NAS 516 | USB HDD 5 TB as backup space | how to format and access?

[TT_DE]

Have bought a WD 5 TB USB HDD for backup purposes for my 516.

I have in place: NAS 516 with OS 6.6.1

WRT 5 TB HDDs I am aware of:

Booting: MBR does not work, GPT is mandatory

Format: NFTS does not work, EXT4 would be best.

Tried GPT und EXT4 but I cannot access. No USB HDD shown in the frontview.

What could I do to make the USB HDD with 5 TB make accessible for backup purposes?

[TT_DE · Accepted solution]

Formatted the usb_hdd with windows partition manager (GPT+NFTS). After connecting my 516 wasn't able to connect the usb_hdd.

Tried with Mini Tool Partition Wizard. The win partition manager had created a little system partition on the usb_hdd of roughly 100 MB which was deleted with the Mini Tool. Afterwards formatted with Mini Tool (GPT+NFTS) as 5 TB USB HDD. Connection with the 516 worked.

Tried to reformat to EXT4 which reduced the available space from 5 TB down to 2 TB.

Reformatting with the Mini Tool (GPT+NFTS) as 5 TB USB HDD which worked. backup runs since 30 minutes with a transfer rate of 125 mb/s which seems to be not much slower than EXT4.

Summary: Mini Tool created a 5 TB usb hdd with GPT+NFTS which works fine as external backup storage for the 516

Thank you all for your kind advise

[StephenB]

You need GPT for anything bigger than 2 TB, so that is certainly mandatory.  NTFS should work - can you follow up with what issues you see there?

You could try formatting it as NTFS in a windows PC (single partition), and see if the NAS recognizes it.

Also make sure you try both the front and rear ports on the NAS.

[TT_DE]

Thx, Stephen B.

Problem with NFTS was that only 2 TB were shown as available space. Might be that the formatting wasn't done properly.

Tried the rear USB ports only due to the fact that the front port is USB 2.0 only if I remember properly.

Will erase the disk - recently GPT & EXT4 formatted - this evening and format as NFTS in one single partition and GPT and come back with rhe result.

[StephenB]

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@TT_DE wrote:

Problem with NFTS was that only 2 TB were shown as available space. Might be that the formatting wasn't done properly.

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Likely that's a disk partitioning problem.  The NAS "format" doesn't change the partition structure - you might check this thread out: https://community.netgear.com/t5/Using-your-ReadyNAS/USB-Formatting-Capacity-Limit/m-p/1238428/highl...

The workaround there was to format the USB drive on a Windows PC.

[TT_DE]

Will connct the USB HDD with my Win7 / 64 PC this evening.

Would you recommend to use the Win7 partition tool or should I better use an alternative tool such as Mini Tool Partition Wizard to format?

Would you recommend to format GPT & NFTS & single partition or GPT & EXT4 & single partition?

[StephenB]

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@TT_DE wrote:

Would you recommend to use the Win7 partition tool or should I better use an alternative tool such as Mini Tool Partition Wizard to format?

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I suggest using the windows disk manager - right-clicking and deleting every "volume" it sees on the drive.  Then I'd create a new "volume" and format it as NTFS (see below).

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@TT_DE wrote:

Would you recommend to format GPT & NFTS & single partition or GPT & EXT4 & single partition? 

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The most important thing is to have a backup format you can easily read if the NAS fails.  NTFS works for me, since my PCs are all windows.  NAS backups to NTFS used to be a lot slower than EXT4, but Netgear switched to a new NTFS package recently, so that isn't an issue any more.

[TT_DE]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@TT_DE wrote:

Would you recommend to use the Win7 partition tool or should I better use an alternative tool such as Mini Tool Partition Wizard to format?

---

I suggest using the windows disk manager - right-clicking and deleting every "volume" it sees on the drive.  Then I'd create a new "volume" and format it as NTFS (see below).

---

@TT_DE wrote:

Would you recommend to format GPT & NFTS & single partition or GPT & EXT4 & single partition? 

---

The most important thing is to have a backup format you can easily read if the NAS fails.  NTFS works for me, since my PCs are all windows.  NAS backups to NTFS used to be a lot slower than EXT4, but Netgear switched to a new NTFS package recently, so that isn't an issue any more.

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OK, will do NFTS.

I can read and access both - NFTS via WIN7 PC and EXT4 via Linux Reader on my Win PC

[TT_DE · Accepted solution]

Formatted the usb_hdd with windows partition manager (GPT+NFTS). After connecting my 516 wasn't able to connect the usb_hdd.

Tried with Mini Tool Partition Wizard. The win partition manager had created a little system partition on the usb_hdd of roughly 100 MB which was deleted with the Mini Tool. Afterwards formatted with Mini Tool (GPT+NFTS) as 5 TB USB HDD. Connection with the 516 worked.

Tried to reformat to EXT4 which reduced the available space from 5 TB down to 2 TB.

Reformatting with the Mini Tool (GPT+NFTS) as 5 TB USB HDD which worked. backup runs since 30 minutes with a transfer rate of 125 mb/s which seems to be not much slower than EXT4.

Summary: Mini Tool created a 5 TB usb hdd with GPT+NFTS which works fine as external backup storage for the 516

Thank you all for your kind advise