backup drive size conundrum

[Kev Williams]

I'm fixing to move about a TB worth of Corel files from the SSD on 'main' computer here (my T5400 Precision/win7pro64) to the 6TB backup drive I have connected to my Linksys router.
The reason: I use corel on 6 different computers, and I save/retrieve all work files to/from the main computer. 2 issues; 1, if the main computer is off or hibernated, no access to these files from the other computers. And 2, the backup drive xfers info faster than the SSD..

Anyway- the conundrum, is that while the backup drive is indeed a 6TB unit, Windows is saying it's capacity is 1.6TB, with only 180gigs of space left!
At the same time, the router is displaying the correct capacities, both shown on this screenshot
drive-size.jpg
I have TWO external backup drives, on the left is an 2TB drive connected to the office computer-
I thought maybe Windows was confusing the two, but it's not--
I can't access either drive in the computer management console on the main computer because they're both network drives..

I'm just wondering what will happen, in Windows at least, if I attempt to move more than 180 gigs from the SSD to the 6TB drive?

Any ideas?

[Dave Mills]

I'm not the expert in this, but perhaps the backup drive needs to be re-initialized differently with a larger sector size?
https://www.minitool.com/partition-d...rive-size.html

[Larry Frank]

It may have to do with the max drive size with Win7.

[Thomas McCurnin]

The simple solution is to use the "main computer" as a server.

Image the operating system. Clone operating system to a 6tb drive and off you go with a fully functioning main computer. Better yet, if there is space in the box, use a small 1 tb SSD as your operating system and connect the 6tb drive to the mother board, assuming your computer box and mother board have space for dual drives. Set Windows to boot off the SSD as "C." Assign the 6tb to another drive letter, like "S."

Connect the other computer(s) to your hub via Cat5 through a router. Use Windows to share drive(s). You'll have to bounce around between computers, to give permission to share drives, but a 30 minute problem. This is how my small office worked, using a large desktop as a poor man's server and sharing drives.

All this assumes your mother board on your main computer has room for two drives or that the mother board is set up to handle 6tb. Some mother boards have limits.

[Rich Engelhardt]

the 6TB backup drive I have connected to my Linksys router.

Check here to see if the Linksys router you have supports that drive.
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-a...icleNum=302835

You may not be able to use the 6TB drive with that router.

[Mike Henderson]

I bought a Synology NAS to deal with that problem. Maybe not the cheapest solution but not all that expensive. The Synology is easy to set up and has been very reliable. Mine is a DS416J, which is not the most recent.

I have a 16TB "drive" on that NAS, made up of four physical disks in a RAID configuration (which provides some protection against disk failure).

Mike

[Thomas McCurnin]

+1 on Synology. I have two units connected to the network for backup.

I will say it is not as fast as a drive connected directly to the mother board, and the Synology does "go to sleep" after non-use, so it has to be nudged to wake up. Not a big deal, and you can get faster internal cards for the Synology unit if you need speed.

[Kev Williams]

never heard of Synology, sounds interesting so I googled-- and for $550 I can get a 4-bay 'diskless' unit, which means, I assume, I have to supply my own HDDs? That's actually not a problem as 4 of my 7 computers have 3 drives installed, plus I have probably a dozen more drives sitting in a cabinet...

I ran the check Rich suggested, the max size drive it says for my router is 3TB, so that may be the issue. Just seems weird to me that the router shows the correct size but not Windows. But then everything computers do/don't do seem weird to me

as to running the main computer as a server sounds interesting, and my OS is already cloned actually-- I got my SSD about 2 years ago, and I cloned it from the original 1TB HD that's still in this computer! I can boot up from either drive. But I'm not sure running programs on a cloned drive would do me any good, as all my computers that control machines have all the same programs loaded. I can also access any computer from any other computer using Remote Desktop. I just want to move all the working files to the 6TB drive, which is connected to NONE of the computers directly

I suppose an option would be to move everything from my 2TB backup, which is connected to the office computer, to the 6TB backup, then swap them. 2TB is PLENTY of space for what I need to do, and shouldn't be a problem with the router...?

[Thomas McCurnin]

Check with Synology--the internal cards supplied with the unit typically require a specific brand and size and speed of hard drive. It's actually quite a long list, but your hard drives may not be on the list. And the cards usually like the same size of drives within the enclosure.

That said, it is worth a try to plug a bunch of stupid drives and see if it works. Certainly no down side.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I've also had a Synology NAS for many years, a 2 bay with a pair of 4TB drives. It just plain works.
The forum is incredibly supportive when you have a question, and I've found technical support very responsive.
I also have a 3TB MyBook which I use for the other computers on the system, like my son's gaming computer, where he distrusts what I install on the computer (he thinks I'm tracking him).

[Chuck Wintle]

I'm fixing to move about a TB worth of Corel files from the SSD on 'main' computer here (my T5400 Precision/win7pro64) to the 6TB backup drive I have connected to my Linksys router.
The reason: I use corel on 6 different computers, and I save/retrieve all work files to/from the main computer. 2 issues; 1, if the main computer is off or hibernated, no access to these files from the other computers. And 2, the backup drive xfers info faster than the SSD..

Anyway- the conundrum, is that while the backup drive is indeed a 6TB unit, Windows is saying it's capacity is 1.6TB, with only 180gigs of space left!
At the same time, the router is displaying the correct capacities, both shown on this screenshot
drive-size.jpg
I have TWO external backup drives, on the left is an 2TB drive connected to the office computer-
I thought maybe Windows was confusing the two, but it's not--
I can't access either drive in the computer management console on the main computer because they're both network drives..

I'm just wondering what will happen, in Windows at least, if I attempt to move more than 180 gigs from the SSD to the 6TB drive?

Any ideas?

Can you set up the drive with GPT partitions? It worked for me on a 3 terabyte drive.