Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB compatibility?

[jeprira]

I installed a pair in RAID 1 on a 209+II about a month ago.

I had to realign because I used a rebuild array from an older disk and the performance was abissmal.

It took a while (4 or 5 hours).

They have been great ever since. Silent, cool. No issues.

[gdtrfb55]

I guess my research was incomplete since I overlooked this, which, I believe, answers my question.

A few paragraphs down, in the discussion of manually partitioning a 4K disk using older Linux tools, it states:

Make sure that all partitions start on a multiple of 8 sectors (8x 512B = 4KB) and that partition sizes are multiples of 8 sectors. Make sure that there is space left at the start of partitions as required. For example on a boot drive, do not start at sector 0 as there needs to be space for the boot code. Sector 64 is a good start point or even 2048 which would be a 1MB boundary. Also extended partitions will need a gap between their start point and the first logical partition contained within them.

Since Western Digital was the first company to introduce 4K drives, I assume they know what they're talking about.

I'm posting this before my OP was moderated, so thanks to anyone who responds to the OP before they read this.

[sinergi]

Hi Synology folks... any ETA on testing these drives? I noticed they are not on the compatibility list yet.

[Demonen]

But i was curious about the 4k sector problem? What is this exactly? Is it also a problem for the samsung HD or only the WD disks?
How can I know that there is a problem and how can i solve it?

Do I need to format the new HD before I use it the first time? This is my first NAS so I don't know that this is necessary?

You should be fine if you use the latest installer software according to this post and many more:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=24227#p109904

thanks for the response.

I installed my first NAS yesterday evening. I think that is working ok with the Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB. I used the latest firmware from the synology download center.

/
Hi there you have also an hd204ui like me, tried to find the newest FW for it.. can you please give me link ? Thanks in advance

[hasta666]

I installed a pair in RAID 1 on a 209+II about a month ago.

I had to realign because I used a rebuild array from an older disk and the performance was abissmal.

It took a while (4 or 5 hours).

They have been great ever since. Silent, cool. No issues.

How did you correct this manually? I'm planning to exchange one of my four HD103UJ with an HD204UI, however I'm fearing the new drive won't be formatted correctly 'cause of the old drives not using 4k...

[AxelS]

Hi there you have also an hd204ui like me, tried to find the newest FW for it.. can you please give me link ? Thanks in advance

I think he was talking about Synology FW, not HD FW.

[Nelviticus]

Hi, the 204UI is now on the official compatibility list:
http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php? ... _id=62#3.5

[compet_pl]

Hi, the 204UI is now on the official compatibility list:
http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php? ... _id=62#3.5

So, I changed HD203WI to HD204UI this night.

Everything works ok. The temperature is about 4 degrees lower then the rest of the disks.

Regards

[shred_head_fred]

Hi, I've got an HD204UI which has been installed for a month or two. I've got about 1Tb of data on it and I want to move some 600Gb onto it temporarily. When copying this stuff it's started writing REALLY SLOW and stuttering, like jumping between 3MB/sec and next to nothing...

It's in a DS209 along with a Hitachi 2Tb (HDS722020ALA330) as 2 basic disks, no raid, oh and a 250Gb 2.5" USB backup drive. It looks to me like I might have a sector alignment problem?

Code: Select all

DiskStation> uname -r
2.6.24
DiskStation> fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63     1574369      787153+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2         1574370     2361554      393592+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3         2634660 18446744073321608384 18446744073514262671+  fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1              63     1574369      787153+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2         1574370     2361554      393592+  fd  Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3         2634660 18446744073321608355 18446744073514262656    f  Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5         2650756 18446744073321608355 18446744073514254608   fd  Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdk: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdk1             256   488392064   244195904+  83  Linux
DiskStation>

I'm not sure how to tell which disk is which (sda/sdb) but they're both showing "Start 63".. and what the hell is "Win95 Ext'd (LBA)"?!!!

Anyone got any suggestions on how to fix this?

[maxxfi]

To identify which disk is which, you can e.g. use command
"cat /proc/scsi/scsi"
first one listed (scsi0) should be sda, second listed is sdb

The "Win95 Ext'd (LBA)" is what you maybe know as 'extended partition'.
It is just a container for the 'logical partition' sdb5

About the slowness, I don't know what can be the cause, but if the HD204UI uses 4kb-sectors yes it is
true that is not using that.

[frold]

It looks to me like I might have a sector alignment problem?

This is what I get when typing

Code: Select all

fdisk -lu

Code: Select all

DiskStation> fdisk -lu 

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1             256     4980735     2490240  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda2         4980736     9175039     2097152  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda3         9437184  3907024064  1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1             256     4980735     2490240  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb2         4980736     9175039     2097152  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb3         9437184  3907024064  1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect


[jramskov]

Unless my eyes fail me, I can see that the drive is now on the supported list for the DS209 but it's apparently not supported by the DS207. The HD203WI is supported by the DS207.

Anyone knows why this is?

DS209: http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php? ... duct_id=29
DS207: http://www.synology.com/support/hd.php? ... duct_id=15

[maxxfi]

I might be mistaken, but I think the x07 series doesn't have for newer kernel versions,
and support for 4k-block disks is present only in those.

[jramskov]

I might be mistaken, but I think the x07 series doesn't have for newer kernel versions,
and support for 4k-block disks is present only in those.

I would have thought since the DS207 models are supported by DSM 3, it would support that as well?

[fishpatrol]

The DS207 list doesn't put the F4EG in the "Not recommended" list. I'm hoping testing for these models isn't yet complete. Waiting a little longer before buying for my DS207+, though.