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Planning to buy 3tb hard drive

post #1 of 24
3/7/11 at 5:30pm
Thread Starter 
Does anybody using 3tb hard drive with viewsonic vmp75 or with any other media players?

I am wondering if there are any limitations to use more than 2tb. I am using 2tb hard drive and planning to switch to Western digtial mybook 3tb.

Appreciate any comments to see any problems to use 3tb drives.
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post #2 of 24
3/7/11 at 5:42pm
Probably not, Systems as new as windows 7 64-Bit only technically support 2.19TB per drive. E.g. the WD 3TB drives ship with an additional PCI Host Bus adapter to allow for the newer operating systems to address the additional sectors on the drive. Almost all mobo's that aren't brand new aren't shipping with UEFI which is basically firmware that allows the new high capacity drive to interface with the older legacy hardware.
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post #3 of 24
3/7/11 at 6:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadowfox1290 View Post

Probably not, Systems as new as windows 7 64-Bit only technically support 2.19TB per drive. E.g. the WD 3TB drives ship with an additional PCI Host Bus adapter to allow for the newer operating systems to address the additional sectors on the drive. Almost all mobo's that aren't brand new aren't shipping with UEFI which is basically firmware that allows the new high capacity drive to interface with the older legacy hardware.

Appreciate for quick reply. I am planning to buy external hard drive. Do you think there will be problem for external hard drive too?

I called nexius and they told me that there won't be problem to use 3tb external hard drive. I just want to confirm before ordering.
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post #4 of 24
3/7/11 at 6:30pm
The retail WD drives come with the necessary shenanigans to run a 3TB and one could likely assume if it's a external drive it would also have it built in, WD is a great company and I see no reason why they wouldn't, So it should work, alternatively if it doesn't work those Viewsonics can sport a USB hub so you could just get another 2TB for 4TB of fun.

Just FYI where most people run into problems is with pluggin a 3TB directly to a mobo.
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post #5 of 24
3/7/11 at 7:32pm
The issue with 3TB as related to media players is primarily going to be caused by the use of GUID partition tables, which is necessary to create a partition larger than 2TB. Many media players do not yet support GUID partition tables and must use MBR, which limits the largest partition to 2TB in size.
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post #6 of 24
3/7/11 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack@Micca View Post

The issue with 3TB as related to media players is primarily going to be caused by the use of GUID partition tables, which is necessary to create a partition larger than 2TB. Many media players do not yet support GUID partition tables and must use MBR, which limits the largest partition to 2TB in size.

Thanks for the explanation. I was about to order 3tb one from amazon. I was told by nixeus and viewsonic support team that 3tb should work on their media players. Until somebody confirms, I will wait to order. Appreciate if anybody is able to use viewsonic vmp75 or Nixeus with 3tb hard drive.

I thought these two players use 64 bit linux. Is there anyway to confirm?
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post #7 of 24
3/8/11 at 4:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack@Micca View Post
The issue with 3TB as related to media players is primarily going to be caused by the use of GUID partition tables, which is necessary to create a partition larger than 2TB. Many media players do not yet support GUID partition tables and must use MBR, which limits the largest partition to 2TB in size.
I think OP is talking about EXTERNAL USB 3 TeraByte Hard Drive... because he's asking if it will work with the Viewsonic VMP75 which does not have internal HDD support... and I think he also asks if it will work with the Nixeus Fusion HD which like the other poster said that it should work if its an external USB 3TB HDD...

Internal 3TB HDD is another story... I can't even find one at my local Fry's and Best Buy's to try one out...
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post #8 of 24
3/8/11 at 7:14am
Thread Starter 
Yes. I am talking about external 3tb western digital hard drive. In amazon.com, it is listed at $149 for usb 3.0. It is better deal than 2tb with usb 2.0 one for $104.
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post #9 of 24
3/8/11 at 7:17am
Well... the same issues affect internal and external drives alike, since both require some sort of partition table. The USB interface only acts as a bridge for the SATA connection and does not abstract away the underlying disk structure like a network share does.
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post #10 of 24
3/8/11 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sukumar View Post

Yes. I am talking about external 3tb western digital hard drive. In amazon.com, it is listed at $149 for usb 3.0. It is better deal than 2tb with usb 2.0 one for $104.

To maximize your options you really need to know if your playback device will support GUID partition tables (GPT) and/or recognize multiple volumes connected to the same USB port. For $200 you can get a Rosewill 2-bay USB enclosure and a pair of 2TB drives. They can be formated as separate 2TB drives (MBR) or a single 4TB volume (as GPT), depending on what your player will recognize. If it will recognize GPT than you can also buy a MediaSonic 4-bay USB RAID enclosure for $150 and get a ton of protected local storage rather cheaply.
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post #11 of 24
3/8/11 at 1:49pm
Just FYI, I bought a 3 TB drive and it did not work in my Netgrear 550 media bok. I tried both front and back, but can't remember if I tried streaming it. It seems like I would have tried. At least now my BD streaming is working very well before it wasnt'.
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post #12 of 24
3/8/11 at 3:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Av8tr View Post
Just FYI, I bought a 3 TB drive and it did not work in my Netgrear 550 media bok. I tried both front and back, but can't remember if I tried streaming it. It seems like I would have tried. At least now my BD streaming is working very well before it wasnt'.
Thanks for the post. I am preferring 3tb because, it is convinient to navigate content as much as possible in one drive as well as it is supporting USB 3.0 for future and it is also at reasonable price. I will try in BestBuy, otherwise will go for 2tb.

