5TB External HDD (AC powered) not mounting ?

[ahmadka]

Hi guys ... So I recently purchased a 5TB Seagate HDD to use with my RT-N66U (with Merlin 374.41). The problem is that when I connect the HDD to the router, I get an 'Unmounted' message in the router's Network Map.

Here's the log that I see on the router when I connect the HDD to it:

Jun 30 22:46:09 kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11
Jun 30 22:46:09 kernel: usb 1-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jun 30 22:46:09 kernel: scsi6 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jun 30 22:46:11 kernel: scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Seagate  Backup+  Desk    0342 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk....ready
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 1220942645 4096-byte hardware sectors (5000981 MB)
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] 1220942645 4096-byte hardware sectors (5000981 MB)
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel:  sdb: sdb1
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Jun 30 22:46:23 hotplug[1221]: USB /dev/sdb1(ntfs) failed to mount at the first try!
Jun 30 22:46:23 kernel: ufsd: use builtin utf8 instead of kernel utf8

I read in another related thread in which it was suggested to reformat the drive by connecting it to a PC .. I did that, but still result is the same.

When formatting the drive (on Windows 8.1 64 bit), I quick-formatted it to NTFS with an Allocation unit size of 4096 bytes.

So what can I do to solve this ? I really want the drive to work with the router as I want it as a central data repository.

 

[abescalamis]

The router doesn't support 5tb, only 2TB you will have to partition the Hard drive.

 

[hggomes]

That info is not correct, the router supports offcourse more than 2TB, i use EXT4 filesystem with 4TB HDDs and it works like a charm, but i never tested NTFS filesystem, not sure if has any kind of limitation but i doubt it.

 

[RMerlin]

I've seen better results using ext3/ext4 than NTFS with large hard disks.

 

[ryzhov_al]

I wonder how many *days* this disk will be checked if it's necessary?

5TB / 20MBPS ≈ 3 days.

 

[john9527]

The router doesn't support 5tb, only 2TB you will have to partition the Hard drive.

In order to use the full 5TB as a single NTFS disk, it must be formatted as a GPT partition. I would guess that the router NTFS driver doesn't know about GPT partitions.

To use MBR partitions, the old standard, the max partition size is 2TB and you would have to partition the disk accordingly.

 

[ahmadka]

Well that's kind of a bummer ..

Isn't there any way to use the drive with the RT-N66U using a single 5 Gb (~ 4.54 GB) NTFS partition ?

I really don't want to use a filesystem not compatible with Windows (since everything on my network is Windows based), and I also don't want to break up the 5 Gb into multiple partitions .. :/

Is there any other custom firmware out there for RT-N66U which supports 5Gb HDDs with NTFS filesystems ? (No disrespect to RMerlin for his awesome CFWs !)

 

[john9527]

You may want to read this....https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/95

Seems like I may have been mistaken and that the support for GPT has been included, but doesn't always work based on the disk enclosure.

 

[ahmadka]

You may want to read this....https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/issues/95

Seems like I may have been mistaken and that the support for GPT has been included, but doesn't always work based on the disk enclosure.

I skimmed through that link, but not sure what direct conclusion to draw from it. Its suggested that problem is with the enclosure and not the hard drive ? .. I don't even know what this means ..

 

[abescalamis]

This link is very helpful:

http://event.asus.com/2009/networks/disksupport/

 

[john9527]

I skimmed through that link, but not sure what direct conclusion to draw from it. Its suggested that problem is with the enclosure and not the hard drive ? .. I don't even know what this means ..

The enclosure is what handles the communication between the drive and the host....for example, provides the USB function. There is hardware/firmware here that is different between manufacturers.

BTW....I looked up the spec sheet on the 5TB Seagate external. It's only spec'd for use on Windows and Mac (Mac using an NTFS driver they provide). There are some reviews (Amazon for example) that indicate problems with Linux.

