NSS 326 and WD 3TB drive.

Hi There.
Has anyone used, or knows the compatibilty of the 326 and the WD Green 3TB WD30EZRX drives. Also is there going to be a performance difference on the box with SATA 3 vs 2 ?
Thanks!

Cisco has 3 models in the market and these are based from QNAP's TSx59 Pro+ hardware. QNAP and Cisco had different way to qualified a drive and recommend for user to use. For Cisco, each of the hard drive model from the approved list was actually tested to making sure the reliability of the drive installed in the NSS. There are number of drive models in the WD's Green series did not make to the AVL. So if you see a drive model in the Cisco AVL, it had been tested and I would recommend to get that model to use with the NSS. If the model you purchased and it is not on the AVL list, it was either failed to make the list. Unfortunately, Cisco existed the Storage market for SMB market since summer of last year so the drive qualification was also stopped. The only source for new model, in your case, is come from QNAP. However, if you are purched Cisco NSS hardware, you have 5 years hardware warranty from the date of purchased. Any software issue will be handled by QNAP (ex-partner).
Note: Cisco also worked very closely with WD team in the past to resolved any issue found on their drives during the testing. The confidentl level to use models from Cisco AVL list is much higher due to the test done in Cisco's lab.
In summary, only drive model that is working in the NSS hardware (passed life expectation tests, stress tests, performance tests, RAIDs, etc..) is made to the AVL list, any model was not amke to the list--it is not recommended.
As for QNAP's AVL, while the base system are the same between TS-x59 Pro+ and the NSS32x. The QNAP's AVL list is impressed but you need to pay attention to the notes from their web site--on the right side (very important) . The note indicated things that was not went well or things customer needs to be aware of before select the drive model.
Hope that explained.
Regards,
-Clint

Similar Messages

Unable to enter administration page of NSS 326

Even after a soft reset, we are unable to enter the administration page of our NSS 326, and even through the NSS Discovery tool, we can't configure as it asks the admin username and password ( the default is expected to be admin-admin after the soft reset but doesn't work). Any help would be useful. Thank you in advance.

That may be because the clock settings on your computer are not the same as the clock in general, or perhaps because the clock on your computer is dead..
to deal with you can reset your clock on your computer or sertivikat looking at options on the right side and then choose to agree if it has been found..

[Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
Introduction
After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
This guide may interest you if:
You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
What this guide will make you do:
It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
It will make you install bootcamp drivers
What this will not make you do:
It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

Installed iTunes on a 1TB drive designated H:. Bought a 3TB drive designated G:. Downloaded iTunes update. On "Run" command, it will not let me change the destination drive, so it registers an error, and will not update. Help

Installed iTunes on a 1TB drive designated H:. Bought a 3TB drive designated G:. Downloaded iTunes update. On "Run" command, it will not let me change the destination drive, so it registers an error, and will not update. App freezes, windows says to upgrade it.

I went to Edit>Preferences>Advanced, G: is showing as the destination drive.

OS X Lion and NSS 326

I've got a Cisco NSS 326 NAS and have recently run into a problem with OS X Lion Developer Preview and authentication to the NAS. When connecting to the NAS over AFP as guest I can access the NAS just fine. However, when I try and authenticate I get an error that reads:
"The version of the server you are trying to connect to is not supported. Please contact your system administrator to resolve the problem."
I've read on another site (http://trick77.com/2011/02/25/afp-broken-linux-based-nas-mac-os-x-lion-10-7) that this has to do with the version of AFP that is running on the NAS compared to the new version that OS X Lion is using AFP 2.
Does anyone have a solution to enable the NAS to support AFP 2 or are there any plans to support this from Cisco any time soon?

