Problems with new hdd

[gawaterman]

Just bought a 12 TB hdd for my T4 and when I format it through the usb slot it comes up as 1004 GB. Am I doing something wrong as I have seen on other posts here that there is no limit to the size you can use?

This is a nas drive, does that make any difference? Just noticed that if I connect it up to my PC it also only shows as a 1TB.

[IanL-S]

First, confirm that it is a SATA drive - some NAS drives are not SATA drives although the connector is similar.
It could be that the drive uses advanced drive hardware that is not supported by the Beyonwiz firmware; but in that case I would expect the formatting to fail.

I suggest looking at the drive with partitioning software - Minitool Partition Wizard Free should be able to give information on the partitions. Not sure if expanding ext4 partitions is supported by the free version, but it is worth a try.

[gawaterman]

All fixed,formatted it using AOMEI to ext2 and all's good now.

[IanL-S]

Thanks for letting us know you managed to solve the problem.

[peteru]

ext2 is a poor choice as it lacks robust journaling. If you leave the HDD formatted as ext2, you will eventually lose data - most probably the whole lot.

I suggest zeroing out the first 2MB of the drive and formatting the HDD using the Beyonwiz. Make sure you are using up to date firmware.

[gawaterman]

OH no, I've just spent the last 6 days copying the contents of my 8tb drive onto the 12tb and now I have to start again
How do I zero out the 1st 2MB, never heard that phrase before? Does that mean I can keep whats on there and I am just formatting a 2mb segment?

[peteru]

Zeroing the first 2MB of the HDD will remove any partition tables from the disk, thus making it appear completely blank. Doing this will cause the rest of the data on the HDD to effectively disappear.

It should not be strictly necessary if you are using the most recent firmware. That firmware is capable of reformatting a disk, even if it contains existing partitions. Earlier firmware versions could not do that.

If you don't have a convenient method for zeroing out the start of the HDD, skip that part. I'd still recommend reformatting the HDD using the Beyonwiz to ensure that the disk has the correct file system structure.

[gawaterman]

When I try to format the hdd I get the following messages "Do you really want to initialize this device? All the data on the device will be lost.You seem to be in timeshift.In order to proceed timeshift needs to syop.Do you want to continue? I hit YES.
Then I get "ERROR, Initializing storage device...Error:umount:can't unmount/media/hdd:Device or resource busy"
this is despite it not being in timeshift mode. I even powered it down and restarted but same message.
I have noticed that even after a restart I can hear the hdd working even though nothing is going on. Any ideas?

[gawaterman]

Fixed it, I hope.
Removed it and placed it in a usb enclosure and formatted it thru that. Now will restart the file transfer and see how it goes.

[prl]

When I try to format the hdd I get the following messages "Do you really want to initialize this device? All the data on the device will be lost.You seem to be in timeshift.In order to proceed timeshift needs to syop.Do you want to continue? I hit YES.
Then I get "ERROR, Initializing storage device...Error:umount:can't unmount/media/hdd:Device or resource busy"
this is despite it not being in timeshift mode. I even powered it down and restarted but same message.
I have noticed that even after a restart I can hear the hdd working even though nothing is going on. Any ideas?

To disable timeshift, you need to set MENU>Setup>Timeshift>Automatically start timeshift after to Disabled, and then do a GUI restart (or reboot). Timeshift will then be disabled. Between restarting and doing the HDD format you need to avoid pausing live TV, because that will start the timeshift recording.

If you have debug logging enabled and directed to the HDD, then you also need to disable debug logging before the restart, but having logging enabled to the HDD will give you a different error message.

[gawaterman]

To disable timeshift, you need to set MENU>Setup>Timeshift>Automatically start timeshift after to Disabled, and then do a GUI restart (or reboot). Timeshift will then be disabled.

I did actually do that but it made no difference. May have been that formatting in EXT2 or something else because I did notice that the hdd seemed to be almost continually clicking even though I was doing nothing

[stevebow]

To disable timeshift, you need to set MENU>Setup>Timeshift>Automatically start timeshift after to Disabled, and then do a GUI restart (or reboot). Timeshift will then be disabled. Between restarting and doing the HDD format you need to avoid pausing live TV, because that will start the timeshift recording.

Sorry to hijack the thread. I do a monthly extended SMART check of the HDD via smartctl, but first I disable Timeshift to minimise disk thrashing. I find that after I disable Timeshift that simply changing to a different network then halts Timeshift. Would there any further benefit by restarting the GUI instead?

[prl]

I do a monthly extended SMART check of the HDD via smartctl, but first I disable Timeshift to minimise disk thrashing. I find that after I disable Timeshift that simply changing to a different network then halts Timeshift. Would there any further benefit by restarting the GUI instead?

Not that I can think of. If you also disable debug logging to the HDD (if it's directed there), then you need to restart the GUI to actually stop debug logging. But it should not normally be a lot of HDD traffic.