Best portable and fastest external HDD that is over 2 TB?
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From: Ant on 16 Apr 2010 16:48 >> Good. I assume Firewire is useless and its battle lost over USB and ESATA. > > Yeah. The main exception is if you do much Mac support, can be handy for that. No Macs for this case. All Windows (XP+). >> That's the hard part. I don't think the newst PCs I use even have one. >> :( USB2, yes. Sheesh! That probably means I need to buy an ESATA card. > > Its simpler just to use the USB2 option with those that dont > support eSATA and wear the lower speed with those dinosaurs. Yeah, I have no choice. This will be painfully slow. :( IIRC, Apple dropped Firewire on their newer machines. > After all, you have to do something else when doing a major > job when say imagine the internal drive etc, its no big deal if > that takes longer with the dinosaurs that dont have eSATA. True. Mostly these huge file transfers will be done on newer PCs. I also noticed the new ones don't have Firewire too. I guess computer builders gave up in providing them these days. > There isnt much in it between them and I havent bought what they sell. Oh. :( >> I was told that this needs to be huge and requires a RAID setup for this huge disk size? > > Nope, you can buy 2TB samsungs now. And bigger later if you need to with a docking station. Ah. What's the biggest drive sizes I can buy these days? I see most external drives at 2 TB only. I assume enclosure ones can be whatever sizes available. >> Prices shouldn't be an issue since my employer pays for it. > > Sure. Crazy requirements! :) -- "The world flatters the elephant and tramples on the ant." --Indian /\___/\ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. ( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed. Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.
From: Ant on 16 Apr 2010 16:59 >> What's the best portable and fastest external HDD to get these days? >> Here are my requirements: > >> 1. Easy portablility between PCs (mostly Windows XP to the newest and >> can be old and new). >> 2. I will need to be able to hold over 2 TB of datas. Will need room >> for future growths too. I assume this will be in NTFS. > > There is a 2TB limit in MSDOS style partitions. If you want something > larger, you need to use them unpartitioned. No idea whether XP > can do that for this size. Does NTFS count as MS-DOS? I thought that was a Windows FS only starting with NT3. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS ... "... the maximum Windows XP NTFS volume size is 256 TB minus 64 KB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 TB minus 4 KB. (Both of these are vastly higher than the 128 GB limit lifted in Windows XP SP1.) Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TB, dynamic or GPT volumes must be used to create NTFS volumes over 2 TB. Booting from a GPT volume to a Windows environment requires a system with EFI and 64-bit support..." Am I reading this correctly that one partition can only go up to 2 TB? What do they mean by using dynamic and GPT volumes? Are these done by special drivers from third parties or do Windows (XP to the latest) support it? This is confusing since I am not an expert in this disk area. > Also there are no disks >2TB on the market, so this will need to > be mutlti-disk. Ah. Are you saying RAID? That means I have to carry more than one physical drives? :( >> 3. Some files will be huge as in GB sizes. > > Will need NTFS. That's fine for me. >> 4. Avoid having to use special drivers to access the drives. Windows >> should detect them easily like USB drives once connected for the >> first time. > > USB: Needs 64 bit sector address support. I think XP does not have that > without drivers. SATA: May not work for >2TB, due to partitioning > limits, but may work unpartitioned. Does 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium have that support? That will be my first PC to do the work. Later on it will be others, even older ones. I am confused on unpartitioned part. How can I use the drive if I don't partition and format? I recall always partitioning a physical drive as one or more and formatting each partition/drive inside. >> 5. Since I will be transferring many GB and TB of datas a lot, I need >> to be able to do this fast (not days and weeks). USB2 is too slow. >> USB3 is too new and expensive and requires USB3 cards, but someone >> suggested that using ESATA would work. However, not all computers >> support this and would require ESATA cards too. New ones probably >> have external ESATA connectors? Having all the ports (USB, ESATA, >> Firewire, etc.) supported would be good. > > You cannot transfer TBs fast today. The fastest disks (FLASH) > give you only 200MB/s, i.e. about 2h/TB real world speed. With > HDDs, 4h/TB is about the best speed for unRAIDed. I assume FLASH drives (same as those tiny flash USB stick/drives?) are super expensive. Any exmples of these? I doubt my employer will let me do this one, but I can try! >> 6. The external HDD can be enclosure or bundled preassembled. I just >> need something that works with my requirements. >> 7. Store locations to order from only: >> Cdw.com >> Best buy >> Amazon.com > >> A few years ago, I bought an Antec enclosure with USB and ESATA >> connectors. I don't know if something like that is still suitable for my >> requirements. > > Whether or not, it is your best bet. Other people ship complete PCs > for TB scale data shipping. Yeah, this is a desktop type of PCs. But remember, I will be using multiple machines. -- "The world flatters the elephant and tramples on the ant." --Indian /\___/\ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. ( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed. Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.
