Andy Burns wrote:
Graeme wrote:

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?

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)

https://en.avm.de/service/fritzbox/fritzbox-7360/knowledge-base/publication/show/91_USB-storage-device-cannot-be-or-can-only-be-partly-integrated-by-the-FRITZ-Box/


I tried crafting a link by replacing the 7360 with 7530 and
it was accepted.

https://en.avm.de/service/fritzbox/f...the-FRITZ-Box/

"The FRITZ!Box supports:

USB storage devices with a maximum of four partitions,

Partitions up to 4 terabytes in size,

The file systems NTFS, FAT/FAT32 and ext2/ext3/ext4.
"

Now, there's something wrong with that, because it implies
GPT support. You could test GPT support with a much
smaller test device, and see whether it "eats it" or not.

The limitation of four partitions is strange too, seeing
as that is a Legacy MSDOS partitioning limit for primary
partitions. But Legacy MSDOS can have more than four total,
by using Extended/Logical for the excess.

A GPT partitioned disk has:

1) First partition of type 0xEE, sized to cover
the whole disk. So the partition size declared
would be 2TB (max size as far as legacy MSDOS is
concerned). This is the protective partition declaration,
to prevent MSDOS machines from messing around with
the disk. Strictly speaking this is optional, but it's
provided more or less standard when setting up a disk
this [GPT] way.

2) 128MB partition table storage area, not visible
to all Windows utilities.

3) Once that amount of stuff is set up, then you can
declare a single entry in (2) partition table area describing
a 4TB partition if you want.

It's just a surprise that a FritzBox would understand
such a thing, as typical router-boxes-with-file-serving
are only MBR partitioned and support stuff
like FAT32 (because at the time, it was "free" or nearly so).

A disk doesn't have to be 4TB in size to be "prepared the
GPT way". Smaller disks will work for a test. GPT disks
can be prepared in Vista/W7/W8/W10. The only ugly bit, is
I find sometimes when you try and remove GPT from the disk,
later on utilities will insist it's still GPT when
it is not. It can require a bit of "erasing work" to knock
some sense into it.

Paul