Sun Blade 2500 use of USB hard drive

I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
as an NTSF file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.

Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized? I ask because an 8 GB flash
drive works just fine.

Any help with this is appreciated.

Eric

On 2008-12-18, <> wrote:
> I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
> as an NTSF

I assume you mean NTFS.

> file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
> 10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
> and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
> a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
> appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>
> Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?

AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.

Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.


--
I can't sing, I ain't good looking and my legs are thin.
[email me at huge {at} huge (dot) org <dot> uk]

writes:

>I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
>as an NTSF file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
>10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
>and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
>a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
>appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.

>Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized? I ask because an 8 GB flash
>drive works just fine.

There's no support for NTFS in Solaris.

You could reformat it as a FAT32 on non Windows.

Casper
--
Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related
to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
be fiction rather than truth.

On Dec 19, 3:33*am, Huge <H...@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:
> On 2008-12-18, pne.cho...@comcast.net <pne.cho...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
> > as an NTSF
>
> I assume you mean NTFS.

Yes

>
> > file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
> > 10. *A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
> > and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
> > a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
> > appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>
> > Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>
> AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.
>
> Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.

Not on a Sun Blade 2500. See:
http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstati...2500/specs.xml

Eric

Hi,

Huge wrote:
> On 2008-12-18, <> wrote:
>> I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
>> as an NTSF
>
> I assume you mean NTFS.
>
>> file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
>> 10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
>> and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
>> a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
>> appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>>
>> Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>
> AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.
>
> Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.
>
>
Only the motherboards USB is V1(for keyboard mouse), a V2 is in a PCI slot.

/michael

On Dec 19, 11:41*am, erik magnuson <mek...@easyspeak.net> wrote:
> Huge wrote:
> > On 2008-12-18, pne.cho...@comcast.net <pne.cho...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >>I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
> >>as an NTSF
>
> > I assume you mean NTFS.
>
> >>file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
> >>10. *A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
> >>and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
> >>a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
> >>appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>
> >>Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>
> > AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.
>
> > Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.
>
> The OP has a Sun Blade *2500*, not a *2000*. The 1500 and 2500 both have
> * USB V2 (this is being typed on a 1500).

Actually I DO own a Sun Blade 2000 and use a Sun Blade 2500 at work.
But that doesn't change your point that both support USB 2.0

Eric

On Dec 19, 9:13*am, Casper H.S. Dik <Casper....@Sun.COM> wrote:
> pne.cho...@comcast.net writes:
> >I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
> >as an NTSF file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
> >10. *A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
> >and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
> >a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
> >appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
> >Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized? I ask because an 8 GB flash
> >drive works just fine.
>
> There's no support for NTFS in Solaris.
>
> You could reformat it as a FAT32 on non Windows.

There is a 2 GB file size limit with FAT32, correct? Some of my files
are bigger than 2 GB. But, if I must operate with FAT32 and use less
that 2 GB files, then I must. I'll have to present my situation that
way.

Can I reformat an NTFS USB hard drive to UFS to make it Solaris
compatible?

As a Sun employee, may I ask you what is the best way for me to obtain
a SPARC laptop (mobile unit), given that Sun no longer makes them?

I really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Eric

>
> Casper
> --
> Expressed in this posting are my opinions. *They are in no way related
> to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems.
> Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may
> be fiction rather than truth.

On 2008-12-19, Huge <> wrote:
> On 2008-12-18, <> wrote:
>> I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
>> as an NTSF
>
> I assume you mean NTFS.
>
>> file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
>> 10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
>> and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
>> a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
>> appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>>
>> Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>
> AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.

Unless someone is writing it into OpenSolaris as we type. :-)
But I think that NTFS is still proprietary enough so others can't get
the information to write drivers for it on non-Windows systems.

OpenBSD (and some linux system) have the ability to *read* NTFS,
*if* you edit the kernel configuration file and re-compile the kernel.
This is apparently from reverse-engineering NTFS. But they *can't* make
it so it can *write* to NTFS without crashing the filesystem or the OS.
And apparently there is a new variety of NTFS which can't even be read by
these systems.

If they *did* get full compatibility, you *know* that Microsoft
would "enhance" the filesystem to render it incompatible again. :-)

If you are going to use it only on the Solaris system, can it
format the drive as a UFS (unix file system) instead -- which would be a
much better match to the OS anyway. Just because the drive may
currently be formatted as NTFS does not mean that it must always be so
formatted. (Of course, if you want to access data which is already on
it, you don't want to format it at all. :-)

> Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.

I know this to be the situation on my SB-2K and the SB-1K which
preceded it, but it is possible to add a PCI board which will handle UFS
2.0, so the speed can be dealt with at least.

I don't know about the SB-2500, but my SB-1K and SB-2K also have
a firewire port, which is much faster than USB 1.1 anyway. I've never
tried stuffing a drive into that port, so I don't know what filesystems
it supports. My only Firewire capable drive housing is currently
supporting it on a Mac Mini, where things like a nice fast UltraSCSI or
Fibre Channel are not present.

O.K. I just looked up the SB-2500 in the FEH, and find (among
other things):

================================================== ====================
IEEE 1394 2 ports, provided by a plug in PCI card (I/O Combo Card)
Keyboard and mouse USB (works only with onboard USB 1.1 ports)
SCSI One Ultra160 SCSI multimode (SE/LVD)
USB USB 1.1: 4 ports (back)
USB 2.0: 3 ports, provided by a plug in PCI card (I/O Combo Card)
================================================== ====================

So -- it looks as though you have USB 2.0 and Firewire (IEEE 1394)
if you have the I/O combo card, which sounds like it is a standard part
of the system. Yes -- it says that it is:

"factory installed in PCI slot 0"

for both the SB-1500 and SB-2500.

