Hard drive enclosure for 8TB internal drive?

[steve389389]

Hi, I'm getting an 8TB internal drive (I pre ordered this one http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=1107004&Q=&is=REG&A=details ), and I'm probably going to use it with a 3.5" hard drive enclosure until I get a new computer - Most of them have specified drive size limits of 2TB or less, which is because of the firmware limitation with drives greater than 2TB I'm assuming - Would it work with something like this which says it has a 4TB limit? I mean, I can't find anything that says it has a 5, 6, or 8TB limit, I'm assuming it's just because they haven't tested it with drives of that size.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Steve. It is possible that the firmware won't let the enclosure recognize more than the capacity that it is advertised. I'd advise against buying an enclosure that doesn't match the drive's capacity. You could end up with an enclosure which recognizes only 4TB of the whole drive or even worse, you could end up with an enclosure which doesn't recognize the drive at all. I'd recommend that you look for a docking station that supports 8TB, although most of the ones which support this capacity are 2 bay docking stations and you might face the same limitations by their firmware for each of the HDD slots.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[fzabkar]

This appears to be the manufacturer's product page:

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/602

"HDD Capacity: Up to 6TB*"

"*Current shipping product supports; please check our website www.vantecusa.com for the latest updates."

Where external enclosures get into trouble is at the 32-bit LBA limit. Therefore ISTM that if the firmware supports a 6TB drive, then it can handle 34-bit LBAs, in which case it can also handle 8TB drives. In fact I would be surprised if the firmware couldn't support the full 48-bits of the ATA standard.

 

[Kezzbot]

Any updates on this I'm also want to do the same thing

 

[Kareltje]

I found an enclosure without a data size limit. The brand name is Sempre, and I found it on ebay.de I don't know where you guys are living, I am living in Europe, and buying this thing in Germany is affordable. Type number is EC3SUB3-1. The advertisement says "Keine Kapazitätsbeschränkung" which means no capacity limit. Happy searching!