3 TB Hard Drives....

[Bob Squires Jr]

Here is a little something that, if you are not aware of already, you should be, regarding 3 TB (and larger) hard drives.
They are big, they are fast and they run cool. (I have 2 Hitachis)
Formatting them for use generally requires a 64 Bit OS or a formatting tool that will provide creating a GUID partition.
(It will look like a 750 GB drive if you don't)

Once partitioned & formatted out to 3 TB, the drive can be used on a 64 bit system perfectly.
So... I tried it on a 32 Bit OS (Win 7 32) and lo and behold, it copies, reads etc. just fine.

BUT! And this is a HUGE but!!!

I copied everything I owned to the 3 TB drive.
Just under 2 TB.
It read and wrote fine under 32 bit.

I wasn't thinking... If I would have thought about it, I would have continued under 64 Bit ONLY!
But NOOOOO! I stayed on the 32 Bit system.
All of a sudden, as I was adding to the drive, it quit with an "invalid drive" error.
So I went to delete what I copied and tried to start over.
No go...
So I rebooted.
The drive wasn't there.
I bring up Admin tools and lo and behold... the drive completely de-partitioned itself and
I lost everything I owned. YUP! 7 years of collecting Quad stuff down the toilet.
POOF, Gone, Unrecoverable.

I thought the disc was shot but what happened is that 32 bit systems can see the full 3 TB but cannot write to all of it.
Once I wrote beyond the 32 bit 2 TB disc size limit, it over-wrote the partition table thus blanking the drive
permanently.

No, I did not have a backup... I was filling the disc before I made a dupe to another 3 TB backup.
(like an ass, I should have matched it as I was going!)
Thanks to friends, I will be able to piece most of my stuff back together.

The purpose of this message?
If you have one of these monsters... format and write in 64 bit only.
If you must access it in 32 Bit... READ ONLY!!!!
If you hit that limit and overwrite the partition table... you are royally screwed!
And no... your data recovery programs do not work... I tried.

Just a bit of worthless info.

Don't be a tool like me, back up your stuff and don't screw with these drives unless you know what you are doing.
I know what I'm doing and I f-ed up because I got cocky.
Better yet to have two 2 TB drives if you are straight 32 bit.
I lost everything but may get most of it back.
What I won't get back was 5 weeks of DVD-A & SACD to BDA conversions I did that no one has copies of
so I have to re-do them all over again.
So far I have like 35 of my 60 or so, not counting all the copying I'll have to do to re-compile my collection.
What a pain in the ass!

-Bob

 

[winopener]

Me sticking to 2TB HD... after all, it's not a big deal to have two HD insead of one, considering all the compatibility problems with the 32-bit world.

 

[Odys]

Sorry to hear about your problem Bob, but thanks for sharing and for the advice. I'm a compulsive back-upper, to the point where I have one backup at home and another in a safety deposit box, which I swap out every month or so. I also back up non-secure type items on Dropbox, I don't trust the Cloud with security-sensitive documents. Good luck in getting your data back.

 

[JonUrban]

E-Gads!!!

I have one of those 3TB USB deals. I'm going to have to check it and see how I formatted it. My OS is 64bit, but I can't remember what I did to it, other than formatting it if I even did that. I may have used the default.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[phydo]

Bob:

I know it sounds trite but I am sorry for your loss but grateful for your willingness to share with us what happened.

Justin

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

Thanks, but most of what was horribly important to me I have either on DVD-As or DTS CDs or...
I have people who have most of what I lost.
(Or I own all the originals! )

I'd just hate to see someone else's collection go sour on them from this apparently common, (google it!!)
yet avoidable user error that they never tell you about when you buy the drives.

I won't make that mistake again I'll shit you not!
And I should know better...

-Bob

 

[jefe1]

I have been looking to buy a 3T back up drive and your email is a shock to me but very timely. I am on a 32 bit os, having failed to get win 7 64 to install over my old 32 bit xp.I called microsoft but was basically told so what our 32 bit win 7 is great....
Anyways I had never heard of this issue. Maybe I should just buy a 2T drive.

 

[mandrix]

That sucks. I have 2 2TB drives. But for my Gigabyte P67 MOBO to correctly recognize 3TB drives I have to install a special 3TB unlock driver/utility.
Could that be your problem?

 

[peterzach]

Bob, thanks for posting and sorry to hear about all the extra work you have had to do to recover everything.
It was a timely note as I need to backup stuff as well and I am also still on a 32 bit pc.

Not to derail this topic but I was wondering if anyone here backs up a mac and a windows pc on same hard drive, is that possible as I don't know a lot about macs and i need to backup some stuff from the mac and haven't gotten to it yet.
I think NTFS isn't read by Macs so was wondering what people do.

peter

 

[kap'n krunch]

(DISCALIMER , I'M A MAC USER)
I got a Lacie 1TB a couple years ago and partitioned it.
Now we got a 3TB from WD but have not partitioned it, only using it as "Time Machine"...ALLES IS OK,,,We can use them on both a 2005 G5 and a 2008 iMac...

Sorry Bob!!!That sucks!!!(why don't you get a Mac?)

