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Forum Discussion
nowthennet
Jul 27, 2016Aspirant
What is the maximum size for an external USB hard drive for backing up the RNDP6310?
What is the maximum size for an external USB hard drive...for backing up the ReadyNAS RNDP6310 by connecting to the front backup USB port? Thank you
- Aug 03, 2016
nowthennet wrote:
What is this SMR business? What does that mean?
SMR: shingled magnetic recording.
http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/seagate-8tb-archive-hdd-review,2-822.html wrote:
SMR, in its simplest terms, is a method of overlaying data tracks, much like shingles on a roof, to increase data storage density. One of the greatest aspects of SMR technology is its low cost per gigabyte; the Seagate model we have under the microscope retails for 3 cents-per-GB. However, SMR comes with inherent performance constraints, and some implementations have limited compatibility with existing systemsNormal drives shipping today are "PMR" - perpendicular magnetic recording.
With SMR technology, the storage is increased by overlapping the data tracks on the disk. This is cost-effective (which is why these drives are cheaper than PMR 8 TB drives). The downside is that when you write to a track, the next track is trashed because of the overlap. In order to maintain data integrity, the drive has to "ripple" the write until it reaches an unused track (or the end of the drive).
For instance, if you write to track 100, the disk firmware actually needs to do this:
read 101, write 100
read 102, write 101,
read 103, write 102
...
The drive firmware does this in the background automatically with a large cache, but this will greatly slow down write speed if you are doing a lot of sustained writes. And there still been compatibility issues. The linux community has patched drivers, and Netgear made some of their own modifications to the OS 6 firmware.
None of these are available on your older Pro-6.
nowthennet wrote:
Where can I find instructions for updating the BIOS and upgrading to 0S6?
Both are in this forum. OS6 isn't supported on the older NAS by Netgear, although they have fixed some bugs that are specific to older NAS anyway. The upgrade is destructive, so you will need to back up your data somewhere.
The bios upgrade is here: http://www.readynas.com/download/addons/x86/4.2/BIOS_Update_Package_0.5-x86.bin You install it like an add-on.
mdgm-ntgr
Jul 28, 2016NETGEAR Employee Retired
Which firmware are you running?
Also if you download the logs what is the date in bios_ver.log ?
nowthennet
Jul 28, 2016Aspirant
Firmware: Radiator 4.2.28
bios_ver.log: 10/03/2008 FLAME6-MB V1.6
- StephenBJul 28, 2016Guru - Experienced User
There is a newer bios available - but perhaps wait for mdgm to respond as to whether installing it is a useful step.
- mdgm-ntgrAug 01, 2016NETGEAR Employee Retired
There is a newer BIOS available for it: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Community-Add-ons/More-on-CPU-specs-of-the-ReadyNAS-Pro/m-p/635196#M762
I doubt updating the BIOS would make any difference though.
Do you get similar performance with a smaller capacity USB disk?
- nowthennetAug 02, 2016Aspirant
No, the smaller capacity disk works fine (but only if it is NTFS by the way). It is much faster and the backup completes after about 24 hours or so. With the larger 8TB disk the backup fails to complete.
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