Best portable and fastest external HDD that is over 2 TB?
in [Storage]
|
Prev: 2010 Congress on Computer Applications and Computational Science, Singapore [EI Compendex,ISTP,IEEE Xplore]
Next: ibm
From: Ant on 16 Apr 2010 20:08 >>> 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. I don't know what those are, but I can tell you that I am not booting from these external drives. Just need to connect to it in Windows and copy files. -- "... 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.
From: Rod Speed on 17 Apr 2010 00:58 DevilsPGD wrote: > 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. He doesnt appear to need to be able to boot from that >2TB drive.
From: Arno on 17 Apr 2010 06:07 DevilsPGD <Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage(a)crazyhat.net> wrote: > 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. Ah, good to know. Does this require a "server" Windows version? > 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. Maybe using a smaller boot disk? 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: Arno on 17 Apr 2010 07:40 Ant <ANTant(a)zimage.com> wrote: >>> 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. There are some "schleppable" external RAID enclosures that can give you more than 2TB. For example the WD" "MyBook Studio Edition II, 4TB Quad Interface, gives you 4TB with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, eSATA at around $500. It weights 3kg, though. LaChi has several 4TB external drives at around $700 and $1000, but they have very bad customer reviews at my supplier, for example "very loud, heavy and big, designed by idiots". You can also get a buffalo drive station Quattro with 4 SATA drives (hence 4 times the individual faulire risk in a RAID0), at 6kg and around $800. With blank 2 disk enclosures, you need to be careful to get one that works with 2TB drives. Apparently Sarotech has problems with 2TB drives and really bad (i.e. no) tech support. Several people like the AC Ryan AluBoxDuo HD51776 ONE ($90), but it seems this one does not habe RAID and shows up as two drives. I think you hsould go with commodity USB drives and carry several. They still need to be handled carefully, unless you take notebook drives (currently up to 500GB/drive) or do not care about killing them occasionally. > >> 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. Thought so ;-) >>> 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. You only get enterprise performance with enterprise setups. No way around that. 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 17 Apr 2010 13:10
In message <82tfj8F1q9U1(a)mid.individual.net> Arno <me(a)privacy.net> was claimed to have wrote: >DevilsPGD <Still-Just-A-Rat-In-A-Cage(a)crazyhat.net> wrote: >> 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. > >Ah, good to know. Does this require a "server" Windows version? I've got a GPT disk mounted on my W7 box right now, although I haven't actually tried to go over 2TB yet (but I might down the road, it is on a RAID Controller that supports expansion) >> 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. > >Maybe using a smaller boot disk? That too. |