NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

ReadyNASUser's avatar
ReadyNASUser
Aspirant
Feb 26, 2015

NV+ Overcoming Limit of Max Size of External USB?

I have an NV+ V1 running the latest version of RAIDiator 4.1.14 - bought it in 2008 with 4 x 750Gb drive (2TB usable) - original drives still running great! Backing this up to an external 2TB drive USB drive; I have two of these external drives so I can periodically rotate one off-site to my safety deposit box at the bank .

All works great - very happy - also amazed and super grateful we still get RAIDiator updates after 7 years - that's fantastic NetGear - Keep it up!)

But now looking to expand main drives - to the max possible - 4 x 2Tb (6Tb usable).

BUT I think I've understood there is a 2TB limit to the max size of the external USB drive - which is problem to create an offsite backup.

Is this correct?

Anyone got any work arounds - assuming want to have just 1 external USB drive?

Or is it time to by a new ReadyNAS with USB 3.0 which doesn't have this restriction (what is the max USB size on the latest units?)

4 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion
  • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
    mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Time to get a new unit e.g. 314. The 314 works with high capacity USB disks.
  • StephenB's avatar
    StephenB
    Guru - Experienced User
    FWIW, the restriction has nothing to do with USB 3.0 (which is simply faster than USB 2.0). It has to do with support for GPT disk formatting.

    The workaround with the NV+ is to connect the USB drive to a PC and copy to it over the network. That's faster than the local USB and has no space limit.

    Or of course buy a new NAS - which is much faster and wouldn't have this limitation.
  • Thanks mdgm and StephenB - that's sad - don't really want to leave a PC switched on if I can help it... but seems such a "little" reason to have to get a whole new ReadyNAS :-(
  • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
    mdgm-ntgr
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    There are many reasons to get a new ReadyNAS:

    Support for larger disks (both internal and external)
    Performance improvements (this includes external disk performance with the addition of USB3 and eSATA)
    Better filesystem
    New OS
    Apps that can be installed that aren't available for Sparc
    Active firmware development (Sparc is long EOL - End of Life - so it's critical security patches only now)

    and much more

NETGEAR Academy

Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology! 

Join Us!

ProSupport for Business

Comprehensive support plans for maximum network uptime and business peace of mind.

 

Learn More