How are you doing BD streaming? Is it wireless streaming? I don't know how it is possible. I have Western Digital WD elements drives.
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post #13 of 24
3/8/11 at 3:56pm
Or try the more future proof approach by organising your media / storage centrally, e.g. on a NAS or home server. You can avoid compatibility problems like that and expand your storage much easier in future. Not to mention the additional protection of your data due to redundancy.
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post #14 of 24
3/8/11 at 6:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by high_definitely View Post

Or try the more future proof approach by organising your media / storage centrally, e.g. on a NAS or home server. You can avoid compatibility problems like that and expand your storage much easier in future. Not to mention the additional protection of your data due to redundancy.

I tried 3tb with viewsonic vmp75 and it did not work as suggested by others in this forum thread. Not sure if I can create multiple volumes

I don't have any experience on setting up NAS or wirless streaming. I have 3 Western digital WD elements hard drives of 2tb. I am planning to buy more multimedia players. What are things that I need to buy to make all these drives available to all Media players?

I tested power line adapters for network and I only got 60mega bits. My other options are getting Ethernet in couple of places. I am also open for suggestions with Wireless or Ethernet streaming.
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post #15 of 24
3/8/11 at 9:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sukumar View Post

I tried 3tb with viewsonic vmp75 and it did not work as suggested by others in this forum thread. Not sure if I can create multiple volumes.

Give them a little time....DVICO added GPT support on their player and it is not quite perfect yet, but other manufacturers should not take too long to implement that feature.
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post #16 of 24
3/9/11 at 1:33am
With all these new media players being announced or soon to be announced - hopefully their new OS would support 3TB... I might one up if prices for 3TB drops.. but currently I can get 4TBs (2x2TB) for less than a 3TB...
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post #17 of 24
3/9/11 at 7:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kei Clark View Post

. . . GPT support . . . but other manufacturers should not take too long to implement that feature.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sukumar View Post

I don't have any experience on setting up NAS or wirless streaming. I have 3 Western digital WD elements hard drives of 2tb. I am planning to buy more multimedia players. What are things that I need to buy to make all these drives available to all Media players?

The WD Live+ has GPT support that allows for >2TB volumes to be attached to its USB port (I have a 4TB volume on mine). It also has network share capability of attached volumes so you could stream the content on one player to another player on your network. That also means you can file-manage the attached volumes over the network so you don't have to detach them each time you want to load them.
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post #18 of 24
3/9/11 at 7:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sukumar View Post

Thanks for the explanation. I was about to order 3tb one from amazon. I was told by nixeus and viewsonic support team that 3tb should work on their media players. Until somebody confirms, I will wait to order. Appreciate if anybody is able to use viewsonic vmp75 or Nixeus with 3tb hard drive.

I thought these two players use 64 bit linux. Is there anyway to confirm?

Why not you try it and report back to us?
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post #19 of 24
3/10/11 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post

Why not you try it and report back to us?

I already reported that it did not work. When I asked specifically about support for GUID partion, both ViewSonic and Nixeus reported that they do not support.

Unfortunately, I have to return the product. I will try if i can create multiple volumes to make it work.

I am waiting for Nixeus to announce new producs XS soon. Hopefully, they will support GUID partion in it. I don't have problem to wait for few weeks.
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post #20 of 24
4/11/11 at 11:23am
Did the multiple partitions work for you?
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post #21 of 24
4/11/11 at 11:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadowfox1290 View Post

Probably not, Systems as new as windows 7 64-Bit only technically support 2.19TB per drive. E.g. the WD 3TB drives ship with an additional PCI Host Bus adapter to allow for the newer operating systems to address the additional sectors on the drive. Almost all mobo's that aren't brand new aren't shipping with UEFI which is basically firmware that allows the new high capacity drive to interface with the older legacy hardware.

Windows 7 64 bit has no issues with large 3TB drives. I have multiple Win 7 installs and they have had no problem.
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post #22 of 24
4/13/11 at 8:57am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmccowan View Post

Did the multiple partitions work for you?

Western digital said they don't support partitions.
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post #23 of 24
4/14/11 at 12:05pm
I think the Western Digital support tech might not have understood what you were asking about. You should be able to use your computer to create multiple partitions on the hard drive. Say you have a 3TB drive, you can create two partitions of 1.5TB each with MBR partition table and NTFS on each 1.5TB partition.
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post #24 of 24
6/30/11 at 2:30pm
I also have some media players and want to hook up a 3TB external hard drive
most of these media player makers have no idea about connecting 3TB hard drives
I just got an Egreat R200II and supposedly it works with 3TB but I have not tried it yet
Is there anything that can be done to get my other players to work with 3TB; right now they work with 2TB
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