This is an offshoot of the Fritzbox query.
OS is W10 32 bit, and I vaguely recall that the maximum drive size is
2TB so, if I attach an external 4TB hard disk and make 2 x 2TB partitions, will that work and be usable as two separate 2TB drives? Son has 64 bit system, so could set up the disk on his PC.
I think so. IIRC 32 bit tools will actually be able to partition it ...
See follow-up to that query - V7.2 is out with later SMB version support
With 4kB clusters, the maximum partition size is 16TB, regardless of whether windows is 32 or 64 bit, but to use a disk larger than 2TB, it needs to be partitioned as GPT rather than MBR, and if you want the disk to be bootable you need to have UEFI rather than BIOS.
You can go *much* bigger with larger clusters, but you wouldn't generally on a home PC.
In message , Andy Burns writes
Excellent, thanks. I'm looking at, for example, eBay item 333315265003 which is a Seagate Expansion 4TB 5900 RPM USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive, and Googling tells me I can use Windows to change a disk from MBR to GPT partition as long as the disk contains no partitions or volumes, so should be good to go (no need for disk to be bootable). He says, hopefully.
If you can't partition in windows, then GParted can usually handle it:
In message , John Rumm writes
Thanks John. Just noticed that the drive I'm looking at is a fiver cheaper via Amazon, too.
The answer is no.
It's got nothing to do with bitness of OSes.
I can write 32 bit code here, where there is an fopen64() and similar, having 64bit fields for things. In other words, "large objects" have been supported in software for some time. I can do that in MinGW32.
However, crusty other layers in the stack, stuff closer to the hardware, is not easily persuaded. In that layer, compatibility is favored over extending capability.
*******There are two partitioning schemes.
Legacy MSDOS (partition table in MBR) 32 bit fields, limit 2.2TB or so GUID Partition Table (GPT), 128MB partition table >2.2TB possible and easy to do
There is a handler for OSes like Windows XP era, which is "Acronis Capacity Manager" and driver. It splits a 4GB disk into two Legacy MSDOS pieces. The driver declares your single disk as
Disk 2 Disk 5
That's a kind of cheat, which gives access to the whole disk, but only the first portion (Disk 2) could be booted from. Disk 5 is "virtual" but is not labeled as virtual. But, Disk 5 only "exists" once the Acronis driver fires up. The MBR for Disk 5 is at the 2TB mark on the 4TB disk drive.
Now, consider your router with its file serving extension. What does it know about ? Only Legacy MSDOS. And maybe FAT32 file systems.
If you use a RaspberryPI or similar device, you can run various NAS softwares and pretend to be heroic while doing so. Whereas the poor little router box, people don't sit around every day making new OSes for those with extended capabilities. Yes, there are a few firmwares available, but the resources inside the router may not be suited to efficient handling of such chores. If the router has 8MB of RAM, you can't do Bill Gates tax return on there.
There are even some "powerful" routers, routers with multiple ARM cores. The problem is still one of software availability - is the manufacturer clever or not ? Some manufacturers of routers are so lazy, they use the firmware the SOC maker produced as "demo code". Which means not only is the firmware crap, it might even have easily exploited security issues.
*******If I had to place a bet, the 4TB drive connected to the Fritz box - 2TB will be accessible in some fashion. If you're lucky enough to have a router with GPT capability, then the whole thing would be visible and you could declare a single 4TB partition if you wanted.
Note that a few of the older backup softwares, have a
2.2TB limit on transfers. With the right software, you'll be able to back up your single 4TB partition.The next issue would be file system. FAT32/NTFS/ExFat. The tradition would be FAT32 on such router boxes, with a 4GB max file size, and some sort of limits on files and folders. The cluster size makes larger storage possible. In such cases, you can use the Ridgecrop formatter, if that's what the router demands as a file system.
The Ridgecrop formatter can do FAT32 up to 2TB.
On your PC, the steps would be:
1) Disk Management2) Create 2TB partition. Format it NTFS or leave it RAW. What you want at this point, is a "drive letter". The partition must have a drive letter for the next step to work.
