NTFS Error Getting Available Space on 2TB Drive

[o0o0o0o0]

I have freeNAS sharing out some NTFS usb HDDs that are small in size (these shares are read/write, so that is really working perfectly), but when I attach a drive that is 2TB and import it, I see "Error getting available space" and I cant read/write or share out the disk.

 

[Ericloewe]

You should not be using NTFS with FreeNAS! The only acceptable (but still not recommended) use is to copy over data during migration from some other platform. Additionally, you should not be using USB drives, as those are known to cause a lot of problems.

 

[o0o0o0o0]

what kind of problems?

 

[krikboh]

Most USB to SATA bridges do not properly pass SMART information and create the risk of drive failures with no warning.

 

[o0o0o0o0]

Is that all?


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[krikboh]

That and of course the speed limit of USB compared to SATA. Using NTFS formatted drives is a separate issue. As Ericloewe said, NTFS support is only intended to allow you to transfer data off existing drives to your ZFS storage. If you continue to use NTFS drives you are guaranteed to lose data.

 

[o0o0o0o0]

Why do you think I'm trying to attach the 2TB if not for data transfer....


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[krikboh]

Your initial post gave the impression you had the NTFS drives permanently mounted with shares setup. If you are just trying to transfer the data over to your ZFS pool that is fine. To resolve the issue with accessing the larger drive try reattaching it to a Windows machine and make sure to properly eject the drive before disconnecting from Windows.

 

[gpsguy]

In addition to what krikboh said, run chkdsk on it when connected to the windows machine.


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[o0o0o0o0]

Thank you krikboh, I appreciate that freeNAS is a labor of love from all of the devs associated with it and as such I make no demands, however, I would like to mention that I had been transferring data by attaching NTFS disks to windows and then doing the data transfer. But I found that even with gigabit ports, gigabit switches and cat6 cable the transfers are much slower than those done from directly attached disks. Given that the larger NTFS volumes are the ones that are the greatest candidates for direct attach transfers I had hoped that there would be some way. On the contrary, I got the impression from others posts in this thread that the solution is to discourage anyone from using NTFS.


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[o0o0o0o0]

Wilco gpsguy, and funny you mention it, my windows server just went south after bad sectors rendered it incapable of being fixed even by chkdsk.


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[krikboh]

Transfer using NTFS drives is discouraged. The support in FreeNAS is flaky and risky. I'm surprised you would see faster transfer rates over USB compared to a gigabit connection. USB 2.0 throughput usually maxes out around 25 MB/s and gigabit should be much faster depending on your hardware.

 

[o0o0o0o0]

Might be my disks then. This is all being done on a prototyping network cobbled together from 2nd hand parts.... The 2TB disk is sitting in a HDD caddy. It has USB3 ports, but the NAS box only has USB2. I might have to attach it via SATA to a windows box.


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[cyberjock]

Definitely do Windows on SATA.. ;)