[OpenIndiana-discuss] zfs pool on 3 TB Toshiba USB disk

[Reginald Beardsley]

--- On Mon, 2/4/13, Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> wrote:

> From: Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru>

> 
> From reports I've seen on the lists, problem might be in the
> USB
> device (i.e. chip in the box that houses your HDD). Corners
> are
> often cut with these, so they're not assumed to always be
> fully
> compatible and implementing any industry spec - save for
> basic
> protocol commands that Windows might use.
> 
> If your drive may be removed from its box without voiding
> warranty,
> and if you have another box to plug it into (or directly
> into the
> SATA port on a server) - you can test if it influences
> things.

I formatted the disk w/ an ext3 filesystem under Ubuntu 10.4 LTS and got 18 MB/s writing a 64 GB file from /dev/zero on a 10 year old PC.  Not great, but what I generally expect from USB disks.

I'm getting a little under half that w/ OI_151a7 on the N40L.

A friend is using one w/ a PowerMac for movies but I don't have a throughput measurement for that.  However, I do have a G5 MacPro I could fire up and test with.   

I am unable to discern how the case was assembled.  It looks as if it might be an ultrasonic weld assembly.  There's no indication of flex anywhere as would be the case w/ a press together. I looked for a screw under the rubber pads, but there wasn't one.  The only way I see to open it is w/ a saw.  So better to send it to my friend if I can't sort out how to make sd read 4k sectors from it.

Thanks,
Reg