NAS - first post & bet it's in the wrong place!

nuxguy · 10-22-2009, 04:14 AM

ok, as i said, i'll bet this is posted in the wrong section but please don't shoot as it's my first offence - here

yes, i am asking about hardware, NAS drives.
however, it's actually about the software for NAS drives. well, the implications of the software.

i bought a NAS drive. on the box it says "two drives ... blah, blah ... upto 1Gb each ... etc".
i thought that, in non-raid mode, i would be able to have two huge partitions of 1Gb each but the literature that came with the enclosure says that, because of the Mac, the drives can only be formatted as FAT32 and that there is a "single file size limitation of 127GB". FAT32 is also far from being my favourite file type.
isn't there a limitation of the size of FAT32 partitions?

i have googled, all the information seems to be a few years old and i wondered if there had been any recent changes.

thanks.

pixellany · 10-22-2009, 05:34 AM

Welcome to LQ!!

We might shoot, but we don't have bullets, so relax.....

You will need to tell us more about your system, including the make and model of the NAS that you have.

In my only experience with a NAS device, I had no visibility into what filesystem it was using internally. On the FTP interface, I saw a Unix-like listing, and I could control permissions.

And what does the Mac have to do with your question?

nuxguy · 10-22-2009, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

You will need to tell us more about your system, including the make and model of the NAS that you have.

Mediasonic HUR1 SU2LA Dual Bay RAID + NAS Enclosure
reviewed here: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...as-review.html

i'm on:
Sabayon 5.0 amd-64 K
Kernel 2.6.31 SMP x86_64
AMD PHENOM2 X4 945 sAM3 *95W*
GByte GA-MA785GMTUD2H AMD785G SB710
Corsair TwinX 4GB DDR3 1333
2x 1.5TB Ssung HD154UI SATA
SSUNG TS-H653N/HPDH 20X
XCLIO 3060PLUS CASE
500W STORM PSU ATX
dvd/cd combo

w/Win XP Pro SP3 on an old Fallback machine (dual boot w/Linux)

Quote:

Originally Posted by pixellany

And what does the Mac have to do with your question?

just mentioning what it said in the manual,
i.e.
9. Why use RAID+NAS GUI’s Utility to perform format?
Because Macintosh O.S. only support FAT32 format, if use Windows OS to format under NTFS. RAID+NAS will not recognize the host device.

pixellany · 10-22-2009, 07:33 AM

Those last two lines simply says to me that you should use the "RAID+NAS GUI Utility"

Following the instructions supplied, how far have you gotten in the setup, ?

nuxguy · 10-22-2009, 08:08 AM

i "saw" it (just 1 unformatted drive) on my windows system late last night. that's when i noticed the stuff about fat32. i thought that i should clarify the bit in the docs supplied about max file size and ask about max partition size before i decided where to go next. if i am going to be stuck with "small" partitions then i might just ignore it's nas capabilities and use it as a usb drive. if it did that i could also have a "proper", i.e. indexed, file system too.

New2Linux2 · 10-22-2009, 11:28 AM

Quick stab at google-fu turns up the following from MS:

Quote:

The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).

and

Quote:

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process. Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup. If you need to format a volume that is larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system to format it. Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk.

2TB should not be a problem.