ASZ into NTFS
Hi,
what are the advantages and disavantages to get ASZ converted in NTFS format ?
Denis
One problem with FAT32 is that the ASZ is limited to 2TB even if on a larger GPT drive. I am finding 2TB to be too limiting.
The limitation to 2TB has nothing to do with the file system, but with the MBR. To go beyond 2TB you need a GPT disk.
That is not entirely true. The MBR vs. GPT disk format determines how partition tables are layed out. This effects both potential disk and partition size limits. The MBR format limits a disk size to ~2TB, thus also limits partitions to ~2TB. The newer GPT format allows extremely large disks and partitions.
The file system to which you refer is related to how a partition itself is layed out. In the world of today's Windows OSs, this is usually either FAT32 or NTFS. FAT32 uses a 32 bit field for the sector count. When setting up the ASZ, it will not allow me to size it larger than 2TB even though it is on a 3TB GPT disk. ACZ is probably formatted with a 512 byte sector, thus limiting it to ~2TB or is somehow otherwise intermally limited to 2TBs. If we were given more control on the format, such as sector size, we might be able to get around this limit. NTFS is not quit as limiting and is a far more robust file system.
When setting up the ASZ, it will not allow me to size it larger than 2TB even though it is on a 3TB GPT disk. ACZ is probably formatted with a 512 byte sector, thus limiting it to ~2TB or is somehow otherwise intermally limited to 2TBs.
Interesting. I learned something here. I didn't know there was some intrinsic limitation of the ASZ in terms of size. You are probably right with your assumption about the byte sector and its implications.
You got me curious also, so I used TI 2013 to set up an Acronis Secure Zone partition on a disk (this was a test I did on a Virtual Disk on a VM). There was no opportunity to select NTFS as the file system, even though the example in the User Guide for TI 2013 shows a picture of a disk with a secure zone and clearly shows the zone format as NTFS. This must have been a leftover from an earlier TI version.
An examination of the secure zone partition with Acronis Disk Director's disk editor shows the underlying format to be FAT32, with the partition type identified in the partition table as 0BCh, Acronis Secure Zone, instead of the normal FAT32 type ID. This ID is not identified by Windows as FAT32, so Windows does not mount the partition.
To be honest, why use a secure zone? If you want a 3 TB partition to store images on, why not just format your disk as NTFS and store the images there?