Setting up a Western Digital EARS (4kb) HDD

[Meni]

(08-14-2010 08:41 PM)Bernd Wrote:  Hi Meni,

You talk about an "application on a USB stick". Which application do you mean?
I have a Win7 PC available and I have an eSATA extention box for plugging SATA drives into it.
Is it good enough to format the WD HDD in NTFS and is it then ready for the C-200 ?

I hope that the new firmware for the C-200 will include a proper format routine for these new HDD's with 4096 sizes . The current situation is not acceptable for "dummy" users like me. My wife is rather mad on me that I spent so much money for a product not working properly.

Bernd

Hi Bernd

1. plug in a USB key into your C200.
2. choose it as the destination for your NMT apps and let the C200 format it to ext3 and install the apps.
3. plug in your HDD to your win7 box and format it to NTFS, (i think MBR, please read my previous post, cant remember right now) and 4096 allocation unit size.
4. plug in the HDD into your C200 and start putting data on it.
the C200 can handle NTFS disks for data (not apps) with no issues.

about the FW issue - i am with you on that one.

[scsnow]

Is there any way to resize existing partitions, which were created by formatting in A200, to align them without data loss?

[therealwheely]

I have a HDX-1000 which seems to be compatible with the PopCorn Hours mentioned here. Some time ago I also bought a WD15EARS harddisk and installed it in the NMT. First everything worked fine but after a few weeks it started to freeze when watching movies. After a while it didn't boot anymore.

When I removed the harddisk it booted OK. So I started to search for info and found this thread. I have tried all kinds of methods I found in forums to realign the harddisk but nothing worked because the NMT repartitioned and reformatted the harddisk everytime when reinstalling the NMT-tools.

Now I have tried this method and i can say it really works! After reinstalling the NMT-tools with the HDX I checked the partitiontable on a PC with Knoppix. Now the first sector starts at 32 instead of 63 before!

But i wonder. In other forums I have read that the first sector should be 64 and that the next partitions have to start 8 sectors after the last sector of the previous partition.

Now I see this:

Partition 1:
First sector: 32
Last sector: 503807

Partition 2:
First sector: 503808
Last sector: 1507327

Partition 3:
First sector: 1507328
Last sector: 2930274303

I still have to copy files to the data partition. So I don't know yet what the speed is. I will report back here when i know more.

One other question:
Is it possible and would it be wise to only reformat the data partition with NTFS before putting the harddisk back in the NMT and keep the first and second partition as they are with EXT3?

[scsnow]

Is it possible to reformat drive without removing it from NMT (using USB connection to PC)?

[vaidyasr]

I have purchased a new WD2500BEVT which is working good. But while playing video, I found freezing for few seconds. Then when I read the WIKI, I found this thread. I found the WD2500BEVT also under Advanced format from WD website. Do I need to reformat again?.

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1              63     1975994      987966  83 Linux
/dev/sda2         1975995     2988089      506047+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda3         2988090     6907949     1959930  83 Linux
/dev/sda4         6907950   488392064   240742057+ 83 Linux

[halfelite]

(09-17-2010 07:59 AM)vaidyasr Wrote:  I have purchased a new WD2500BEVT which is working good. But while playing video, I found freezing for few seconds. Then when I read the WIKI, I found this thread. I found the WD2500BEVT also under Advanced format from WD website. Do I need to reformat again?.

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1              63     1975994      987966  83 Linux
/dev/sda2         1975995     2988089      506047+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda3         2988090     6907949     1959930  83 Linux
/dev/sda4         6907950   488392064   240742057+ 83 Linux

yes you need to re align the partsion the first start should be 32 or 64

[vaidyasr]

But the drive does not belongs to Advanced format. Its BEVT and not BPVT. Still I need to?

[halfelite]

(09-17-2010 08:08 AM)vaidyasr Wrote:  But the drive does not belongs to Advanced format. Its BEVT and not BPVT. Still I need to?

looking at there site http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=685 it lists all scorpion blues as having it under key features.

[nuke12]

(09-17-2010 08:14 AM)halfelite Wrote:  looking at there site http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=685 it lists all scorpion blues as having it under key features.

Look again halfe. There are "SATA 3 Gb/s w/AdvFormat" and just "SATA 3 Gb/s". Two different tabs on that page.

The "EVT" are ok. The "PVT" have the "advanced format". He should be ok.

Also note;

Quote:Advanced Format Technology (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers as one of multiple ways to continue growing hard drive capacities. AF is a more efficient media format that enables increased areal densities. (PVT models only)

[vaidyasr]

But the sector start with 63 is OK?. I found that may cause performance issue from google search.

[nuke12]

(09-17-2010 02:31 PM)vaidyasr Wrote:  But the sector start with 63 is OK?. I found that may cause performance issue from google search.

That number would be a problem if it was an "advance format" drive but you don't have one of them, so it should be fine.

"Advance format" drives need the start sector of every partition evenly divisible by 8.

[vaidyasr]

(09-17-2010 04:00 PM)nuke12 Wrote:  That number would be a problem if it was an "advance format" drive but you don't have one of them, so it should be fine.

"Advance format" drives need the start sector of every partition evenly divisible by 8.

But as therealwheely mentioned, when the drive was installed, it works fine. But playing 1080p freeze the video frames for few seconds and SMB transfers also freezes, and even lundman's shell.

[nuke12]

(09-17-2010 05:49 PM)vaidyasr Wrote:  But as therealwheely mentioned, when the drive was installed, it works fine. But playing 1080p freeze the video frames for few seconds and SMB transfers also freezes, and even lundman's shell.

I think you have some other problem but it won't hurt a 512 byte/sector drive to be aligned the same way as 4096 byte/sector drive.

Give it a try. What the heck!

[vaidyasr]

WOW!!! Now the performance is really GREAT!!!. The SMB transfers from my desktop (100mb/s) to NMT trasnferring at the rate of 9.2MB/s which is unbelievable. Now everything is really great. Seen a 720p movie without a single freeze.

[nuke12]

(09-18-2010 07:16 AM)vaidyasr Wrote:  WOW!!! Now the performance is really GREAT!!!. The SMB transfers from my desktop (100mb/s) to NMT trasnferring at the rate of 9.2MB/s which is unbelievable. Now everything is really great. Seen a 720p movie without a single freeze.

Well, I can't explain that unless WD is mis-labeling their drives?

I guess the main thing is, it's working ok for you.