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Installing NEW disc

Got problems with your B2 or B3? Share and get helped!
flimflam
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 Jul 2013, 10:06
Location: Slovakia

Installing NEW disc

Post by flimflam »

Is there a list of compatible HDDs? I think about WD30EFRX

http://www.wdc.com/global/products/spec ... language=1

When mounted do I have to install system from USB?
Source: http://wiki.excito.org/wiki/index.php/R ... ubba2_/_B3

Will the available version here: http://update.excito.net/install/latest/b3/

1) Support 3 TB disc?
2) Which files should I put on USB ( there are three )
ingo2
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 10:32

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by ingo2 »

I already replaced the HD in my B3 wit a larger one: Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632 (2TB with 512 B physical sectors).

I did 'dd' the complete old HD -> new HD, plugged it into the B3 and all was fine. Then you can manage the remaining free space after B3 has booted up again.

Regards,
Ingo
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
flimflam
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 Jul 2013, 10:06
Location: Slovakia

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by flimflam »

I did 'dd' the complete old HD -> new HD
means what? Is it in manual?
Binkem
Posts: 388
Joined: 10 Jul 2008, 02:26

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by Binkem »

yes your B3 should support 3TB disks. See also this post:

http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f ... tb#p21586

I don't know about 4TB disks. Would be nice though as my 2TB is filling up fast :)
ingo2
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 10:32

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by ingo2 »

flimflam wrote:
I did 'dd' the complete old HD -> new HD
means what? Is it in manual?
Just remove the old HD from B3, attach both (old and new) HD's to a SATA-port of your PC and use the Linux command 'dd' to transfer the content of the old one to the new (and larger) disk blockwise:

Code: Select all

dd if=<old disk> of=<new disk> bs=1M
Be careful to insert the proper device names for input and output. Takes depending on size and speed some hour.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by Gordon »

Binkem wrote:I don't know about 4TB disks. Would be nice though as my 2TB is filling up fast :)
Forget about 4TB disks. Currently the only 4TB disks that you can buy are desktop class hard drives and these will get far too warm inside the B3 enclosure.

As far as the WD red series is concerned there doesn't seem to be much difference with the green series. The drive logic appears to be the same, except for the part where the green drive wants to power down after just 8 seconds of inactivity. With the 5 minute patch in place I'm fairly certain both drives will behave the same except if you can manage to get the B3 in a non I/O state for more than 5 minutes. Moneywise this makes the green drives the better choice.
ingo2
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 10:32

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by ingo2 »

Gordon wrote: With the 5 minute patch in place I'm fairly certain both drives will behave the same except if you can manage to get the B3 in a non I/O state for more than 5 minutes. Moneywise this makes the green drives the better choice.
It's that nasty easyfind which calls every 5 minutes.
I solved it with:

Code: Select all

/etc/init.d/bubba-easyfind stop
update-rc.d -f bubba-easyfind remove
and my HD sleeps well with 1 - 2 spin-ups per day - if nothing else is active.

Ingo

EDIT: and dont't forget to "tune" dovecot's multiple time-synchronisation - if I recall well it also frequently touches the HD. I once wrote details in another thread here: http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 5&start=30
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by Gordon »

ingo2 wrote:EDIT: and dont't forget to "tune" dovecot's multiple time-synchronisation - if I recall well it also frequently touches the HD. I once wrote details in another thread here: http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 5&start=30
Yeah... There's lots of stuff going on in that little machine. When I first got my B3 it was horde constantly accessing the disk and the first thing you were supposed to do was get rid of all those cron jobs related to horde (there's a wiki about it). Next it was the revised easyfind service being the culprit, but the fact is that these are all services that kick in once every few minutes. The thing however that drives everyone mad is the constant (!) rattling the drive produces and if you do the math on the LCC it counts down to more than once ever minute since you first powered it on. That is not caused by a service that does something every 5 minutes, although of course it does contribute that every 5 minutes.

Essentially by having the 5 minute patch the drive will be spinning practically 24/7, so my B3 will have a higher average power consumption than claimed by Excito. On my electric bill that will probably about € 5,- yearly, which is peanuts compared to having to replace the disk every 1-2 year.
flimflam
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 Jul 2013, 10:06
Location: Slovakia

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by flimflam »

Ok, guys BACK TO TOPIC.

I have asked regarding list of approved HDDs...is there something? Did someone allready installed mentioned Western Digital - WD30EFRX. I do not want to claim at the shop.

