The size of an external USB disk is 200MB rather than 2TB

[pdelges]

I try to format an external USB drive (LaCie 2TB - USB3) with my ultra2+ (RAIDiator 4.2.25) but whatever format I choose (fat32, ext3 or ext4), the size of the partition is always smaller than 200MB!
I tried the USB3 front port, and an USB2 back port, but this doesn't change anything…

Any advice?

[mdgm-ntgr]

What partitions are on the USB disk. Maybe there are multiple partitions and the first one is a small one.

[pdelges]

The description field in "USB Storage Devices" says "ST2000DM 001-1CH164 [Partition 1]", so maybe there are other partitions, but I don't know how to access them. Only one partition is mounted by the NAS, it's called "USB_HDD_3_1", this "_1" is not on the device name which is "USB_HDD_3"

[StephenB]

If you have a windows PC you can delete the existing paritions via the windows disk manager. Right-click on computer, then select manage. Find your drive, and select the volumes on it one at a time, and then delete them.

If this is a backup disk, then normally I'd suggest ntfs as the format, as it handles any ext3 file and can be read on windows and macs.

[pdelges]

The disk is to backup the ultra2+ and is supposed to be used only by the NAS. NTFS is not an available option under 4.2.25. And "unfortunately" I only have Macs, and they can't format to NTFS. I will try to reformat the drive with the Mac with fat32 and try again on the ultra2+.

[mdgm-ntgr]

If you must leave a partition, make sure you delete all the partitions and create just the one. Since it is a 2TB disk you may wish to use the MBR partitioning scheme (see options when formatting).

[StephenB]

fat32 is limited to 4GB file sizes, so it is not a good choice.

On the backup, I understand it is only written by the NAS. But if the NAS fails, I expect you will be quite annoyed if you can't read it on your macs.

You can delete partitions on the mac also, but since I don't own any I don't know the precise procedure.

[pdelges]

Thanks to you both for your help.

I reformatted the disk on my Mac (there were indeed 2 partitions) as 1 fat32 partition (with MBR). The ultra2+ recognize the disk as a 2TB fat32 disk. I could then reformat it in ext4 and now it seems to run fine.

Stephen you're right: i'd be annoyed if I can't read this disk anymore (since a couple of month, I have every week new disappointment with Netgear NASs anyway). But I have access to other Netgear NASs, and it is possible to read ext format with a Mac (you need to install some extension), so I hope I will still be able to read it.

I'm surprised the ultra2+ don't reformat a disk as a single partition. Does it make any sense?

p