Full drive capacity not available on NMH410 [ Edited ]

[acmm1899]

Hello

I have a new Cisco Media Hub NMH410 and have added a 3TB SATA drive (new) into the second bay i.e., the original WD 1TB drive which came with the unit resides in the first bay and an additional SeaGate 3TB drive is installed in the second bay.  

I have completed the setup process in Linear 2 mode (and updated the firmware etc), and there is no media or data on either of the drives, however my total available capacity is only 1.6TB when I was expecting something around 3.6TB.

Has enybody encountered this issue also?  Are there any solutions to this?  Obviously the hub is quite inneffective if it cannot make a reasonable amount of the drive space available, and its not cost-effective to add high capacity drives.

Thanks in advance to anybody that can help

[Network Tricker]

Hi there,

I’m afraid that it could be a hardware incompatibility issue coz I just checked from the linksys knowledge base website and I found out that your hard disk is not one of the tested hardware.

Anyway, having such disk space info would simply mean that there are some files utilizing the disks. As far as I know, the media hub has 2 main folders or partitions, the “media” and “backup” and without noticing, you might have specified an auto backup to the NMH using the NTI shadow which somehow utilizes the disk space on the NMH. So better check the “backup” folder as well.

However, if you can’t find any other factor causing the issue then you may give a try reformatting both drives and then re-establish Linear2. After the reformat, take both drives out from the NMH (unplug the power cable while doing so). You may then insert the 3 TB to slot A on the NMH then turn the NMH on. When the NMH is ready, try to access it and check if it will give the correct disk space info. If it will, then you may reinsert the other disk to the slot B and reconfigured both disks to linear 2.

           Note: Make sure all files in the NMH are all back up before reformatting.

Hope this helps. 

[acmm1899]

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to come back me and providing these suggestions, and I will try your idea of reformatting both drives and swapping bays.

In my case both drives are brand new and completely clean.  I bypassed both the NTI setup and Media Importer features so there is nothing on either drive other than the necessary system files, thus why I'd expect the available capacity to be somewhere around 3.6-3.8TB.

Based on many of the other posts in the Media Hub forums I think the root cause could be any one the following.  If anybody has experienced the same and managed to overcome this, or has expertise when it comes to this hardware then I'd appreciate any advice:

1. It could be due to the newer 4kB disk sectors and the unofficial guidance from other users that the Media Hub works best with older 512B sector drives - however some users have reported that they have successfully been able to install 4kB drives.

2. Maybe each bay can only support a maximum drive size, and 3TB exceeds this limit? - however there are no specs in the user guide or online to clarify what this limit, if any, is.

3. It could be because the drives are mismatched in terms of manufacturer (Seagate v WD), capacity (3TB v 1TB), interface (SATA6 v SATA 3), and/or cache (64MB v 32MB) - I could understand that this could be an issue in RAID1 setup but would think that Linear2/RAID0 would be ok?

4. Although a longshot, it could be because the 3TB drive is SATA6 interface and/or 64MB cache spec - both of which are newer than what was common in 2009 when the Media Hub was first released.

As I mentioned if there is anybody who has experience or expertise with this then I'd value your input to try and identify what the root cause is.

Also I note from the similar posts that in almost all cases somebody will respond with the tested hardware list, which is useful but this is outdated by 2 years now, and as far as I can find most of these drives are no longer on the market.

More curious is that fact that Cisco have rarely responded or solved the majority of the similar posts on this topic.  I think that despite the fact that product line is now discontinued, some clear guidance or definitive clarification from Cisco would beneficial?

Cheers

[Network Tricker]

Hi,

I’ll be glad to get a feedback from you if the suggested procedure will make a difference.

The root causes you mentioned are technically possible which somehow give me a hint too. I’m lucky enough to read this post because it happened that I was also planning to purchase a 3TB hard disk for the 2nd bay. Now I’m thinking to just stick to the hardware tested list. I guess I can still find one from an online store.

[acmm1899]

Hi

Just to update any other Media Hub owners out there (existing and potential), through my research it has become clear that the Media Hub not only has some problems supporting 4kB disk sectors, but it also cannot support modern SATA 3.0 interface drives.  Additionally it can only support drives up to 2TB i.e., the maximum storage would be 2 x 2TB.

From my discussions with Linksys Support there is no firmware update on the horizon to remedy this or even any update to the tested hardware list.  The level of product support from Linksys is quite disappointing as the drive is still being sold as a current product in a number of markets (example 1, example 2), yet it is only capable of supporting technology that is over 2 years old.

While I understand that the product was designed in 2008/2009 it really should no longer be on the retail shelf as SATA 2.0 drives are relatively uncommon nowadays, especially in any capacity above 1TB.  The real disappointment is that there is no mention of any of these technical limitations by Linksys on the product packaging, point of sale material, or even online.  It would not be unfair to say that this product is almost deadstock.

If you are considering purchasing a Media Hub, I would suggest that you very carefully consider what capacity you are aiming for and whether you can still buy suitable drives in your market.

On that note does anybody out there require a now useless 3TB Seagate XT drive (ST33000651AS)?