Graeme wrote:
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.
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 -------- 2TB of stuff --------
Disk 5 -------- 2TB of stuff --------
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.
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...at32format.htm
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/dow...at32format.zip
On your PC, the steps would be:
1) Disk Management
2) 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 do
fat32format.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