Hi all NSS32x owners,
Like you all, I bought a Storage Solution from Cisco, personally hoping that Cisco would be better in supporting us than the OEM they bougth the NSS32x line from.
Until now I have been disapointed over and over.
They opened a discussion about what should be implemented in the Cisco versions of the NAS'ses but so far no real addition of any value.
Now we are facing the problem with OS X Lion's TimeMachine incompatability, which could have been solved for months ago, when the first developer releases were issued.
No response from Ciso however.
This is really bad.
Other companies already have solutions for their products in order to be compatible with Lion.
Ok, I agree, this might not be a problem caused by Cisco, but a problem that was caused by Apple when releasing Lion. But hey all companies have to update their software so Cisco as well as Apple.
However, companies of major size (Apple, Cisco, and many others) should be more cooperative when releasing new software.
I work in IT for over 30 years now and I have always seen that when Cisco bought a company, their "boxes" were painted gray and the Cisco "bridge" logo was aplied and then all over sudden it became a REAL Cisco product.
And I mean it really became a Cisco product. You might have some minor problems but those were always solved.
I would have expected the same from Cisco with respect to these NAS'ses.
And believe me, I have seen quit some NAS'ses from the competitors but the NSS32x series does not come with the support you get from other competing NAS vendors.
That is what bothers me and I regret that there is no solution today for the issue(s) we have with OS X Lion, but what bothers me even more is that Cisco is not informing us at all about whatever solution there will be within whatever time frame.
I still have the NSS326 and I had to pay quit a premium over other vendors, but accepted it, supposing that the NAS would have the support I am familiar with from Cisco, but as you can read above I am disapointed.
So Cisco, what are you going to do to improve support and be more open and informative about coming software releases for the NSS32x series NAS'ses?
Regards,
Klaas de Jong

Is there a TB limit on Macs over USB? Trying to get a 3TB drive to work in a dock over USB and it shows up as a 800Gig drive.

I purchased a StarTech Dual Dock eSata / USB 2.0 model #:SATADOCK22UE. I've tried using it with 3TB drives and it works fine over eSata, but when I plug it in via USB, the drives show up un-initialized and in disk utility, show up as 800Gig drives. I contacted StarTech's technical support and they said this is a limitation in Mac's USB chipset. The max you can plug into USB is 2TB. Is this correct? I've never heard of this before.
I have a Mac Pro 3,1, running Mountain Lion. I tried the dock on a Mac Mini, same thing.

The answer you got is only have right. There are certain limits that limit you to 2.2TB.
It is a limitation in a chipset, but NOT the one in the Mac. It is a limitation of the Enclosure.
The technician who advised you needs additional training.

Current 1TB computer dying. Installing new 3TB drive next Thursday. Can I just go directly to my account and install Creative Cloud with Proshow Producer and Bridge with a hastle?

Current 1TB computer dying. Installing new 3TB drive next Thursday. Can I just go directly to my account and install Creative Cloud with Proshow Producer and Bridge with a hastle?

When I look at the forum index Welcome | Adobe Community I do not find a program called proshow
Cloud Getting Started https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/topics/getting-started.html
or
http://forums.adobe.com/community/download_install_setup/creative_cloud_faq

Apple RAID Card and 3TB Drives only show 2.2 TB

I tried a 3TB Seagate Barracuda XT drive in the July 2010 Mac Pro (and a Jan 2008 Mac Pro) on the RAID Card that came with the machines (so one is the RAID Card now shipping) and both show a maximum of 2.2 TB with a 3TB drive.
I'm curious if anyone else has tried this with different results. Any luck in getting the RAID Card to see the full 3TB in the drives?
By the way, without the RAID Card, the Mac (OS 10.6.4) sees the full 3TB, but not with it.
Anyone else seeing this?

Okay. Seems Apple didn't plan for or certify 3TB.
However, Apple doesn't support using 3rd party drives. Some do, and in some situations, drives you would think work don't, or they work but only briefly.
When I said read FAQ I was thinking of all the points like this:
Question: *Which drives does Apple support for the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?*
Answer: Only Apple SATA drives and Promise 450GB SAS Drive modules sold through the Apple Store are supported for use with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) and the Xserve RAID Card (Early 2009).
Apple 300GB SAS Drive modules are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Late 2007) and Xserve RAID Card (Early 2007).
Drives must be either all Serial ATA (SATA) or all Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. SSD drive modules are not recommended for the Apple RAID Card because these drives use their own on-disk cache and cannot take advantage of the protection provided by the battery-backed cache on the RAID card.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346#faq8
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/
Apple Knowledge Base: recent changes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=articles

NSS 326 disk replace failed

Hi
I have replaced the faulty disk in RAID6 with a new one on NSS 326, but NSS does not accept it with the error:
[RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Add drive 1 to the volume failed.
Under the "RAID Managment" it says I should insert a disk the same or bigger size that faulty one was.
All hard disk are the same vendor,model,type and size (also the replacement disk is the same):
WDC WD2003FYYS-02W0B01.0
Does anyone have any clue what should I do?
Thank you in advance
Herbert Knavs

