[mythtv-users] Hitachi 3T drives - reliable?

[Simon Hobson]

Jean-Yves Avenard wrote:

>Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense. Why would a 64 bits OS got
>anything to do with the size of a hard drive.

Directly, not a lot. But ...

For whatever reason, 2TB seems to be a common limit (I know it is in 
older versions of Windows). 2TB is 2^31 bytes, so the maximum value 
for a signed 32 bit integer.

I suspect it's more a case of "it's fixed in OS versions that happen 
to be 64bit", while 32bit OSs have been 'left behind'.

Invoking a dreaded car analogy, in Land Rover circles we often get 
asked if alloy wheels (such as those fitted to DIscovery or Range 
Rover in the 80's and 90's) will fit on an old Defender (or 90 or 110 
as they were correctly called back in the 1980's). The common answer 
is that factory alloys would fit if it had rear disks brakes, not if 
it has rear drums. There's nothing special about the brakes, it's 
just that the hub design changed at near enough the same time as they 
switched from drums to disks for the rear brakes - so it's the 
easiest physical feature to look at.

As for disks (of the computer storage rather than brake variety), I 
suspect there's nothing fundamental about 32bit OSs to stop them 
supporting >2TB drives, more likely that <something> is a 32bit 
signed integer and that sets a limit. For obvious reasons, if the 
same software is compiled for 64bit, then the 32bit value may become 
a 64bit value and the limitation disappears.

-- 
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.