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GPT Support ? >2TB Volumes ?

Locked GPT Support ? >2TB Volumes ?

  • Saturday, July 18, 2009 12:25 AM
     
     
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    Without getting into the whole 'raid' debate etc , anyone know if PP3 supports GPT for disks ?

    PP2 seemed to break all the hacks for a workaround to Home server wanting to format everything
    as an MBR and locked down to 2TB.

    With ISCSI units and all manor of SAS/SATA expanision trickery out there, it does seem strange that
    we're still hamstrung with 2TB.


       

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    • Saturday, July 18, 2009 1:04 AM
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      Without getting into the whole 'raid' debate etc , anyone know if PP3 supports GPT for disks ?

      To the best of my knowledge, no.  (There is definitely nothing in the documentation.)

      PP2 seemed to break all the hacks for a workaround to Home server wanting to format everything
      as an MBR and locked down to 2TB.

      With ISCSI units and all manor of SAS/SATA expanision trickery out there, it does seem strange that
      we're still hamstrung with 2TB.



      Considering the biggest single hard drive available in the market today is 2 TB, it's not strange at all.
      • Proposed As Answer by kariya21MVP, Moderator Saturday, July 18, 2009 1:04 AM
      • Marked As Answer by Da1ek Sunday, July 19, 2009 11:49 PM
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      • Saturday, July 18, 2009 8:57 AM
         
         
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        Considering the biggest single hard drive available in the market today is 2 TB, it's not strange at all.

        karuya21, thanks for responding so quickly, its sort of what i expected to hear.

        I agree that from the limited view of 'physical single drive' the point does not appear as strange. But as
        a home builder, I always return to is that the OS IS perfectly capable, people do want to install larger
        volume solutions in a variety of ways so the artifical 2TB limit.

        It just seems illogical to me, and I will admit to not having all the facts , that you would switch now to
        support larger 'disks', given you have all the bits you need to do it. The current version of Home Server
        is likely to be with us as the first 2.5 and 3TB units start to appear.

        Another MVP did suggest however that there is a certain terror in the home server development team
        when it comes to doing anything with the disk management sub systems given the corruption bug
        experience.

        For me it means looking long and hard at where to go outside of the home server world. Which is a
        real shame for me since i love all the other features it brings.

        If theres anyone in the dev team reading , go on , tell us why GPT is not an option please? It would at
        least provide the community with a definative answer and stop people like me whining ??


           
        • Saturday, July 18, 2009 2:56 PM
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          karuya21, thanks for responding so quickly, its sort of what i expected to hear.

          I agree that from the limited view of 'physical single drive' the point does not appear as strange. But as
          a home builder, I always return to is that the OS IS perfectly capable, people do want to install larger
          volume solutions in a variety of ways so the artifical 2TB limit.

          That may be true, but all of those would involve RAID (at this point anyway) and since RAID is unsupported, there is no reason for the WHS team to worry about it.

          It just seems illogical to me, and I will admit to not having all the facts , that you would switch now to
          support larger 'disks', given you have all the bits you need to do it. The current version of Home Server
          is likely to be with us as the first 2.5 and 3TB units start to appear.

          My guess is that if/when those start showing up, they will issue an update to change it.  Again, right now it's not necessary.

          Another MVP did suggest however that there is a certain terror in the home server development team
          when it comes to doing anything with the disk management sub systems given the corruption bug
          experience.

          For me it means looking long and hard at where to go outside of the home server world. Which is a
          real shame for me since i love all the other features it brings.

          If theres anyone in the dev team reading , go on , tell us why GPT is not an option please? It would at
          least provide the community with a definative answer and stop people like me whining ??



             
          • Sunday, July 19, 2009 9:02 AM
             
             
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            I think you need to understand the product differentiation between Windows Server and Windows Home Server. WHS is a 'complete' solution where you just keep adding discs (until you run out of interfaces ;-), whereas what you're talking about is a separate sub-system that manages storage - that is something you should connect to Windows Server. 

            It's a bit like joining a soccer team and then complaining you can't carry the ball in your hands - that would be a different game.
            WHS OEM patched - 1.6 TB
               
            • Sunday, July 19, 2009 11:49 PM
               
               
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              Hi Catsaver,

              Again i understand what your saying , I honestly do , but i have to argue that ultimately what we
              are talking about here is that the disc subsystem is largely irevelant as long as approrate
              drivers are in place to present DE with what its expecting.

              WHS is built on SBS, with SBS being completely capable of GPT and >2TB without modification. It is
              only DE's current default of only using MBR that triggered my question in the first place since prior to
              PP2, you could 'work' around the MBR limitation to use your own choice of disk.

              So I return to my orginal point.. with PP3 ( likely to be the last release this year for all we know the last
              before Veil ), the WHS team have the opertunity to open the door to larger volumes in what one MS
              representive previously refered to as 'minor' update.

              I dont like analogies, but before I mark Kariya21's orginal response as the answer I would like to put forward this,

              Its more like joining a Football team ( and I dont mean the one where they wear helmets ), and discovering
              that while they have the pitch , the ball , the goal posts , the strips and everything they need , turns out
              that your only allowed to play on one half of the pitch for no properly explained reason.