Hi Herbert,
   I am glad your unit now is fully operational and the unit had the healthy RAID6 array. To answer your questions and share some of the informatioin I knew, I am doing my best with my knowlege of the NSS:
When rebuild started, another strange thing happened... I will copy paste from log here:
1. Drive 1 plugged in.
2. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Drive 1 added into the volume.
3. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Start rebuilding.
4. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Rebuilding skipped.
    Why skipped???   [ Clint's comment: During the rebuild process, disk #3 could not be in sync with other disks and after many attempted to sync data in the array, the process/script timed out and killed the rebuild array process because disk#3 may contains some bad blocks. System log displayed "Rebuilding skipped". The log, as you can see it always displayed 6 disks [1 2 3 4 5 6]. This is just for user to understand that RAID6 with 6 disks but it does not reflect the true status of the array.]
5. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Start rebuilding.
    But in the "Raid Management" view was: 1 2 4 5 6 (disk number 3 somehow is missing)
[Clint's comment: The GUI displayed the true status of the RAID array, as you know disk#3 is failed out from the RAID6 array.]
6. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Rebuilding completed.
    Now "Raid Managment" view says something like: 1 2 4 5 6 In degraded mode... and number 3 is also missing here???
[Clint's comment: System continue the process of resync without disk #3 and after it completed. It would gave user in degraded mode because disk#3 is not in the array.]
So I have rebooted the NSS without touching disk in bay .
7. System started.
8. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Drive 3 added into the volume
9. [RAID6 Disk Volume: Drive 1 2 3 4 5 6] Start rebuilding.
[Clint's comment: by reboot the system. There is a process of checking each disk during boot up to verify each disk is physically healthy (no bad blocks, if it is, fix it before boot to Linux OS and execute codes to bring NSS to operational). The system did know the status of each disk and in your case, because disk #3 was not in the array. System checked and verified to correct some bad blocks that was out of sync in the array. After fixed some bad blocks, it automatically add that disk to the array and required resynchronize to make sure all disks are in the RAID6 array, this is why you were seeing "Start rebuilding" after the reboot. And because the correction was made in disk #3, you had the successful rebuild RAID6 array.]
Hope that helps!
Regards,
-Clint

3TB Drive Only Shows Up on My Mac as 750GB

I have a new Western Digital 3TB drive that I am using as an external drive in a NexStar Hard Drive Dock to connect to my computer. I formatted it in Disk Utility but it only shows up as 746.5 GB and not the full 3TB. I formatted it through Guid Partition but the info says there is 0 partition. I don't actually need a partition, I am trying to use it as backup and copy about 2.5TB of files onto it.I have a Macbook Pro and am running Mac OS 10.5.8
Any help?

It could be what Kappy said, though these specifications say up to 3 TB: http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/295
If you do not have that exact same model (NST-D100SU) its capacity may be less.

How to move huge HD video files between external hard drives and defrag ext drive?

I have huge high definition video files on a 2TB external hard drive (and its clone). The external hard drive is maxed out. I would like to move many of the video files to a new 3TB external hard drive (G-drive, and a clone) and leave a sub-group of video files (1+ TB) on the original external hard drive (and its clone).
I am copying files from original external drive ("ext drive A") to new external drive ("ext drive B") via Carbon Copy Cloner (selecting iMovie event by event that I want to transfer). Just a note: I do not know how to partition or make bootable drives, I see suggestions with these steps in them.
My questions:
1.) I assume this transfer of files will create extreme fragmentation on drive A. Should I reformat/re-initialize ext drive A after moving the files I want? If so, how best to do this? Do I use "Erase" within Disk Utilities? Do I need to do anything else before transfering files back onto ext drive A from its clone?
2.) Do I also need to defrag if I reformat ext drive A? Do I defrag instead of or in addition to reformating? If so, how to do this? I've read on these forums so many warnings and heard too many stories of this going awry. Which 3rd party software to use?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions, tips, advice. This whole process makes me SO nervous.

