HDD 2T

[dimitrios_n]

Goodmorning,

My HDD (1T) is not working correctly (have some bad sectors) So I am thinking to buy a new one.

I am thinking off getting a 2 TB HDD. Can I do that (I assume yes reading the forum)? What are the settings that I have to do in fdisk in order to support this 2 TB HDD?

According to forum I assume that the only things that I have to change are:
Create partition 4, using: n, e, 4, 97, 121601
Create partition 8, using: n, 179, 121601

Is this correct?

Thanks in advance

[Jocko]

Hi dimitrios

You're right, these are the only changes you have to make in principle.
:scratch Fdisk will display you the default value to use instead of 121 601 (normally it should be 243 201)

But beware, many HDD are now AF disks (Advanced Format : uses as a sector size 4096kB) so the howtodo must be changed (there are some relevant topics in the nwsp2 forum).

Think also to compare the price between buy a new nwsp2 and a new HDD. ;) and have a NAS with more ressources. :-D

[dimitrios_n]

Thanks for your Quick replay,

I checked the prices for a new HDD and a nwsp2. HDD is half price in Greece than nwsp2 with 2T. I will go for a HDD. The truth is that after searching the form I see that I can use on older (sata of course) HDD ever smaller. Maybe i will try that and connect USB HDD for space. I will see.

But some more information for Advanced Format disks. I read some thinks in wikipedia (not understand correctly). The sector size is different. ok
I fount a topic "New Lacie Networkspace 2TB with GPT enabled?" that have some info. If i summarize the thinks here It will be:

1. For each of the partitions use "Align to cylinder" (I dont know what is it but I will find it I hope). that is needed an very important, if you don't do thsi the performance of the NAS will be seriously affected in file writing and reading (it has to do with advanced format disk having 4096 physical sector size and emulating 512 sector size, see internet for more information)
2. in nwsp 2 the partitions are different than nwsp 1. So I will ignore the partitioning in this topic ("New Lacie Networkspace 2TB with GPT enabled?") and create the partitions as described in the manual.

Is this correct?

thank you in advance for your help

[Jocko]

Be careful, you must note that nwsp1 does not support GPT table !

So with your nwsp1, you must still use a partition table set with fdisk! and the hdd size can't be higher than 2TB.

If your new disk is an AF disk, the right partition table will be :

For a 2TB HDD :

Code: Select all

Yes, the last fvdw partition table is :
Partition 1   start 9    end   72
partition 2   start 73   end 136
partition 3   start 137   end 200
partition 4   start 201   end 243200
Partition 5   start 209   end 312
Partition 6   start 321   end 328
Partition 7   start 337   end 400
Partition 8   start 409   end 243200

Note : If you buy a 1TB HDD, you must use 121600 instead of 243200

If you have more question, it will be now this evening ;) (I am in my job place...)

[dimitrios_n]

Hello Jocko,

I just tried to fix my NAS (after a long time from our previous conversation). I try to use an 160GB HD (I had one unused an trying to experiment with this).

My problem is that when I am trying to create the partitions the first can not be started from 1 but from 2048. I tried to create adding 2048 on start and end of each partition, but at the end the blocks where very small in each partition. (the first partition for example had only 16 blocks from 2048 to 2079) when I try to format the partitions, I could not do this. There where too small.

Can you please guide me to this.

thanks in advance

[fvdw]

if you get 2048 instead of 1 then you are probably using sectors instead of cylinders. The numbers mentioned by Jocko refer to cylinders. In fdisk you can change settings from cylinders to sectors and back with using the "u" command (without the quotes)
And indeed if you use sectors then the partitions will be very small (assuming the sector size on your disk is 512 bytes the 64 sectors is only 3 kB)

So switch to cylinders
Furthermore logical sector size of the disk should be 512 bytes.
Number of heads 255 and 63 sectors/track.
That will give cylinder size of 8225280 bytes
Then 64 cylinders will be 526417920 bytes (502 MB)

[dimitrios_n]

thank you very much. I will check it.

thanks again

[dimitrios_n]

You were right. That's the issue.

Thanks