Yes, it will be used exclusively for Linux. And all one partition as XFS or EXT4.
Thank you .
bosdad
In one of our laptops the Western Digital internal hard drive failed after exactly 364 days of using the computer (back in 2011). Shortly before Christmas one of my external hard drives failed after less than a year of using it. It was a Western Digital hard drive. I plan to buy a new one tomorrow; and it won’t be a WD hard drive, that’s for sure (although I know that any hard drive will fail one day).
Michael
http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/annual_failure.jpg
http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/36_month.jpg
Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/seagate-hard-drives-exhibit-surprisingly-high-failures-rates-in-reliability-test-hitachi-leads-the-pack
Source: http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
On 2015-01-04 23:16, bosdad wrote:
>
> Hello, everyone.
>
> My wife is running SuSE 13.2 on her desktop computer. Yesterday her
> Seagate external drive failed. It starts to spin-up when connected
> to house electricity but then shuts off after about 5-6 seconds. It is
> the third Seagate to fail in the past two years (two of the drives
> connected by USB and the third by Firewire), so I’m really hesitant to
> give that company another try.
Notice that it is possibly the enclosure which breaks down, not the disk
inside. You could try buying an external (empty) enclosure, and insert
in it the Seagate hard disk.
Me, I only use seagates. I considered buying an external seagate
yesterday, but in the end I did what I always do: buy the HD and
enclosure separately (in the same shop). I prefer an enclosure designed
to be opened. And I want them to have both USB and eSATA connectors, and
the later are disappearing and being replaced by USB3 on the shops.
Then, treat powered hard disks as more fragile than eggs. Do not move
them at all when they are spinning. If you absolutely need to, then do
it slowly and very smoothly. As if handling an sleeping person and not
wanting it to wake up.
> I just called technical support at Western Digital to see what they
> offered in Linux-compatible external drives. I was told “We don’t
> support Linux. Some of our drives might work but we don’t guarantee that
> they will.”
>
> Great. That did not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about WD.
People handling the phone on these companies are as useful as flower pots.
All hard disk companies sell tons of disks to companies using other
things than Windows, like Unix or Linux (like google servers). Rubbish
saying they don’t support it. What they don’t support is making Linux
diagnostic software, or preparing external preformatted hard disks in
Linux filesystems. Hard disks themselves don’t care.
> What can you recommend in a 3 or 4 TB external drive that is
> Linux-compatible?
Warning: in my recent hunt for external hard disks, I noticed many
enclosures specifying a maximum of 2 TB when used with USB2. USB3 or
eSATA enclosures specified larger limits, 3 or 4 TB.
I can not recommend enclosures for you, as I live in a different
continent. What I bought yesterday is “Sharkoon Rapid-Case 3.5”
USB+eSATA". I do not like it very much (I had one fail recently), but it
is the only one I could find with both USB and eSATA. 2TB max. There is
another, more recent model, with USB3 only, 4TB max.
Previously I used Jazz (Enermax) enclosures. I have several since years
and none has failed; but I can’t locate them any more. I don’t know the
size limit of those.
Before that I used Cooler Master™ Xcraft. I had two, and both failed the
same way: the disks inside could not spin up. Similar to your issue. I
suspect power supply failure, or internal regulator. Dunno.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
On 2015-01-08 16:46, Miuku wrote:
>
> [image: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/annual_failure.jpg]
> [image: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/36_month.jpg]
>
> Source: http://tinyurl.com/k2tco7e
> Source:
> http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
Mmm.
My best local supplier has only one Hitachi, the “Hitachi Deskstar
7K4000 4TB SATA III”, at 178€, which is too expensive for me. And I
prefer 2 TB sizes.
http://www.pccomponentes.com/discos_duros_3_5_sata-hitachi.html
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
On 2015-01-06 04:56, Fraser Bell wrote:
>
> Cloddy;2687340 Wrote:
> In my opinion, -this- is the best way to do it. Using an external HD
> bay or docking device and installing regular internal drives is actually
> more sound, and when a disk does happen to fail, it is a lot less
> expensive to replace it this way then to buy a sealed external HD unit.