Here is a very good writeup on de-fragging in the OS environment that I borrowed
From Klaus1:
Defragmentation in OS X:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375 which states:
You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:
Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.
Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.
Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 onwards can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."
Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.
Whilst 'defragging' OS X is rarely necessary, Rod Hagen has produced this excellent analysis of the situation which is worth reading:
Most users, as long as they leave plenty of free space available , and don't work regularly in situations where very large files are written and rewritten, are unlikely to notice the effects of fragmentation on either their files or on the drives free space much.
As the drive fills the situations becomes progressively more significant, however.
Some people will tell you that "OSX defrags your files anyway". This is only partly true. It defrags files that are less than 20 MB in size. It doesn't defrag larger files and it doesn't defrag the free space on the drive. In fact the method it uses to defrag the smaller files actually increases the extent of free space fragmentation. Eventually, in fact, once the largest free space fragments are down to less than 20 MB (not uncommon on a drive that has , say only 10% free space left) it begins to give up trying to defrag altogether. Despite this, the system copes very well without defragging as long as you have plenty of room.
Again, this doesn't matter much when the drive is half empty or better, but it does when it gets fullish, and it does especially when it gets fullish if you are regularly dealing with large files , like video or serious audio stuff.
If you look through this discussion board you will see quite a few complaints from people who find that their drive gets "slow". Often you will see that say that "still have 10 or 20 gigs free" or the like. On modern large drives by this stage they are usually in fact down to the point where the internal defragmentation routines can no longer operate , where their drives are working like navvies to keep up with finding space for any larger files, together with room for "scratch files", virtual memory, directories etc etc etc. Such users are operating in a zone where they put a lot more stress on their drives as a result, often start complaining of increased "heat", etc etc. Most obviously, though, the computer slows down to a speed not much better than that of molasses. Eventually the directories and other related files may collapse altogether and they find themselves with a next to unrecoverable disk problems.
By this time, of course, defragging itself has already become just about impossible. The amount of work required to shift the data into contiguous blocks is immense, puts additional stress on the drive, takes forever, etc etc. The extent of fragmentation of free space at this stage can be simply staggering, and any large files you subsequently write are likely to be divided into many , many tens of thousands of fragments scattered across the drive. Not only this, but things like the "extents files", which record where all the bits are located, will begin to grow astronomically as a result, putting even more pressure on your already stressed drive, and increasing the risk of major failures.
Ultimately this adds up to a situation where you can identify maybe three "phases" of mac life when it comes to the need for defragmentation.
In the "first phase" (with your drive less than half full), it doesn't matter much at all - probably not enough to even make it worth doing.
In the "second phase" (between , say 50% free space and 20% free space remaining) it becomes progressively more useful, but , depending on the use you put your computer to you won't see much difference at the higher levels of free space unless you are serious video buff who needs to keep their drives operating as efficiently and fast as possible - chances are they will be using fast external drives over FW800 or eSata to compliment their internal HD anyway.
At the lower end though (when boot drives get down around the 20% mark on , say, a 250 or 500 Gig drive) I certainly begin to see an impact on performance and stability when working with large image files, mapping software, and the like, especially those which rely on the use of their own "scratch" files, and especially in situations where I am using multiple applications simultaneously, if I haven't defragmented the drive for a while. For me, defragmenting (I use iDefrag too - it is the only third party app I trust for this after seeing people with problems using TechToolPro and Drive Genius for such things) gives a substantial performance boost in this sort of situation and improves operational stability. I usually try to get in first these days and defrag more regularly (about once a month) when the drive is down to 30% free space or lower.
Between 20% and 10% free space is a bit of a "doubtful region". Most people will still be able to defrag successfully in this sort of area, though the time taken and the risks associated increase as the free space declines. My own advice to people in this sort of area is that they start choosing their new , bigger HD, because they obviously are going to need one very soon, and try to "clear the decks" so that they maintain that 20% free buffer until they do. Defragging regularly (perhaps even once a fortnight) will actually benefit them substantially during this "phase", but maybe doing so will lull them into a false sense of security and keep them from seriously recognising that they need to be moving to a bigger HD!
Once they are down to that last ten per cent of free space, though, they are treading on glass. Free space fragmentation at least will already be a serious issue on their computers but if they try to defrag with a utility without first making substantially more space available then they may find it runs into problems or is so slow that they give up half way through and do the damage themselves, especially if they are using one of the less "forgiving" utilities!
In this case I think the best way to proceed is to clone the internal drive to a larger external with SuperDuper, replace the internal drive with a larger one and then clone back to it. No-one down to the last ten percent of their drive really has enough room to move. Defragging it will certainly speed it up, and may even save them from major problems briefly, but we all know that before too long they are going to be in the same situation again. Better to deal with the matter properly and replace the drive with something more akin to their real needs once this point is reached. Heck, big HDs are as cheap as chips these days! It is mad to struggle on with sluggish performance, instability, and the possible risk of losing the lot, in such a situation.

