Is there a limit to total files # in NTFS driver? (Merlin v.384.13/ AC68U)

[dosborne]

Just an idea for consideration:
You could install a proper backup program that will write to a single image file on a network drive rather than syncing. File by file backups are inherently slow, particularly for directories with a large number of small files, which also brings up sector size issues that you could be encountering.

Personally, I would not be reliant on any USB stick backup of a windows window, particularly when running off a device such as a router. You are pushing beyond parameters of device design and power, but it is of course up to you to decide how critical a complete failure to restore would be.

 

[Hale_JP]

Why would that be? When using SMB, the underlying filesystem doesn't really matter.

When restoring a partition, you can not access SMBm at least by wi-fi.
Except some rare cases of very old wi-fi adapters, which may be supported by boot-ware. Well, there are always ways of reaching stars rectally. But I think, just attaching an NTFS-formatted USB-recovery HDD is the right way of doing things.

The driver is always kept up-to-date with whatever Asus uses. There is nothing for me to investigate or upgrade.

Do you mean, I should fill a bug report to ASUS?

 

[Hale_JP]

Just an idea for consideration:
You could install a proper backup program that will write to a single image file on a network drive rather than syncing. File by file backups are inherently slow, particularly for directories with a large number of small files, which also brings up sector size issues that you could be encountering.

Personally, I would not be reliant on any USB stick backup of a windows window, particularly when running off a device such as a router. You are pushing beyond parameters of device design and power, but it is of course up to you to decide how critical a complete failure to restore would be.

That's exactly what I was always doing. But when dealing with photos, or old user files, you always want to get a specific file quickly...There are a lot of automatic unattended synching software. So I reached the driver file limit.
>You are pushing beyond parameters of device design and power,
Why? No. It is by design there. We are not talking about Linksys WRT54G. ASUS AC68U is more powerful than many computers 15 years ago.

 

[RMerlin]

When restoring a partition, you can not access SMBm at least by wi-fi.

Most disaster recovery applications like Acronis True Image support restoring over SMB. I've used it a number of times myself over the years.

 

[Hale_JP]

Most disaster recovery applications like Acronis True Image support restoring over SMB. I've used it a number of times myself over the years.

Did you try restoring from it after actual failure?
I tried.
1. it is not reliable
2. The most important - it does not support WiFi, so SMB is just useless when restoring. - the most appropriate approach is getting the USB disk directly attached to laptop. And no, modern compact laptops do not even have RJ45, USB adapters still need drivers.

 

[RMerlin]

Did you try restoring from it after actual failure?

Yes, several times actually. When I was using Norton Antivirus, it corrupted my boot disk a number of times, requiring me to do a disaster recovery of my system disk over SMB. Worked both times just fine (after which I finally ditched Norton).

I also recovered my data partition once or twice, no problem either.

As for 2), USB Ethernet adapters do work.

 

[Hale_JP]

as I said before, no doubt there are other "dark ways" of reaching stars... most of such are related to lucky coincidences of magical usb adapters, and extra steps, like burning a boot dvd on a system which does not boot... etc.
I, personally, prefer just plug in the USB-HDD, and leave it doing its job without headache.
Copying a photo-archive(separate files) back to windows is also a bit complicated when such resides on ext3/4 partition.

Asus product managers are no idiots (not complete idiots, anyway), so being not drugged by decades of using linux, they understand importance of supporting the most widely used file-system in the world. maybe they are not just educated enough to understand importance of beta-testing and checking feedbacks...

 

[dosborne]

No. It is by design there.

No, it is there so the manufacturer can print "USB port" as a feature on the box

Just because it has a USB port does not mean that every scenario on the planet is supported.

Go ahead if you want, it is your choice after all, but with 40 years of experience behind me, relying on a backup to a USB stick running off a router is definitely *NOT* something I would consider for myself.

 

[Hale_JP]

>No, it is there so the manufacturer can print "USB port" as a feature on the box
Naturaly, it means "by design". Law-obeying manufactures can not print anything on the box if it is not intended by design. There are special compliance trainings for product managers in companies, particularly for avoiding claiming anything which is not included in the design.

>Just because it has a USB port does not mean that every scenario on the planet is supported.
No. Not anything. But NTFS is claimed by design. And by natural sense of reason, there are more than enough physical resources for that. Memory limitations in NTFS design impact performance, not the volume of operations. In the past, such limitations were hard-imposed for avoiding hitting I/O bottleneck. Is there an adaptive memory pool limit in Win10, I don't know. But it was designed to work on 640K systems.

 

[L&LD]

Designed to work on 640K systems when storage was measured in bytes.

Today's TB monsters (compared to those early prototypes) wouldn't even be shown/recognized on those old systems.

While NTFS may be claimed by design, it doesn't mean that it has to be fully supported either (as it would be on a modern desktop using a modern OS).

 

[dosborne]

There are special compliance trainings for product managers in companies, particularly for avoiding claiming anything which is not included in the design.

There may be, but as a Product Manager for one of the largest tech companies (top 25) in the world, I never heard of it In my 30+ years on the job

Claiming that there is a USB port on a product does not mean anything more than there is one. It does not mean that I can power my nuclear reactor from it or run the Starship Enterprise from my router. Lol

It does mean that some basic functions with some basic hardware will work under some conditions.

Not trying to be argumentative, just pointing out that there are limits to what can be done, what should be done and what was designed to be done. Keep in mind that you purchased a router. The hardware (CPU, memory, etc) was designed to do that, route. It was not designed to be a full blown NAS as well, that's why it doesn't say that on the box. My issue is actually more about using a USB stick as a backup device. While good for basic storage, I personally have not found them to be reliable for anything but basic use.

I think this is worth repeating:

Go ahead if you want, it is your choice after all, but with 40 years of experience behind me, relying on a backup to a USB stick running off a router is definitely *NOT* something I would consider for myself.

 

[ColinTaylor]

My issue is actually more about using a USB stick as a backup device.

Are you two talking about the same thing? You keep referring to it as a USB "stick" which to me would imply a small flash memory device. I believe the OP is talking about a USB attached HDD.