I have one internal docking device on the desktop, and an external one
for the laptop. The internal one failed recently, but so far reseating
the SATA cable worked.
And instead of sealed units, you can buy external (empty) enclosures,
more sturdy and compact than docking stations.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)
OK, I now have two WD 3 TB external My Book Harddrives. I have no idea how to format them and I cannot figure out GParted to save my life. Can anyone give me some SIMPLE instructions on how to format these two drives?
They do not need multiple partitions – they’re just going to be used to backup my wife’s pix and movies and music, all to one partition on each drive.
At present when I look in GParted I see the following for the first drive I’m trying to format (XFS is fine).
At the top in the long horizontal box which I would assume shows partitioning if done it now says: /dev/sdb1 2.73 TiB
Below that is the following:
Partition : /dev/sdb1 (there is a small key to the right of this and then a small box with nothing in it)
File System: XFS
Mount point: /run/media/gil/f25acc09-6cc9-45ae-b7e5-4e4d620ae4f5
Size: 2.73 TiB
Used: 1.40 GiB
Unused 2.73 TiB
Flags: type
I am making a wild guess here that the mount point might be the problem? But I have no idea what to do, what changes need to be made, or how to make them.
In its present state I cannot copy anything to the HD.
So if anyone can help me out with SIMPLE instructions I’d be most appreciative.
Thanks very much.
bosdad
You can’t use Yast -Partitions??
If these are USB they may not need explicit mounts but you can set that there if you want as well as define partitions and set format.
Or maybe I actually have formatted the drive and did not realize it? If I have, then how to I get the drive to accept drag and drop coping of files for backup? Is the problem still that mount point? Seems to this Linux-dummy that the mount point should be something like /dev/sdb1, not the long mess that I quoted above. At present when I try to drag and drop I’m told at the bottom of the H/D’s Dolphin window: "Access denied: Could not write to ‘/run/media/gil…’ with a long string of numbers and letters as mentioned above. These change each time I connect the HD.
Gads, this is so frustrating. What happened to simple plug and play? 
bosdad
Sorry, I just don’t understand. I see where I can format to XFS, but what about the mount point? What do I set that as so I can do drag and drop? Right now it comes up with that crazy long string of numbers and letters I described previously. If I leave it as-is I get the same error message as just described.
Still says “Access denied…”
If I delete that and insert /dev/sdb1 it fails with an even longer string of numbers and letters.
Can you give me specifics on how to do this?
Thanks!
bosdad
You can set by how you refer to the disk+partition choices are by-id by-path by-uuid uuid is the long seemingly random number
If you see were to select the format you can also select the mount point on the right. there are some pre made points but you can type any valid non-system directory name. Don’t see how you can miss it
Since it is USB you don’t have to mount it it will auto-mount
You can also select any valid format you don’t have to use xfs.
Yes, I see “format partition” and I can select “XFS.”
To the right of that I see “Mount Partition” and below that is the dropdown box with these choices:
- that long string of letters and numbers
- /srv
- /tmp
- /usr/local
What should I choose? Does it matter? You say I can give it any non-system directory name. How about /dev/sdb1? That doesn’t seem to work, or is that a system directory name I can’t use? Sorry, it’s not obvious to me.
Or should I choose not to mount?
Thx
bosdad
No no no type what ever into the box don’t select one from the drop down!!! Those for the most part are system directories
lets say we want to mount off the root partition at /mydata1
type /mydata1 into the box
If you want to mount it in your home
type
/home/yourusernamehere/mydata1
Since these drives may not be plugged in you want to be sure to add nofail as an option otherwise the machine won’t boot if the drive is not available. This is in fstab options
If you give that file system a label, then the long string of letters will change to the label that you give.
That way, when you plug it in, by default it will mount to /run/media/user/label . That’s if you don’t add an “fstab” entry.
To create the label, use xfs_admin. As for permissions, create directories with suitable permissions at the top level.