790FX-GD70 & 3TB Drive Trying to install windows 7 64 bit

Hi,
I've had this mother board for 2 years now, works great! Use it primarily for gaming, but it can handle anything I can throw at it... Until I got a 3TB SATA HDD... Well I learned rather quickly what I needed to do to be able to see the entire 3TB, which I got it partitioned and that's done. But it was a GPT (GUI Partition Table) which windows can't be installed to... or that's where I get hung up...
Well upon googling my butt off, I've learned of UEFI, which I'm not sure if my board is UEFI compatible? I guess is my question... or can someone tell me how to install windows on a 3TB HDD with this motherboard? I want to use the smaller of the 2 partitions...
Let's see... My specs are:
AMD Phenom II x4 965
16GB DDR3 PC10666
500GB SATA HDD
3TB SATA HDD
XFX HD-489X-ZSFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
MSI 790FX-GD70
Thanks!!!

yes both are on the board UEFI BIOS type and 3TB+ infinity is part of the boards featurs for 3TB drives to contain an OS but the 790FX-GD70 like we have does.t have these features on the board!
only the newer ones like the 990FX or 990X series boards have both these features.
3TB+ infinity is a GUI that works as a way of circumventing the 2TB max size of a OS drive and allow it to be formatted in such a way to trick an OS into installing on a GPT format drive instead of MBR one!

Backup internal and external hard drives-TC and offsite

I now have Mavericks 10.9.3 on my iMac with a 2TB (1.25 TB used) internal hard drive.
I also have some external drives attached to my iMac with older iPhoto libraries and other files (total file sizes 940 GB and 505 GB). I primarily use Aperture now on my internal hard drive, but still access those iPhoto libraries on my external drives on occasion. I have Time Machine backup my iMac internal hard drive on my 2TB Time Capsule regularly.
My primary question is in regards to getting another copy onto a larger external drive that covers my internal and external drives so I can have a backup off-site. Online backup services seem to always exclude external drives. So a physical drive I can have offsite seems to be the best option.
A year ago I changed the destination of my Time Machine backup to be on a 3TB external drive (backed up iMac internal hard drive and the two externals). However, when I changed the destination of the backup back to the Time Capsule, the TM initiated a brand new backup (it did not recall that I had backed up prior to that on my Time Capsule).
I want to backup monthly, if not quarterly for my off-site storage. But, if every time I change the destination drive for TM, a new backup profile is created, it will overwork my drives unnecessarily.
Is there a backup program or a process on "disk utility" I could run parallel to TM that I just use quarterly capturing only the changes/additions in those few months for both the internal and external hard drives? Also, is there a way to add an external drive to my Time Capsule that is solely used to wirelessly backup the two externals on a regular basis (i.e. keep the internal 2TB drive backing up to the Time Capsule; and the external hard drive attached to Time Capsule via USB used as the backup drive for the external hard drives)?
Summary: I need to backup regularly to the local Time Capsule/additional external hard drive. The data will come from my internal hard drive and my two external hard drives. I also want to do quarterly backups of the additions/changes to all three drives to have on an offsite external drive that I manually backup to quarterly. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Carbon Copy Cloner is not on the App store.
Correct.. it is not approved because Apple do not like the fact that CCC (and most likely superduper) which are the most popular backup software for Mac because it makes a bootable clone. Apple will never approve of that. But let me assure you that is the genius of it. If the internal disk fails, you simply boot from the external. It is $40 but you can use on all the computers in your home.
CCC is a clone.. ie when it does the backup, any changes on the drive are changed on the clone. It does not work like Time Machine which simply piles up incrementals until the drive fills up. The idea of CCC is a backup of the drive as it exists at any point in time. TM btw is also not a reliable archive, ie it thins backups constantly.. so you should never rely on it to archive old versions.. but in the middle of a project it does a good job to keep various versions of your files. That is why I specifically said in my last post do not stop using it.
and you can keep using the TC just for the internal drive.
Keep TM running to the TC.. that will then keep a current hourly incremental of your drive. You can set CCC in a way which is a lot more flexible. ie backup just at the end of the day. There is no need for constant hourly backups. So to answer the second question.. you are still using your TC and TM.. but I suggest you only backup the internal drive.
Please read a bit from forum expert Pondini on the value of clones and TM.
http://pondini.org/TM/Clones.html
That's why many folks use both Time Machine and a bootable clone, to have two separate, independent backups, with the advantages of both. If one fails, the other remains.
Now the ports issue.
You can of course continue to use USB2. Just that moving large volumes around will be slow.. as doubtless you already know.
On your particular Mac since you missed out on USB3 which is a pain.. you can buy a Thunderbolt to USB3 adapter like the belkin.
http://www.belkin.com/au/p/P-F4U055/
I suggested the Thunderbolt to Esata (it is an older interface and the adapter is rather cheaper but I hear more reliable.. check reviews for both).
http://store.apple.com/au/product/H8875ZM/A/lacie-esata-hub-thunderbolt-series
Sata is the interface of the hard disk.. Esata just means external sata.. so it is native and without conversion.
I was merely suggesting ways to speed things up. But as long as you don't run CCC on more than daily basis then I think you will be fine just with USB 2. It will take a while on the day you do the swap over for the archive volume, but if you turn off the power saving in the Mac and leave it run overnight it should be able to do most of it.. you need to realise it will have to deep scan both the disks.. to compare files.. but CCC is based on Rsync and it is extremely fast and efficient. I am just not sure I know how long it will take to do. Anyway.. there is a plan.. tweak and adapt as you see fits your needs.

