What a single 8TB MBR Hard Disk Drive Looks like in Windows XP

[rloew]

Who cares?

[jaclaz]

12 hours ago, rloew said:

Who cares?

I do .

The grown up cat looks nice .

And this constitutes proof that at least one person exists that buys software and does not use it, not even to test it or to make sure - within the return period - that the media actually works, a single data point, I know, but still it is good to know.

jaclaz

[SamirD]

I registered just to say a big THANK YOU to this thread.  I have 2 of the 10TB Best Buy cheap externals that have been selling multiple times this year both formatted MBR with 5x FAT32 partitions on each.  NTFS always messes up the original dates of files depending on the system time so I only use FAT32 when original dates are important.  And thanks to this thread, I was able to make them both work after some persistence.  I bet they would even work in a 98se system with the right usb driver, but I haven't rebuilt mine yet.

[rloew]

Some External Drives work, some don't. Make sure that Windows XP actually recognizes them as 10TB Drives. Use the Disk Management Tool. Otherwise you could be in for an unpleasant surprise.

You can have one FAT32 Partition if you want. You are not limited to 2TB per partition.

Windows 98SE will work but it requires my TBPLUS Package. I include a verified USB Mass Storage Driver.

[Cixert]

On 7/16/2019 at 11:59 PM, SamirD said:

I registered just to say a big THANK YOU to this thread.  I have 2 of the 10TB Best Buy cheap externals that have been selling multiple times this year both formatted MBR with 5x FAT32 partitions on each.  NTFS always messes up the original dates of files depending on the system time so I only use FAT32 when original dates are important.  And thanks to this thread, I was able to make them both work after some persistence.  I bet they would even work in a 98se system with the right usb driver, but I haven't rebuilt mine yet.

Can you say that hard disks you have in MBR format and how have you managed to work in XP? Thanks
@98SE Can you say what USB adapter did you connect the hard disk? I am having trouble finding a modern USB adapter that works with 5 TB

[SamirD]

4 hours ago, Cixert said:

Can you say that hard disks you have in MBR format and how have you managed to work in XP? Thanks
@98SE Can you say what USB adapter did you connect the hard disk? I am having trouble finding a modern USB adapter that works with 5 TB

I have 2x of the WD 'Easystore' external drives.  There is a WD tool that allows you to expose the native 4kn sector size and hence format the drive using MBR.  Then you can make multiple partitions as I did (in order to avoid using FAT32) or just make one large FAT32 partition.  I do not believe the drive will work like this outside of the enclosure, and I don't think what the enclosure is doing can be done by other enclosures.  I think the whole thing is a strictly WD thing.  In one instance I do have an HGST drive formatted like this that was also able to be used 4kn in the same enclosure, but I also have another HGST drive that would not work 4kn in the same enclosure, so best to just use the easystore as is.  I believe I have tested this up to 16TB, but it may be 14TB has its been a few years.  I use the drives strictly has backups as there's a triple chance of catastrophic failure--the drive, the enclosure, or the enclosure's 4kn translation--a failure in any one of these will result in data loss.  Hope this helps.

Edited January 17 by SamirD
clarifications

[Cixert]

10 hours ago, SamirD said:

I have 2x of the WD 'Easystore' external drives.  There is a WD tool that allows you to expose the native 4kn sector size and hence format the drive using MBR.  Then you can make multiple partitions as I did (in order to avoid using FAT32) or just make one large FAT32 partition.  I do not believe the drive will work like this outside of the enclosure, and I don't think what the enclosure is doing can be done by other enclosures.  I think the whole thing is a strictly WD thing.  In one instance I do have an HGST drive formatted like this that was also able to be used 4kn in the same enclosure, but I also have another HGST drive that would not work 4kn in the same enclosure, so best to just use the easystore as is.  I believe I have tested this up to 16TB, but it may be 14TB has its been a few years.  I use the drives strictly has backups as there's a triple chance of catastrophic failure--the drive, the enclosure, or the enclosure's 4kn translation--a failure in any one of these will result in data loss.  Hope this helps.

Yes, thank you very much. I have read about this patch for 3TB hard disks.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/158361-2tib-external-usb-drive-and-winxp-of-course/

I understand that the partition style is MBR.
So can I buy a WD "Easystore" hard disks up to 16TB and apply the patch on Windows XP?
Is this hard disks readable by Windows Seven and 10 on the same computer?