 

[ahmadka]

Hmm, okay. Thanks for your input guys.

So if I split the 5Gb into two 2.5Gb NTFS partitions, and then attach the HDD to my RT-N66U, will I be able to access both partitions ?

 

[ahmadka]

^^ Waiting for replies ..

 

[ColinTaylor]

So if I split the 5Gb into two 2.5Gb NTFS partitions, and then attach the HDD to my RT-N66U, will I be able to access both partitions ?

Yes, they should appear as sdb1 and sdb2.

 

[john9527]

I don't think 2.5TB partitions will work if the problem is with GPT handling. MBR partitions are max 2TB, so 2.5TB partitions will still need to be GPT. To move to MBR you will need to make 3 partitions, 2/2/1 or 1.66/1.66/1.66 for example.

 

[ColinTaylor]

You could be right, but he's using 4096 byte sectors so theoretically he can have an MBR partition up to 16 TiB, if the kernel supports it. It would be pretty easy for the OP to try both and find out.

 

[ahmadka]

I don't suppose a 4Gb and a 1Gb partition would work ?

Anyhow I'll try the suggestions tonight.

 

[bpearse]

I am using a 4TB WD external disk, formatted as NTFS, just fine on Merlin for the past 9 months. Not a single issue yet. Speed is not terribly fast, maxing out at 5MB/s, but I like to be able to plug the disk into my laptop and read the files without using an ext2/3 conversion tool.

 

[jayboyyyy]

I am using a 4TB WD external disk, formatted as NTFS, just fine on Merlin for the past 9 months. Not a single issue yet. Speed is not terribly fast, maxing out at 5MB/s, but I like to be able to plug the disk into my laptop and read the files without using an ext2/3 conversion tool.

fyi paragon extfs for windows is beyond simple. you click on the icon. and you pull up files just like you would in windows. only thing you have to do is unmount the drive by clicking unmount in the bottom control task bar thing before you eject the disk. takes a whole extra 2 secs to read ext 4/2/3 drives

 

[ahmadka]

Actually I did some hit and trials today, and it seems that anything higher than 4096 bytes Allocation Unit Size works ! Thats the whole 5 Tb NTFS partition with no splits. I tried 4096 bytes, 8192 bytes, 16K, 32K & 64K allocation unit sizes. All worked except the Windows default 4096 bytes.

I also monitored the logs when testing each.

For all ALUs other than 4096 bytes, I got this in the log:

Jul  9 18:35:37 kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 25
Jul  9 18:35:38 kernel: usb 1-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Jul  9 18:35:38 kernel: scsi12 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Jul  9 18:35:40 kernel: scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Seagate  Backup+  Desk    0342 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Spinning up disk....ready
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] 1220942645 4096-byte hardware sectors (5000981 MB)
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] 1220942645 4096-byte hardware sectors (5000981 MB)
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel:  sdb: sdb1
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Jul  9 18:35:53 hotplug[2736]: USB /dev/sdb1(ntfs) failed to mount at the first try!
Jul  9 18:35:53 kernel: ufsd: use builtin utf8 instead of kernel utf8
Jul  9 18:35:57 kernel: ufsd: sdb1 journal replayed
Jul  9 18:35:57 hotplug[2736]: USB ntfs fs at /dev/sdb1 mounted on /tmp/mnt/Seagate_Backup_Plus_Drive
Jul  9 18:35:57 rc_service: hotplug 2736:notify_rc restart_nasapps
Jul  9 18:35:57 FTP Server: daemon is stoped
Jul  9 18:35:57 Samba Server: smb daemon is stoped
Jul  9 18:35:57 Samba Server: daemon is started

However for 4096 bytes ALU, the last couple of lines differ AFTER the line that reads 'kernel: ufsd: use builtin utf8 instead of kernel utf8'. I didn't take a log of this, but it read something like replay failed or something ..

Currently I'm using 16K ALU, since most files on this drive will be quite large ..