3TB x 2 - I did it!

[howiebrou]

Originally Posted by Victor

It would be cool to change over to a MD-600, just not sure it's worth the money if you already have Twinstores.

[JSCC]

Originally Posted by Victor

That's fantastic Jerry! 3tb is a lot of music!

What is the brand and model number of the 3tb drives in your Twinstore?

Hi Victor,

Sorry for the late reply.

The wrappers (for both drives) reads:

HITACHI

C P/N: H3D30006472S
P/N: 0F12450
Feb 2011 Batch

S/N: YHGAH95C & YHGBB54C

As to what the dealer had done prior to sending to me, I would not know. Its just "plug n play" when he installed it.

Hope the info helps.

Cheers!

[Kingsrule]

Were the drives sealed or opened by the dealer?

[Victor]

Thanks for the info Jerry.

I found this info on Hitachi 3tb drives:


Hitachi GPT Disk Manager for 3TB Deskstar Drives

The 3TB version of the Hitachi Deskstar internal hard drive kit includes access to the Hitachi GPT Disk Manager, an easy to use software application designed to overcome the 2.2TB limitation of Windows systems. GPT Disk Manager works with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. GPT Disk Manager is not required for Mac OSX and Linux systems. The Hitachi GPT Disk Manager software does not support RAID configurations and volumes that are managed by this software cannot be used as boot volumes.

My guess is the "Hitachi GPT disc manager" software needs to be installed on the 3tb drive and correctly configured BEFORE the drive is installed in the Twinstore. The question is: what is the correct configuration? It's also possible the disc manager software is preinstalled and these drives are plug and play in a Twinstore. Hopefully someone with some computer knowledge can figure this out and post the solution.

[charlieu]

The Hitachi GPT Disk Manager is installed on a Windows PC if you install one of these drives in that PC. I imagine that the SooLoos is using some flavor of Linux and therefore Disk Manager isn't required. At most there may be a jumper to configure on the drive, but more than likely, it's just Plug n Play.

Originally Posted by Victor

Thanks for the info Jerry.

I found this info on Hitachi 3tb drives:


Hitachi GPT Disk Manager for 3TB Deskstar Drives

The 3TB version of the Hitachi Deskstar internal hard drive kit includes access to the Hitachi GPT Disk Manager, an easy to use software application designed to overcome the 2.2TB limitation of Windows systems. GPT Disk Manager works with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. GPT Disk Manager is not required for Mac OSX and Linux systems. The Hitachi GPT Disk Manager software does not support RAID configurations and volumes that are managed by this software cannot be used as boot volumes.

My guess is the "Hitachi GPT disc manager" software needs to be installed on the 3tb drive and correctly configured BEFORE the drive is installed in the Twinstore. The question is: what is the correct configuration? It's also possible the disc manager software is preinstalled and these drives are plug and play in a Twinstore. Hopefully someone with some computer knowledge can figure this out and post the solution.

[rgbyhkr]

Just wanted to update this thread to relate to the new MD600. 3TB drives rae being used successfully by some. The only issue they've come across is that some enterprise grade drives with special power save features have caused some issues whereby they will spin down unexpectedly. I was told though that standard WD desktop green drives should work fine though.

Jeff

[BearCubinNY]

Originally Posted by rgbyhkr

Just wanted to update this thread to relate to the new MD600. 3TB drives rae being used successfully by some. The only issue they've come across is that some enterprise grade drives with special power save features have caused some issues whereby they will spin down unexpectedly. I was told though that standard WD desktop green drives should work fine though.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I'll have to give it a try! I had Meridian try several times unsuccessfully to convert my MD600 to RAID-0 (from RAID-1). That would have given me 4Tb of usable storage on two spanned 2Tb drives. I like this solution a little better. Hopefully the mirroring stays robust with the 3Tb drives.

Reg

[rgbyhkr]

Originally Posted by BearCubinNY

Thanks Jeff, I'll have to give it a try! I had Meridian try several times unsuccessfully to convert my MD600 to RAID-0 (from RAID-1). That would have given me 4Tb of usable storage on two spanned 2Tb drives. I like this solution a little better. Hopefully the mirroring stays robust with the 3Tb drives.

Reg

Hi Reg,

Your info comes as quite useful to me as well. I have been thinking of moving into a single MD600 from the multiple Store devices I currently have, but I need more than 3TB of storage. So, even with approved 2TB devices, I'd need to have it configured as RAID 0. Your news comes as a very disappointing surprise as I was assuming that this could easily be done on the new storage piece. If it is a problem, then I'm back to holding off on buying. I'm not going to buy 2 of them given the cost and since a single unit should be capable of being setup this way. Also, I feel perfectly capable of handling the backups on my own (I'm already doing that now to an external RADI DAS), so the RAID 1 configuration is more than I need.

Have they given you any feedback on why the config change has been a problem? Potentially a firmware issue that can be fixed?

Jeff

[enatai252]

Not familiar with Meridian unit...but can you use a NAS instead of the internal solutions. I use the Naim HDX for music server( one at home and one at cabin). I have both of them using SSD internal drives which just maintains operating software. The improvement of keeping hard drives in connected NAS was larger than expected. I use Qnap 559 pro 2 with 4 two TB drives. In RAID 5 this gets you 6TB of storage.

Added benefit is that I can set up the 2 NASs to talk to each other (cabin is 80 miles east of my house) so when I rip a cd or download hi-Rez music at home...it automatically replicates new content to the cabin.

[rgbyhkr]

Originally Posted by enatai252

Not familiar with Meridian unit...but can you use a NAS instead of the internal solutions. I use the Naim HDX for music server( one at home and one at cabin). I have both of them using SSD internal drives which just maintains operating software. The improvement of keeping hard drives in connected NAS was larger than expected. I use Qnap 559 pro 2 with 4 two TB drives. In RAID 5 this gets you 6TB of storage.

Added benefit is that I can set up the 2 NASs to talk to each other (cabin is 80 miles east of my house) so when I rip a cd or download hi-Rez music at home...it automatically replicates new content to the cabin.

Unfortunately, Meridian doesn't allow non-proprietary storage for the Sooloos system. Interestingly, Qsonix has begun allowing the use of 3rd party NAS devices with their system. It's a complete replacement such that if you choose the NAS route, the internal drive is disabled for content storage (but the database for the library stays there). They don't publicize this ability, but they have a white paper on it and users in the field are already making use of the system in this way. Interesting that you should mention the SSD as I've heard that Qsonix will go this route once the NAS solution becomes "official" - they will offer a Qsonix box with a small internal SSD vs the HDD they have now to increase speed of the UI.

Jeff