huge disk without partition aggregate

[Pierre]

hi,

I have to have access to a lot of big files files whose total size
exceed one disk space (> 20 TB)
I have enouth disk space but on multiple disks
I do not have the oportunity to do a partitions aggregate
I do not want to bother on what disk the files are (I want to see my
disk space as a huge disk, not multiple ones)
I want to do read/write access
I do not have the money for a SAN or NAS

I though to DFS but I can't see how to make a directory span disk
boundary (AFAIK, with DFS a directory must reside entirely on one
disk)

is there a solution, either with MS or third party ?

the client is XP but the data may be on a 2K3 server.

TIA,
Pierre.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have to have access to a lot of big files files whose total size
exceed one disk space (> 20 TB)

Greater than 20 TeraBytes? I would say that enourmously exceeds the
capacity of ANY known single disk drive...
What in the world are you doing? The next major animated motion picture?
Huge datasets???!

I have enouth disk space but on multiple disks
I do not have the oportunity to do a partitions aggregate
I do not want to bother on what disk the files are (I want to see my
disk space as a huge disk, not multiple ones)
I want to do read/write access
I do not have the money for a SAN or NAS

RAID...
Albeit a hardware RAID consisting of several boxes to get 20TB of space...

I though to DFS but I can't see how to make a directory span disk
boundary (AFAIK, with DFS a directory must reside entirely on one
disk)

is there a solution, either with MS or third party ?

the client is XP but the data may be on a 2K3 server.

No matter what - you are going to need a hardware solution. You will be
spending money - however - you've already had to spend money on 20+TB of
disk space - the additional cost should just be expected.

Your best solution (needing *THAT MUCH* space would likely be a Fibre-based
SAN solution. Your least expesive solution would be several NAS products
tied tegether. Although - I cannot say ANYONE would recommend ever having a
single partition on ANY device of 20+ TB in size...

Are you sure you are not mmistaken on the amount of data? It seems unlikely
someone who needs/has access to that much data would not already have a
solution in place and/or have the money needed to continue having that much
data lying around...

I seriously have to ask again just what is it you are doing and for what
business? Why does this business not have the funds for a proper solution.
The techhnical aspect of what you are asking will require the outlay of
large amounts of cash. And if this is something personal - I have to doubt
you have access to 20TB of data that you need on some single accessible
structuring.

I likely have that much in recorded TV shows (mostly on DVD/CDs now) - and I
would happily utilize DFS to put everything into an organized structure
(likely one directory with sub directories for alphabetical organization -
or maybe year and more sub-categories...) -- but i find it difficult to
imagine needing/wanting that and not using a more robust solution like a
SAN...

 

[John John]

Set them up as a Dynamic Disks and have one large volume created from
all the storage disks. Generally speaking it is usually preferable to
keep the operating system on a single MBR disk and use other disks for
the Dynamic volume. Search your XP help file or search on Microsoft.com
for "Dynamic Disks" and you should find all the information needed to
set this up. You need XP Pro to set this up, XP Home cannot do Dynamic
Disks.

John

 

[Pierre]

Greater than 20 TeraBytes? I would say that enourmously exceeds the
capacity of ANY known single disk drive...

not yet...

What in the world are you doing? The next major animated motion picture?
Huge datasets???!

a lot of larges files (~1.5GB each) in an organized hierarchy but at
least one of the top level folder must contain a folder tree larger
than 2TB (see below for the 2TB limit)

[...]

No matter what - you are going to need a hardware solution. You will be
spending money - however - you've already had to spend money on 20+TB of
disk space - the additional cost should just be expected.

Your best solution (needing *THAT MUCH* space would likely be a Fibre-based
SAN solution. Your least expesive solution would be several NAS products
tied tegether. Although - I cannot say ANYONE would recommend ever having a
single partition on ANY device of 20+ TB in size...

to be exact, my disk space is not composed of individuals disks but of
LUN on a HP SAN. but because of the firmawre (HP says that there wont
be new version for that hardware), each LUN can not be larger than
2TB.
so I use a few 2TB "disks" but I would prefer to have only one large
space, not many 2TB ones.

Are you sure you are not mmistaken on the amount of data? It seems unlikely
someone who needs/has access to that much data would not already have a
solution in place and/or have the money needed to continue having that much
data lying around...

for now, I do not have the money to buy a newer SAN and am trying
to find a workaround with the one I already have.

Pierre.