Is there any specific need to automatically mount the drive on boot up?
There can be complications from that, such as when the drive is not attached (you would have to use nofail, then, for example).
Also, if they are not mounted, they are safe from any unwanted access.
I tend to never have them mount when attached or when booting or logging in.
Instead, when I want to access them, I open Dolphin and click on the partition I want to open in the left panel.
I suggest that might be a better way, and you do not have to muck around with fstab or anything else, then.
Looking at what you are saying, I believe the drives are pre-formatted, or partially pre-formatted, and they have some content, which is probably Windows based utilities for backing up and so forth.
I would simply delete all existing partitions, and the easiest way in GParted would be to go to (menu at the top) Device=>Create Partition Table.
Select to create a GPT partition table (GPT is the only one of the options that will work properly on drives that are 2-Tebibytes and larger.)
Note that this will wipe everything on the drive, but if you have not been backing up anything to it, that is just fine. It will warn you, of course.
After you have selected that action, go to Edit=>Apply All Operations
When it has concluded successfully, click on the blank unallocated space in the graphical representation right below the menu, then go to Partition=>New
A dialogue pops up, and you can choose the size. Allow it to choose the entire drive.
Choose MiB Alignment for best results and fastest access with modern systems.
Choose a file system to format to (ext4, XFS, BTRFS, or whichever you prefer).
Again, go to Edit=>Apply All Operations
When completed, go to Partition=>Label, give it a meaningfull name so that you (or your wife) will easily recognize it in Dolphin for mounting and for drag & drop copying.
Once more, go to Edit=>Apply All Operations
When completed, you should be good to go.
You may have to set permissions, though, so if still unable to access it as a user, come back for further help.
BTW:
GParted has a very good help file, good enough that most neophytes should be able to follow it.
Just go to the Help part of the menu and take a look. It will help you understand a few usefull things about partitioning drives.
I appreciate the help. I really do, but I don’t understand. I can find fstab in etc/fstab. But where do I change the fstab options in this file? And how do I add nofail?
This is not Linux for Dummies stuff, and that’s the level that I’m at.
Thanks.
bosda
Sorry, again, I’m confused. Now the suggestion is NOT to use an fstab entry. With my limited knowledge I feel as if I’m being spun in circles and don’t know which way to turn. 
Create a label using xfs_admin? What is that? Permissions? At the top level?
Linux for Dummies. Linux for Dummies. Linux for Dummies.
Thank you .
bosdad
Sorry about that.
You can use “fstab” or not. That’s your choice.
With an “fstab” entry, you specify exactly how the file system is to be mounted. But you might finish up needing to keep the external drive always turned on and plugged in.
Without an “fstab” entry, the drive does not need to be always plugged in. It will mount automatically when you plug it in. I think you will find that easier to use. But it is your choice.
If you go without an “fstab” entry, then having a file system label is a way to have some control over the name where the file system is mounted. One way to create a label (for an “xfs” file system) is to use “xfs_admin”. Someone suggested “gparted” as an easier way to assign labels. And, yes, I agree that you will probably find that easier. However, you might first need to install “gparted” (which you can do using Yast).
Permissions? At the top level?
Maybe get the mounting the way that you want it. Then come back and ask about permissions. Let’s do this one step at a time.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion.
Well some of your “Edit=>Apply All Operations” were greyed out but I think (?) I got to the end of your instructions.
Still cannot drag and drop to the HD. “Access denied…” The mount point now (on my wife’s computer) says /run/media/blonde… (that long string of letters and numbers).
I don’t know what to do. Sorry to keep playing that same song, but something just is not going right. Either I’m not understanding your instructions or I’m mixing yours with someone else’s, or “permissions” need to be set (I have absolutely no idea how to do that).
Do I need to change the mount point? If yes, how?
If I need to change permissions, how?
Thanks for your patience with me. Like Winnie the Pooh I am a bear of very small brain. I just want my wife to be able to plug the drive into her computer and back up files. Simple, right? No, it ain’t as simple as it seems.
bosdad