I wonder whether it would work in a SB-2K? :-)

And you *don't* have the Fibre Channel at all -- unless you get
an extra PCI card for the purpose.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: <> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On Dec 19, 10:52*pm, "DoN. Nichols" <dnich...@d-and-d.com> wrote:
> On 2008-12-19, Huge <H...@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:
>
> > On 2008-12-18, pne.cho...@comcast.net <pne.cho...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >> I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
> >> as an NTSF
>
> > I assume you mean NTFS.
>
> >> file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
> >> 10. *A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
> >> and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
> >> a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
> >> appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>
> >> Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>
> > AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.
>
> * * * * Unless someone is writing it into OpenSolaris as we type.:-)
> But I think that NTFS is still proprietary enough so others can't get
> the information to write drivers for it on non-Windows systems.
>
> * * * * OpenBSD (and some linux system) have the ability to *read* NTFS,
> *if* you edit the kernel configuration file and re-compile the kernel.
> This is apparently from reverse-engineering NTFS. *But they *can't* make
> it so it can *write* to NTFS without crashing the filesystem or the OS.
> And apparently there is a new variety of NTFS which can't even be read by
> these systems.
>
> * * * * If they *did* get full compatibility, you *know* that Microsoft
> would "enhance" the filesystem to render it incompatible again. :-)
>
> * * * * If you are going to use it only on the Solaris system, can it
> format the drive as a UFS (unix file system) instead -- which would be a
> much better match to the OS anyway. *

My thoughts as well as I suspect that UFS code access would work with
little
or no changes. That is where my group is headed.

> Just because the drive may
> currently be formatted as NTFS does not mean that it must always be so
> formatted. *(Of course, if you want to access data which is already on
> it, you don't want to format it at all. :-)

No, I have a clean NTFS 1 TB USB drive that I am willing to reformat
for my purposes.

>
> > Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.
>
> * * * * I know this to be the situation on my SB-2K and the SB-1Kwhich
> preceded it, but it is possible to add a PCI board which will handle UFS
> 2.0, so the speed can be dealt with at least.

The Sun website doesn't make it clear, but you'd figure if it did have
USB 2.0 it would say so.
http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstati...2000/specs.xml

>
> * * * * I don't know about the SB-2500, but my SB-1K and SB-2K also have
> a firewire port, which is much faster than USB 1.1 anyway. *I've never
> tried stuffing a drive into that port, so I don't know what filesystems
> it supports. *My only Firewire capable drive housing is currently
> supporting it on a Mac Mini, where things like a nice fast UltraSCSI or
> Fibre Channel are not present.
>
> * * * * O.K. *I just looked up the SB-2500 in the FEH, and find(among
> other things):
>
> *================================================== ====================
> IEEE 1394 * * * * * * * 2 ports, provided by a plug in PCI card (I/O Combo Card)
> Keyboard and mouse * * *USB (works only with onboard USB 1.1 ports)
> SCSI * * * * * * * * * *One Ultra160 SCSI multimode (SE/LVD)
> USB * * * * * * * * * * USB 1.1: 4 ports (back)
> * * * * * * * * * * * * USB 2.0: 3 ports, provided by a plug in PCI card (I/O Combo Card)
> *================================================== ====================
>
> * * * * So -- it looks as though you have USB 2.0 and Firewire (IEEE 1394)
> if you have the I/O combo card, which sounds like it is a standard part
> of the system. *Yes -- it says that it is:
>
> * * * * "factory installed in PCI slot 0"
>
> for both the SB-1500 and SB-2500.
>
> * * * * I wonder whether it would work in a SB-2K? :-)
>
> * * * * And you *don't* have the Fibre Channel at all -- unless you get
> an extra PCI card for the purpose.
>

I may have to see what the USB PCI card does on the Sun Blade 2500 at
work. I am les concerned with my SB 2000 at home as I mostly do
development and provide myself with a code backup to my work Sun Blade
2500 system.

Anyone got a Sun SPARC laptop they want to sell?

Eric

On 2008-12-19, erik magnuson <> wrote:
> Huge wrote:
>> On 2008-12-18, <> wrote:
>>
>>>I'm trying to hook up a 1 terabyte USB hard drive, which is fornatted
>>>as an NTSF
>>
>>
>> I assume you mean NTFS.
>>
>>
>>>file system, to a Sun Blade 2500 system, running Solaris
>>>10. A pop-up window appears stating 'PCFS' as some sort of choice,
>>>and that it is trying to havre the user select a low-level (quick) or
>>>a regular long format. I can't change the 'PCFS' to 'NTFS' and it
>>>appears that the NTFS hard drive is otherwise not being recognized.
>>>
>>>Can only FAT32 and not NTFS be recognized?
>>
>>
>> AFAIK, Solaris cannot read NTFS.
>>
>> Also, the USB is only V1, so it will be very slow, even if it worked.
>>
>
> The OP has a Sun Blade *2500*, not a *2000*. The 1500 and 2500 both have
> USB V2 (this is being typed on a 1500).

Ahh, thank you. The speed of the keyboard exceeds that of the brain.

--
I'll rip the skin from God's face
[email me at huge {at} huge (dot) org <dot> uk]