From: Arno on 16 Apr 2010 17:59 Ant <ANTant(a)zimage.com> wrote: >>> What's the best portable and fastest external HDD to get these days? >>> Here are my requirements: >> >>> 1. Easy portablility between PCs (mostly Windows XP to the newest and >>> can be old and new). >>> 2. I will need to be able to hold over 2 TB of datas. Will need room >>> for future growths too. I assume this will be in NTFS. >> >> There is a 2TB limit in MSDOS style partitions. If you want something >> larger, you need to use them unpartitioned. No idea whether XP >> can do that for this size. > Does NTFS count as MS-DOS? I thought that was a Windows FS only starting > with NT3. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS ... "... the > maximum Windows XP NTFS volume size is 256 TB minus 64 KB. Using the > default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 TB > minus 4 KB. (Both of these are vastly higher than the 128 GB limit > lifted in Windows XP SP1.) Because partition tables on master boot > record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TB, dynamic or > GPT volumes must be used to create NTFS volumes over 2 TB. Booting from > a GPT volume to a Windows environment requires a system with EFI and > 64-bit support..." > Am I reading this correctly that one partition can only go up to 2 TB? > What do they mean by using dynamic and GPT volumes? Are these done by > special drivers from third parties or do Windows (XP to the latest) > support it? This is confusing since I am not an expert in this disk area. No, the whole partition table can only span 2TB. And, yes, the "MDSOS" partition table format is what Microsoft uses, even in Win 7. >> Also there are no disks >2TB on the market, so this will need to >> be mutlti-disk. > Ah. Are you saying RAID? That means I have to carry more than one > physical drives? :( Yes. > >>> 3. Some files will be huge as in GB sizes. >> >> Will need NTFS. > That's fine for me. >>> 4. Avoid having to use special drivers to access the drives. Windows >>> should detect them easily like USB drives once connected for the >>> first time. >> >> USB: Needs 64 bit sector address support. I think XP does not have that >> without drivers. SATA: May not work for >2TB, due to partitioning >> limits, but may work unpartitioned. > Does 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium have that support? That will be my > first PC to do the work. Later on it will be others, even older ones. > I am confused on unpartitioned part. How can I use the drive if I don't > partition and format? I recall always partitioning a physical drive as > one or more and formatting each partition/drive inside. I really do not know whether Win 7 can do this. In Linux, you can always fo the way of having the filesystem use the whole drive. In Windows, this "superfloppy" format is also possible, but I do not know the limits. > >>> 5. Since I will be transferring many GB and TB of datas a lot, I need >>> to be able to do this fast (not days and weeks). USB2 is too slow. >>> USB3 is too new and expensive and requires USB3 cards, but someone >>> suggested that using ESATA would work. However, not all computers >>> support this and would require ESATA cards too. New ones probably >>> have external ESATA connectors? Having all the ports (USB, ESATA, >>> Firewire, etc.) supported would be good. >> >> You cannot transfer TBs fast today. The fastest disks (FLASH) >> give you only 200MB/s, i.e. about 2h/TB real world speed. With >> HDDs, 4h/TB is about the best speed for unRAIDed. > I assume FLASH drives (same as those tiny flash USB stick/drives?) are > super expensive. Any exmples of these? I doubt my employer will let me > do this one, but I can try! About 10x as expensive as HDDs. I think I recently read about a 2TB model by OCZ, which was priced at $4000. >>> 6. The external HDD can be enclosure or bundled preassembled. I just >>> need something that works with my requirements. >>> 7. Store locations to order from only: >>> Cdw.com >>> Best buy >>> Amazon.com >> >>> A few years ago, I bought an Antec enclosure with USB and ESATA >>> connectors. I don't know if something like that is still suitable for my >>> requirements. >> >> Whether or not, it is your best bet. Other people ship complete PCs >> for TB scale data shipping. > Yeah, this is a desktop type of PCs. But remember, I will be using > multiple machines. I think you should look for a different option, if available. If not, thhis could be difficult. You are right up to the limits for commodity hardware and software. Arno -- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: arno(a)wagner.name GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F ---- Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans
From: DevilsPGD on 16 Apr 2010 20:04 In message <82s4uhFb9rU1(a)mid.individual.net> Arno <me(a)privacy.net> was claimed to have wrote: >Ant <ANTant(a)zimage.com> wrote: >> Am I reading this correctly that one partition can only go up to 2 TB? >> What do they mean by using dynamic and GPT volumes? Are these done by >> special drivers from third parties or do Windows (XP to the latest) >> support it? This is confusing since I am not an expert in this disk area. > >No, the whole partition table can only span 2TB. And, yes, >the "MDSOS" partition table format is what Microsoft uses, >even in Win 7. Using an MFT (similar to MSDOS) is one option, but Windows supports GPT for larger than 2TB volume sizes, at least on the server side of things. At the moment you can only boot from GPT volumes if your computer has EFI support, but this could be solved without too much difficulty by starting with a GPT and bringing up enough of a bootstrapper/bootloader to read the GPT.
From: Ant on 16 Apr 2010 20:06
>> Ah. Are you saying RAID? That means I have to carry more than one >> physical drives? :( > > Yes. Ugh. I guess I will have to buy more than one 2 TB drives then. > About 10x as expensive as HDDs. I think I recently read about > a 2TB model by OCZ, which was priced at $4000. Ha, no way. Employer will not pay that. :) Thanks. >> Yeah, this is a desktop type of PCs. But remember, I will be using >> multiple machines. > > I think you should look for a different option, if available. > If not, thhis could be difficult. You are right up to the > limits for commodity hardware and software. Well, these PCs are meant to be consumer types so we can't go crazy to be like enterprise setups. -- "... human societies send their young men to war, weaver-ant societies send their old ladies." --Wilson and Holldobler /\___/\ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. ( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed. Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer. |