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Does the ZM-VE500 support GPT-formatted NTFS partitions beyond 2 TB?


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#1 assarbad

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 02:29 PM

The question is pretty much in the title. Does the ZM-VE500 support GPT-formatted NTFS partitions beyond 2 TB?

 

It's the first time I am contemplating putting a drive beyond 2 TB into the ZM-VE500, but that obviously won't work with MBR and DOS partition table anymore. But since both the USB host (when connected in HDD/dual mode) and the enclosure itself (when connected in ODD/dual mode) have to understand the partitioning, I am wondering if it can be made to work with a 4 TB SSD drive.

 

Thank you.

 

PS: was unable to open a new topic in the hardware subforum (where this may have been more suitable).



#2 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 29 November 2019 - 04:10 PM

Only for the record, and JFYI, it is not even so certain that a MBR style disk cannot reach 4 TB, at least starting from 7 (the first 2 TB being reachable by *all* OS).

 

This said, the current 500-1000+ bucks for a 4TB SSD still seems to me like a lot (a lot) of money. 

 

:duff:

Wonko



#3 Guest_AnonVendetta_*

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Posted 02 December 2019 - 03:45 AM

@assarbad: Awhile back I did a 4TB Samsung SSD as MBR, using only GParted, a calculator, and somewhat precise partition location. All partitions are aligned to 2048 sector boundaries, on a drive that uses 512 byte sector size. So yes, it's possible. I have not tested it with a Zalman or iODD, internal only. Nor have I tested it with Easy2Boot. My reason was, I wanted to use legacy/CSM booting on a large drive, not UEFI. I have not had any booting issues, all partitions are accessible by all OSes I've tested.

See the pic I posted here for rough details and an explanation:

http://reboot.pro/to...ndpost&p=212592

To answer your question, it might support a 4TB drive, but probably only with MBR. You will have to test and see.

#4 assarbad

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Posted 02 December 2019 - 07:21 AM

Only for the record, and JFYI, it is not even so certain that a MBR style disk cannot reach 4 TB, at least starting from 7 (the first 2 TB being reachable by *all* OS).

 

This said, the current 500-1000+ bucks for a 4TB SSD still seems to me like a lot (a lot) of money. 

I missed my chance, unfortunately. But the offer I saw was 360 € at the time. So not bad. Sure it's QVO, but for the purpose at hand that's more than sufficient (also in regard to the write cycles).

 

@assarbad: Awhile back I did a 4TB Samsung SSD as MBR, using only GParted, a calculator, and somewhat precise partition location. All partitions are aligned to 2048 sector boundaries, on a drive that uses 512 byte sector size. So yes, it's possible. I have not tested it with a Zalman or iODD, internal only. Nor have I tested it with Easy2Boot. My reason was, I wanted to use legacy/CSM booting on a large drive, not UEFI. I have not had any booting issues, all partitions are accessible by all OSes I've tested.

See the pic I posted here for rough details and an explanation:

http://reboot.pro/to...ndpost&p=212592

To answer your question, it might support a 4TB drive, but probably only with MBR. You will have to test and see.

I ended up ordering a 2 TB SSD drive for now (will wait for another decent 4 TB offer or until the prices drop). I'll give the GPT-method a try on the fresh drive and report back here. Of course this still doesn't strictly tell us whether it would work for 4 TB, but at the very least it will show whether the ZM-VE500 firmware "speaks" GPT (which, I guess, was at the core of my question).


Edited by assarbad, 02 December 2019 - 07:23 AM.





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