3) Now, after the Disk Management part is done, you dofat32format.exe X:
and that puts a very large cluster size of FAT32 on X: for you. Now, plug the drive into the router.
Windows has a piddly limit for FAT32, if that's what the router wants. Whereas the Ridgecrop formatter will take an NTFS partition, make it FAT32, and away you go. Windows will not offer FAT32 as an option, if a partition is too big.
Some day, you'll be using this 4TB drive for something else, and then the entire capacity will be your plaything. For example, the disks I did have "prepped" with Acronis, I've since converted those to GPT and that works a lot better in the computer room (cross platform). There's no Acronis for Linux, and if you do a loopback mount at a high offset, the Linux driver runs at 10MB/sec, which is mighty irritating. Switching to GPT (not suitable for router, good for computers) was my answer.
Paul
For linux fans, I discovered that whilst I could use a partition > 2TB on the host machine, NFS was unable to export it as a networkable drive. I didn't search further, I just went to 1.9TB....:-)
Thank you - all of which sounds terrifying.
Having established that I can see and use multiple USB devices attached to the router, the answer must be to purchase a 2TB drive and, if/when necessary, add a second 2TB drive.
The answer is of course yes
That should work, I'm not sure about the limit since I am sure a friends drive was over 2tb and I could read it on Windows 7 64bit, but maybe it depends on how it was prepared. Brian
Check to see if the disk is online.
*******C:\> diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565 list disk
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ---------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 466 GB 0 B
That is GPT partitioned and the entire drive can then be one big partition. My 6TB backup drive features a single 6TB partition. And it works on Vista+ .
To see the partition type used (legacy MSDOS partition or GUID Partition Table GPT partition), Microsoft makes it a bit of a nuisance. You can do Properties on the item in a row of Disk Management, but you have to select the correct tab in Properties to see GPT.
An excellent utility, is disktype.
I use the Cygwin version, an EXE and two Cygwin DLLs. And that runs in WinXP too.
disktype.exe /dev/sda # as Administrator, disk identifiers are # in Disk Management row order, sda is the # first drive in the table.
Another tool that can scan a drive, but is a royal pain to use, is Testdisk. I use it for everything except the intended purpose. For example, today, I copied the contents of the ESP (boot files) off a drive, for examination on a second computer. This is useful for some forms of boot problems. I would not be able to get at those boot files, without that tool.
We're still decades away from "intelligent assistants".
Like, just figuring out whether a disk is "online" or "offline", that's a nuisance. If you put a disk "offline", in an effort to Safely Remove, you have to remember to change the status back and put it "Online" again the next time. Otherwise, it'll stay in Offline state forever.
Paul
That's a yes to part of the question... yes windows can handle 4TB, however we are talking about a device acting as a NAS providing said space as a network share. That requires rather more than just the final client OS getting it right.
(although to be fair the Fritzbox does seem to be pretty competent and flexible from what little I have read)
Are we? I thought the discussion had moved on to direct connection to a windows PC ...
Sorry! Doubtless me causing confusion. Current situation is a Toshiba
1TB USB powered drive (not SSD) is attached to the router (Fritzbox), together with two USB sticks, via a USB splitter. I can see, and have mapped, all three, which I access from my laptop, using wi-fi. The USB sticks are only there to see if I can access them.Laptop is running W10 32 bit and, this is where I am still unclear, if I buy a 4TB drive and plug it into the router, am I likely to be able to see, access and generally use it via my laptop? A drive is 80-90 pounds, so I don't want to buy one with fingers crossed. Perhaps I should buy a 2TB drive and add a second 2TB drive in the future, if required.
Fritzbox Model Number ???
Paul
Assuming all fritz!boxen have the same support, the 4TB disk with maximum 4 partitions (which suggests only MBR rather than GPT support to me, if so you'd need to format it as 2x2TB)
7530 PN
Not sure what the PN means.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.