@Ingo ... thank you for explanation, but if i have naked disc that means i need PC with Linux + two more SATA free slots. Not possible with W7 laptop. Other question is how to get from 1T - 3T working in B3 ...or will it show automatically 3T minus what was cloned from the original? Or do i have to make new partition when allready inserted in B3?
ingo2
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 10:32

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by ingo2 »

flimflam wrote:Ok, guys BACK TO TOPIC.
@Ingo ... thank you for explanation, but if i have naked disc that means i need PC with Linux + two more SATA free slots. Not possible with W7 laptop.
Hi flimflam,

sorry for assuming you have a Linux-PC at hand ;-). In your case you could use a special live distribution which is designed exactly for those purposes: http://clonezilla.org/ .

With that you can save your complete (original from B3) old disk to an image-file (automatically it splits into 2GB chunks) on your laptop (consider spacce!). After that you can "restore" the complete disk-image on your new empty HD. You do not have to bother with partititions etc. it will "copy" the complete disk including MBR and other hidden sectors. The new disk should just boot up as before in your B3.

In case you do not have an eSATA port on your laptop, you also may use an SATA<->USB adapter, but:

consider the transfer rates! It will take many hours to copy the whole disk at only 30MB/s via USB 2.0 (despite Clonezilla only transfers used sectors and does compression.

With regard to your disk:
make sure to select a 5200 rpm type (power consumption and heat) and that is rated 24/7. My 2TB Hitachi has both and after setting the spin-down timer to 20 minutes in
/etc/hdparm.conf

Code: Select all

# Zeit = 240 * 5sec = 20 min.
/dev/sda {
spindown_time = 240
}
it sleeps most time of the day and just wakes up once or twice for the schedules cron jobs.
(another thing tat WD-disks don't support, they do not follow the standard ATA-settings)

While sleeping it even consumes less power than the B3 just shut down without unplugging it from mains!
(another bad habit of the design).

Ingo
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
Gordon
Posts: 1461
Joined: 10 Aug 2011, 03:18

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by Gordon »

ingo2 wrote:With that you can save your complete (original from B3) old disk to an image-file (automatically it splits into 2GB chunks) on your laptop (consider spacce!). After that you can "restore" the complete disk-image on your new empty HD. You do not have to bother with partititions etc. it will "copy" the complete disk including MBR and other hidden sectors. The new disk should just boot up as before in your B3.
Can't do that when moving from 1TB to 3TB, unless the 1TB is also configured to use GPT. Best put in the new disk and use the install stick to create the base system. After booting that fresh system do a system restore and copy your data back in.
ingo2
Posts: 81
Joined: 06 Feb 2012, 10:32

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by ingo2 »

Gordon wrote: Can't do that when moving from 1TB to 3TB, unless the 1TB is also configured to use GPT.
I purchased my B3 in February 2012 with an 500GB WD-disk built in. That already was partititioned with GPT and the move to my 2TB went smoothly using 'dd'.

Ingo

EDIT: of course I had to "repair" the GPT afterwards so it reflects the new disk geometry (did it with 'gparted'). Clonzilla however is supposed to do that automatically.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
johannes
Posts: 1470
Joined: 31 Dec 2006, 07:12
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by johannes »

Ok guys, list of tested and approved disks:

WD Green (both -DS and -RS)
WD Red
Seagate Green
All disks verified up to 3 TB

..and:
ST500DM002 (Seagate regular 500 MB)


Main issue with other disks is temperature. The passive cooling does not go well with 10k rpm drives. Of course there are other options than the above that will work, and you can also use warmer disks if you place the B3 in a cool place. You don't risk warranty for trying other disks, the only thing at risk if you choose a too warm disk is the disk itself (the B3 itself can take 80 degrees+).
/Johannes (Excito co-founder a long time ago, but now I'm just Johannes)
flimflam
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 Jul 2013, 10:06
Location: Slovakia

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by flimflam »

Ok, thank you for short list ( better than nothing )...but regarding topic:

http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3475

I am not quite sure what to buy. Hm?
flimflam
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 Jul 2013, 10:06
Location: Slovakia

Re: Installing NEW disc

Post by flimflam »

Ok, let´s stay by the WD Green :-(...see there is no sense to continue with the topic how many times is the disc used from internal software within one hour. There is another topic for that.

But back to installing. To install new WD Green disc i can only download from here: http://update.excito.net/install/latest/b3/ version 2.4.1.1 and there are three files:

b3-install-2.4.1.1.zip
b3-install-2.4.1.1.zip.sha1
b3-install-2.4.1.1.zip.sha256

Do I have only to create /install folder in the FAT32 USB stick? What with other files.

Main question is: Does this version already support 3TB disc?

And than, how to get all data from already removed first disc (1 TB delivered with new B3 ) to new one.
How to connect naked HDD to the B3?

Will not be there problem with rights when attached ( SATA port ) to another PC?
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