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

(DISCALIMER , I'M A MAC USER)

(why don't you get a Mac?)

Because I have tons of PC programs and would have to spend thousands to buy the Mac versions
and... every time Mac changes an OS you seem to have to buy all new programs.
Other than that, they DO run better.



-B

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

That sucks. I have 2 2TB drives. But for my Gigabyte P67 MOBO to correctly recognize 3TB drives I have to install a special 3TB unlock driver/utility.
Could that be your problem?

No, my board recognizes them fine and you can either get a special utility to partition and format it
or as I did, I just went to my Win 7 64 Bit side and did it just fine.
I haven't tried to partition it into 2 separate 1.5s or whatever so I don't know what it will do.
I just know it gets pissy if you try to do 3 TB in 32 Bit!

All 32 Bit OSes have a 2.2 TB limit no matter what drivers or equipment you use.
(Just like WAV files can be no bigger than 4 GB unless you use W64s or the 32 Bit OS 3.4 GB memory limit.)

It will READ the drive but writing to it after you hit the limit overwrites the GUID partition table.
Then you're screwed.
I think even Linux 32 bit has the same problem so a 32 bit Mac OS would run into it as well.

Has to be 64 Bit, for drives over 2.2 and for more than 3.4 GB of memory.
Now... if they'd make the damned programs in 64 bit native, I'd be totally in business.
Don't forget, YES, 64 Bit IS backwards compatible BUT 32 bit programs run slower under 32 Bit emulation in 64.
Decisions, decisions!

-B

 

[kap'n krunch]

Because I have tons of PC programs and would have to spend thousands to buy the Mac versions
and... every time Mac changes an OS you seem to have to buy all new programs.
Other than that, they DO run better.



-B

Well, sorry I didn't make myself clear...I'm a Mac AND PC user (only that my only working PC was put out of commission on our last move-BUT I do want another PC, cause there ain't no way in hades that I can do conversions on Mac only! The thing is that it'd have to be Win XP, cause that's how the programs I have run at)...so you get the best of both worlds!

I use the Macs to record and clean the recordings, the PC for conversions and authoring...

And AFAIK, I have Logic Pro on both Macs, one is a Motorola chip G5 from 2005 with Leopard OS and the other is an Intel chip iMac running Snow Leopard (haven't jumped to the Lion OS yet!, which can only run on the iMac), and programs are usually backwards compatible, more so than Windows XP->Vista->7...I think (correct me if I'm wrong!)

They do run better but it don't mean they're trouble free...the iMac, has had the Graphic Cards changed, the HD changed, etc, but, there's this GREAT thing called "Apple Care" that WHATEVER happens to your Mac for 2 1/2 years after that (and they MEAN whatever!!-dropped, damaged, etc. )they will repair it..and it only costs $250.. We got it for BOTH the G5 which I bought in the US , and flew over (insured) with us, and for the iMac....Didn't use it for the G5 but we did use it for the iMac, so it's paid for itself quite a bit...

The point is , to have the Mac as your main computer and the PCs for the secondary stuff...AND have a backup HD for each one
(didn't mean to hijack the thread..)

 

[Odys]

Because I have tons of PC programs and would have to spend thousands to buy the Mac versions
and... every time Mac changes an OS you seem to have to buy all new programs.
Other than that, they DO run better.



-B

I'm a Mac guy too, and I resisted making the change because I thought I'd have to pay a fortune to replace my software too. When I finally did make the change about 4 years ago, my only regret was not making it sooner. There are lots of free Mac programs out there, far more than on Windows. I replaced Office with a free program called NeoOffice (now a $10 "donation"). I was able to switch my Photoshop software to the Mac platform for a $75 fee, way cheaper than having to buy a new software package. I've gone through 3 OS changes and never had to purchase new software, just had to wait on a couple to be updated to be compatible. Come on in, the water's fine.

 

[ChickenVenus]

I think i'll stick with 2 x 2TB's for now (plus backups). This is not something I would enjoy accidently doing.

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

I think i'll stick with 2 x 2TB's for now (plus backups). This is not something I would enjoy accidently doing.

Awwww.... Why not???
It was FUN!
Especially the part where I through the drive at my wall!

 

[ChickenVenus]

Hehe, sounds like fun, for sure.
I had an issue some years ago with my music HDD, I'd upgraded to Windows XP and had my external HD plugged into the PC. The system conducted a "checkdisc" at bootup and set about destroying my entire music library.
There was an issue concerning large hard drives not being fully recognized between SP1 and the deploy of SP2, without going into the technical detail, there is a lot of information about this issue online. Getting back to the story though, I know just how you feel now. Totally not "fun".

 

[KR9940]

I have in all 13.5 TB in drives. No drives over 2TB. I have a NAS that has 2 1TB drives in it. I am going to change it to 2 2TB drives. I have all my stuff backed up at least 3 times. I learned years ago back up many times.

 

[ChickenVenus]

I have in all 13.5 TB in drives. No drives over 2TB. I have a NAS that has 2 1TB drives in it. I am going to change it to 2 2TB drives. I have all my stuff backed up at least 3 times. I learned years ago back up many times.

Sounds like the way to go. 3+ backups.