Toshiba Store.E TV+ 1TB does not see external WD My Book 3TB drive

Hi guys,
my Toshiba media player doesn't want to pickup my new portable HD drive.
I have a few drives, NTFS and FAT32, all work (from 1 to 2TB in sizes).
My newest drive is a WD My Book (3TB), and it doesn't want to pick it up.
Can it be that the firmware doesn't see the 3TB at all (meaning, supports it) ???

As I understand your issue, you have connected the WD My Book 3TB drive to the USB 2.0 port of the STOR.E TV+
Right?
The USB port supports plug n play so it should not be an firmware problem.
I guess the external drive requires too much power. The common USB 2.0 port provides 500mA power.
This is standard and if an external drive would require more power, the drive would not be recognized.

Problems with using 3tb drives in RAID 1

I'm using an MSi 870A-G54 mainboard
Without going into major specifics at this moment here is the basic scenario:
Added 2 new seagate baracuda 3tb drives in RAID 1 mode
Updated the bios (AMI) to 7.20
Updated windows 7 64 with the latest drivers.
Updated RAID Xpert to the lastest version
Everything worked. Added my data (movies and music), all was well with the world
Then, after a reboot windows no longer recognizes the drives, nor does RAID Xpert, however within the RAID config (BIOS) the drives are showing as being just fine and the RAID configuration is configured correctly.
Anyone have any idea how I can retrieve my data from these drives (most important) and get it working again (important, but less than just getting the data recovered)?
Thus far I haven't a clue what changed. There were no Windows, BIOS, configuration or other updates.
oh what fun it is!!!

Thanks for the info.. but...
The motherboard recognized the drives (after upgrading the BIOS to 17.20)
I managed to get it working (again!) last night. :-D
I had to do some major upgrading by way of AMD (upgraded RAID drivers, chipset drivers, and AMD RAID Xpert) that were not available via the MSi site, but are directly compatible with the chipset I'm using. .. or ... so far appear to be. Too early to tell.
So far, everything seems stable..
Odds are I tripped over something, or missed a step during the initial set-up, when I was figuring out what needed to be done to get the drives recognized by the MB, and then then the RAID, and then the OS.
Right now I'm backing up all my data and, after verfiying that each drive in fact contains data, I'm planning on breaking the mirror via RAID Xpert, then see if I need to break it as well via the RAID console (this would provide confirmation that the windows based utility in fact has, or has not, correct connectivity and control to the MB RAID config). Then, do a low-level format of the drives and start over. ....
By the way.. just so anyone reading this knows... the Live Update 5 utility is weak... very very weak. I pity the person that has minimal PC experience to try and figure out what it's doing (or not doing) and ... done..
I'll post the final results of this adventure when I finalize the entire setup in about a month. :-D

NSS 326 and WD 3TB drive.

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