Over 2TB limit overcome with Seagate SmartAlign system?

[armornone]

I know in the past when using a hard drive over 2TB in size in a computer, you had to make sure that your motherboard has certain technology, bios firmware and operating system to be able to properly address the 4K sector issue.

I saw on the seagate page something advertised as " Seagate SmartAlign™ technology for no-hassle transition to Advanced Format 4K sector technology" It is advertised as acting like a under 2TB hard drive as far as the sector are concern.

It said " The physical sector size is 4096 bytes, but the drive emulates 512-byte sectors"

Basically, I think it is saying that there is firmware on the hard drive itself that fools the computer into thinking it is a regular hard drive so there won't be an issue with being over 2TB in size.

Has anyone tried this on the readynas systems to overcome the 2TB limit on the older readynas spac based systems such as Reaynas NV, Readynas NV+, Readynas X6,ect....?

Thanks

[StephenB]

SmartAlign doesn't overcome the 2 TB limit. That limit is caused by 32 bit block addresses (which means the largest block address is 4294967295). 4294967296*512 = 2 TiB.

SmartAlign (which is old news btw) lets you use a 2 TB (or smaller) disk with 4K sector sizes in both old and new systems. Note that all new drives support 4K sectors (no matter what their size is). Basically all the smaller drives out there support 512 byte emulation in some form.

[armornone]

StephenB wrote:

SmartAlign doesn't overcome the 2 TB limit. That limit is caused by 32 bit block addresses (which means the largest block address is 4294967295). 4294967296*512 = 2 TiB. SmartAlign (which is old news btw) lets you use a 2 TB (or smaller) disk with 4K sector sizes in both old and new systems. Note that all new drives support 4K sectors (no matter what their size is). Basically all the smaller drives out there support 512 byte emulation in some form.

Thank you for the great detailed and knowledgeable information

I feel like an idiot now, I guess I can use the 2 drives I purchased for my computer or something.

I keep hoping that one of these days, there will be a firmware update or some innovation that will allow me to upgrade my Readynas systems. I have 9 Raid systems and counting, of which 8 are Readynas systems, I am running out of space and would love to jam more data in a smaller space.

I wish these things came in 16-24 drive systems and could support 4TB drive each.

[mdgm-ntgr]

The ReadyDATA 5200 is a 12-bay rackmount NAS. You can get expansion chasses for these to take it up to 60 drives. You have to use signed NetGear disks purchased from NetGear. It is noisy (designed for the data center).

[armornone]

mdgm wrote:
The ReadyDATA 5200 is a 12-bay rackmount NAS. You can get expansion chasses for these to take it up to 60 drives. You have to use signed NetGear disks purchased from NetGear. It is noisy (designed for the data center).

I can't use seagate, Samsung, Hitichi or western digital hard drive but some kind of special signed NetGear disks for the unit?

Wow and its so affordable too. Starting at only $10,000 for a diskless system and $20,000 for an expanded out system (diskless) how could I afford not to do it. I would just have to mortgage my house and sell my car. 😄

[mdgm-ntgr]

The ReadyDATA is designed for the enterprise, not for home use.

[armornone]

mdgm wrote:
The ReadyDATA is designed for the enterprise, not for home use.

I can tell by the price and form factor. In my theater room in Colorado I actually have a server rack for my theater equipment so technically I could have a place to put it but I could not handle the heat from this. The room can't handle even the heat from the projector and theater equipment unless its in the winter.

Does it use the same RAIDiator software that is in the home versions? I would assume they are must more complicated than the home user version.

Look interesting, I did not know netgear(infrant) had such high end equipment. It would be nice if some of that tech could trickle down to the home users on a smaller scale.

4 Drive system seem kind of small by today's standards.

[mdgm-ntgr]

The ReadyDATA devices run ReadyDATA OS which uses the ZFS filesystem. So it's a very different OS.

[armornone]

mdgm wrote:
The ReadyDATA devices run ReadyDATA OS which uses the ZFS filesystem. So it's a very different OS.

Do they use the Western Digital Red 2 TB NAS Hard Drive for these or a different specialized type of hard drive?

[mdgm-ntgr]

They'd be using enterprise disks probably (more expensive). WD RED are only recommended by WD for 1-5 bay systems.

[StephenB]

mdgm wrote:
...WD RED are only recommended by WD for 1-5 bay systems.

Yes. Though they do make an exception for the 6-bay ReadyNAS, which are certified by WD.