Maximum external storage size.

styoda · July 27, 2020 at 4:36 PM

Hi,

Does anyone know if there's a limit on the size of volume for an external storage device attached to LibreELEC ?

Thanks

**Klojum** · July 27, 2020 at 6:58 PM Official Post

The EXT4 format has a maximum filesystem size of 1,000,000 TB and maximum file size of 16TB, and a theoretical limit of 4 billion files.

How many videos were you planning to store?

styoda · July 27, 2020 at 10:05 PM

The external storage will be formatted in NTFS.

My storage device will be a Drobo, and the only option is to create a 64TB volume.

Will LibreELEC see the files on a 64TB volume. formatted in NTFS ?

**Nicolas** · July 28, 2020 at 12:16 AM

LE Supports NTFS.

NTFS Limit is 256tb disk/Volume size.

It should be okay.

**Klojum** · July 28, 2020 at 6:49 AM Official Post

Drobo devices are mostly NASes. I never heard of a NAS using NTFS, certainly not for 64TB volumes.

Most NASes are running Linux/Unix software, so NTFS again would be a curious option.

EXT4 would be a safer option IMHO. And with NTFS, it doesn't sound like it will be using RAID or something.

I would hate to lose a 64TB data partition on my drives...

**Nicolas** · July 28, 2020 at 7:14 AM

Some drobo products can be configurated as DAS maybe He is using such a device. Or He is using jbod...

styoda · July 29, 2020 at 2:46 AM

The Drobo is DAS, not NAS. It's the 5D range, Drobo 5D3 is the latest 5 disk array.

On the older Drobo's with DAS it used to be 16TB volumes, but with the newer versions it's now 64TB volumes. There's no option to create a smaller volume size.

It's a bit like Thin provisioning, so if you have 5 x 6TB disks installed, the volume still would show as 64TB even though the actual storage would be around 27TB (after the disks have been RAID configured)

The volume will be used for LibreELEC and Windows. Not sure EXT4 is supported with Windows.

**Klojum** · July 29, 2020 at 8:34 AM Official Post

Quote from styoda

Not sure EXT4 is supported with Windows.

There is an option to have Windows 10 read from EXT4 partitions, but not write.

In the end, EXT4 is a Linux thing. Windows doesn't really support it.

If your Drobo was a proper NAS, its disk format wouldn't matter because all would be done via network protocols.

**CvH** · July 29, 2020 at 10:48 AM Official Post

Quote from Klojum

There is an option to have Windows 10 read from EXT4 partitions, but not write.

there is at least Paragon that can read/write at Ext2/3/4 from Windows (shareware)

**Klojum** · July 29, 2020 at 11:25 AM Official Post

I'm not gonna trust some 3rd party tool for "mission-critical" data.

styoda · July 29, 2020 at 3:22 PM

Quote from Klojum

I'm not gonna trust some 3rd party tool for "mission-critical" data.

I agree.

On my old Drobo the volume size limit was 16TB which was formatted with NTFS. LibreELEC could read and write to this without a problem.

I was just asking if LibreELEC would be able to do the same on a 64TB volume. I think Nicolas answered my question.

Thanks for everyone's input.

**Nicolas** · July 29, 2020 at 4:26 PM

Quote from CvH

there is at least Paragon that can read/write at Ext2/3/4 from Windows (shareware)

I was using Paragon NTFS on MacOS 10.x to 10.4 (because Mac OS could Not write to NTFS) also Paragon HFS+ on Windows. Was working fine at that time.

Maximum external storage size.

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