I currently have a file server with 12 * 2TB disks, which I would like to slowly migrate to 12 * 3TB. Having said this, I hear so many warning messages around issues with 3TB drives. I am using Win7x32, which could be the first hurdle to take? Also, I want to use them internally and am not open to USB solutions.

So, my questions on 3TB drives are:

1) Stability / Safety
2) Compatibility
3) Preferred OEM

thrak76 · 2012-03-10, 03:48

I recently upgraded my HTPC with a trio of 3TB drives. The cheapest route i could find was to get an external hard drive and then "break" open the enclosure to get at the drive. A few weeks ago newegg was offering a Hitachi 3TB for ~$50 less than any bare/OEM drive that i could find. The drive is a 7200 rpm SATA 3 model, so i thought it was a good score really.

I don't have a long term report, obviously, but so far so good. I had to reformat the disk from MBR to GPT, but that's about all I had to do for my rig.

steve1977 · 2012-03-10, 03:51

That sounds very promising. What OS are you using? I am reading that 3TB won't work with Win7x32 and/or that it requires me to show them as 2.2+0.8, which is not an option for me.

thrak76 · 2012-03-10, 04:00

The HTPC is running Vista 64, but the OS is on a 1 TB drive. I'd not heard about 3TB not working on an x32, but that doesn't mean it's not true. You might be able to change the ...uh "chunk" sizes on the drive to be compatible with 32 bit if that's the case. I know that during formats i always just pick the default block sizes, but there are options to choose from.

Stranger · 2012-03-10, 04:21

steve1977 Wrote:Would love to get some thoughts form the community of using 3TB drives. I currently have a file server with 12 * 2TB disks, which I would like to slowly migrate to 12 * 3TB. Having said this, I hear so many warning messages around issues with 3TB drives. I am using Win7x32, which could be the first hurdle to take? Also, I want to use them internally and am not open to USB solutions.

So, my questions on 3TB drives are:

1) Stability / Safety
2) Compatibility
3) Preferred OEM

Before migrating you should wait for the Thai HDD crisis to die down, cost and availability are still crazy. You are also better off running the OS on a very low capacity SSD, and for data protection run the 12 drives via raid 5, 6 or 10.

+ 4TB 7200 RPM drives are now available retail from Hitachi

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...ubcat=1955

Prices should drop to £200 in the summer.

steve1977 · 2012-03-10, 04:29

Thanks, this opens up a few more questions. Will the 4TB disks work on Win7x32 / BIOS or require yet again upgrades? I am still unclear whether those 3TB disks easily work out-of-the-box for my system?

Re SSD - I was playing with this thought, but migration would be quite a pain? Plus, it would occupy one of my precious HD slots? And I would need an adapter to fit an SSD into a standard 3.5" slot? Is the performance boost really worth all the hassel? Note that I am only using this machine as file server.

thrak76 · 2012-03-10, 04:43

Well, if you'd have problems with a 3TB, then those would be the same problems with a 4TB. I just did a quick google search and came up with this.

From this post, it appears that 32 bit will support 3TB as a data drive, but not for the OS. You'd still have to change the MBR to GPT, but that's pretty easy.

For a file server - skip the SSD.

steve1977 · 2012-03-10, 05:02

Thanks for your replies. So, it appears that 3TB and 4TB should work out of the box as long as I don't use as boot devices. Giving 4TB is around the corner, I may want to wait with migrating until 4TB disks become more available / affordable.

thrak76 · 2012-03-10, 05:05

I hate to break it to ya', but there's always a bigger drive around the corner! Smile

steve1977 · 2012-03-10, 05:28

thrak76 Wrote:I hate to break it to ya', but there's always a bigger drive around the corner!

Sure, sure... I am upgrading CPUs since my first 8080, so needless to say that I am aware how fast things progress.

Having said this, I hate to migrate with 4TB disks already available in retail. Also, I got the feeling that HD sizes won't be the next thing to increase, but probably other technologies to make existing ones faster and smaller first.

nikc · 2012-03-10, 08:44

Stranger Wrote:I wouldn't recommend running your OS on a 5400 RPM drive

OS is on an 120Gb SSD ....

nikc · 2012-03-10, 08:45

Driver 944 Wrote:sudo apt-get install pysdm

how to - http://pysdm.sourceforge.net/

Will give that a go, thanks Smile