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Actually the EVA recognizes drives larger than "564GB", just not 2TB drives at this time. i.e. There's a whole forum thread in the Netgear.com forums ( http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=36449 ) that have drives EVA9150 users have tried that work with the EVA. The largest drive listed that works looks to be a 1.5TB drive, so it seems it's just the 2TB drives that are causing problems. I seem to remember that the ReadyNAS also had some issues with the 2TB drive size and needed some code changes to be able to address drives this large, so the EVA probably needs the same sort of changes.
Categories: How-Tos (EVA9150 & 9100)
I'm posting this thread for anyone that might have had a similar hard drive issue. My issue revolved around having purchased a 2000Gb hard drive only to later discover that it was not "qualified" as per tech support. Not being one to give up quite so easily; I embarked on a "Why Not" quest to discover why my 2000Gb would not perform correctly. The following text is a cut and paste of an email as sent to tech support. It is, I think pretty self explanatory. But if there are questions, please feel free to comment.
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This is to follow up in regard to the hard drive incompatibility issue as previously conveyed to you in detail. I am pleased to report that the 2Tb drive is now fully functional on EVA. This is not to say that the 2Tb hard drive should be considered as a “Netgear qualified hard drive ” or even a hard drive that has been found to be EVA compatible. The fact of the matter is that the 2Tb hard drive is now compatible only because a way was found to circumvent an obvious EVA firmware glitch. To briefly explain; · The 2Tb hard drive “out of the box” was pre-formatted. When performing a EVA format, a format was completed, but… the 2Tb hard drive was only formatted to 564Gb. · Using a separate Linux system, the EVA partition was destroyed and recreated for 2Tb. · With the hard drive back in EVA it was found that EVA did not favorably respond to the Linux partition. However, partial functionality of the hard drive was found to be available. A "full scan" reveals all files on the hard drive and these files may be played. However, all hard drive menu functions are invisible (blocked). Moreover, hard drive network accessibility is also prohibited. · The EVA hard drive was again re-formatted using EVA’s internal format routine. And again, the hard drive was disconnected from EVA and connected to a Linux system with the intent that the 564Gb partition be this time extended to 2Tb (as opposed to destroyed/recreated as was initially performed). With the hard drive connected to Linux, it was discovered that EVA had successfully performed its own format routine and that this format now included the entire 2Tb capacity of the hard drive. Loading files on the hard drive and mounting it on EVA reveals that the hard drive is in fact 100 percent EVA compatible and possesses a 2000Gb storage capacity. Mere logic leads us to conclude that EVA’s format routine code must include some form of the following conditional statements: · If the existing hard drive format is not Linux; Format the drive as dependant on the drive’s storage capacity up to a maximum of 564Gb.· If the hard drive format is Linux; Format the hard drive to the hard drive’s maximum capacity. This simple “if it’s Linux, do this; if it’s not, do that” conditional statement in the EVA format routine represents an obvious programming error. It should by all means be made known to your development team. We can reasonably conclude from the forgoing that any hard drive not currently listed in the woefully outdated EVA “qualified hard drive” list possessing a storage capacity of greater than 564Gb is constrained to whatever fractional portion of its total storage capacity that 564Gb may represent. In my specific case this represented 564/2000 or ~28 percent. As always, thank you for your kindness and assistance.
February 9, 2010 5:26 PM
February 9, 2010 5:35 PM
Hi Michael ~
Thanks for your reply. My number two issue was Netgear's total indiffence to the problem. I hate when that happens. Ergo my spending way too much time and effort in solving the problem, albeit if only for myself. The quick and dirty solution for anybody not running Linux (I'm XP Pro) is to load a Linux emulator, format the drive, then let EVA foramt it again. Sounds simple and it is. The hard part was figuring out that this is what will take care of the problem. BTW; this was my 2nd gripe. My first was that IFO's file names get converted to lower case. Linux; being case sensitive, will not play them. Again; Netgear wasn't exactly cooperative until I sent them a DVD. They then conceeded that there is a problem but can't say when a firmware update could be expected to be forthcoming. I thought getting an EVA was a great idea. Turns out its work.
Thanks again!
February 10, 2010 9:55 AM
I also ran across the case sensitivity issue on the EVA, but found that it was only when using the internal copy routines in the EVA that changed the case. Dragging them over the network using SMB kept the case correct, so just as an FYI for anyone reading this, if you drag-n-drop files to the EVA HD over the network you shouldn't run into this problem.
February 10, 2010 2:05 PM
By the way...
This brings up another issue. Drag & Drop or copying over files via USB is agonizingly slow! For example; a 3Gb DVD ISO takes about 20 minutes via USB; Drag & Drop of the same filesize requires about 90 minutes! Bear in mind that the transfer of this file from computer to USB external drive takes all of about 8 minutes.
NOTE: The same external USB drive copied over the 3Gb DVD ISO from the computer in 8 minutes was used to transfer the DVD ISO to EVA's hard drive... again taking about 20 minutes to do so.
In order to load DVD ISO's to the EVA hard drive (before Christmas 2012 arrives) I have to remove the EVA hard drive, connect it to my computer (Linux Emulator) and load the ISO/TAG files from there. I don't want to do this... but there simply seems to be no way around it; the EVA USB port acts like something from circa 1980. I wonder if this is a "its just me" probelem or if all EVA users are experiencing this problem... and are just resigned to it. Any feed back would be more then welcomed.
February 10, 2010 2:19 PM
updated: February 10, 2010 4:07 PM
Actually if you do a search on the Netgear EVA9150 forums you'll see quite a few threads on the speeds of the USB ports and also on copying over the network. The USB ports are definitely slower than expected, but then I see similar issues with USB transfers on the ReadyNAS (though I think the ReadyNAS is still faster, I haven't done a comparison). Since I don't do drag-n-drop copies of large data anymore to the internal hard drive (I do an external ESATA connection now for large file copies), I don't remember the exact speeds I was seeing, but 3GB in 1 1/2 hours seems like a problem if you're using a wired connection when doing this. (wireless is a completely different story as we know) One suggestion would be depending on what your setup is, if you can do NFS connections between the EVA9150 and the PC/NAS/etc., you could try that to see if it speeds things up...
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