Accessing 2TB (TWO TERAbytes) with an Amstrad CPC

[Prodatron]

I wasn't up to date regarding USB memory stick prices and capacities, but then I just recognized, that they become crazy powerful and cheap.
Today I received a new USB stick for my CPC: The price wasn't much more than 30€, very small, and the capacity is - YES - crazy 2TB.

When I coded the SymbOS filesystem and SymCommander around 2004/2005, I probably never thought, that I would ever get such a display  But it works without problems.
An 8bit machine from 1984 is able to access a mass storage device, which can store a stack of full printed papers, which has the height of 45.000km, which is around 1/9 to the moon.
Or which is the amount of memory of more than 16 million CPC6128, which would form a line of 8400km, which is about 2/3 of the diameter of planet earth.
Yes, just nice playing with numbers, but it's still cool IMHO

[SkulleateR]

Nice and amazing to see such huge numbers on a CPC, but the stick is 99% fake ...


Only 2TB USB stick I know of is really huge and cost around 1300US$ ... All those Sticks with TB are mostly 32GB Sticks with a fake data sheet on it ....


PS : Ok, the price is outdated but even REAL and TESTED one Terabyte USB Sticks start at 150€ (and that are the cheap ones)

[norecess464]

It's both cool AND amazing @Prodatron 

I wonder what content of value (for the Amstrad) you could put on that storage but yes, the simple fact it's working, is impressive.

[Gryzor]

Yeah, I can find a 1TB one locally at 160 euros, but the essence remains, impressive to think about nonetheless!

[Prodatron]

Oops, the stick disappeared on Amazon, so you are probably right!
I remember that 1TB sticks were around 1000€ some years ago.

But to see that number on the CPC was cool anyway

I am currently filling it with movies, let's see what happens.

Maybe in another 5 years we will get such sticks for that price without beeing a fake

[Gryzor]

It'll crap out at the physical limit I think. I guess you found out by now🙂

[TotO]

When I coded the SymbOS filesystem and SymCommander around 2004/2005, I probably never thought, that I would ever get such a display  But it works without problems.

Yes, it is impressive to reach this limit and proof this theorical compatibility. 
The computed drive size is good, but one bug left around the SymCommander information:  Removable not Removeable! 

[Prodatron]

It's not removeable as the SF3 will hang, when you remove the USB stick and insert it again 

But there is a bug indeed, the display is still wrong, as it's an USB stick, not a SD/MMC card.

Skulleater was right, the so-called 2TB stick can write 32GB and will even continue writing more, but all files beyond 32GB can't be read anymore.

[TotO]

It's not removeable as the SF3 will hang, when you remove the USB stick and insert it again 

Sorry, I mean there is a typo on the SymCommander message (and here)... Your write removeable instead of removable. 

[Prodatron]

Ops, thanks, I will correct this!

[lmimmfn]

The FAT32 limit is 4Gigs

[SkulleateR]

The FAT32 limit is 4Gigs

File size limit ... Not partition size

[Gryzor]

Both correct😊

[VincentGR]

The most fascinating thing is the explanation 

[zhulien]

someone should port grep to symbos so we can run it against the 45000km of papers.

[Shaun M. Neary]

@Prodatron While that does look quite cool, I was under the impression that 32GB was the maximum volume size that FAT32 supports.
I'd be wary of that collapsing upon write!

[Shaun M. Neary]

File size limit ... Not partition size

Partition size is 32GB for FAT32, but there's nothing stopping him from paritioning the stick with a handful of logical drives all 32GB in size to get around it.

[Prodatron]

@Prodatron While that does look quite cool, I was under the impression that 32GB was the maximum volume size that FAT32 supports.

No, FAT32 has a max partition size of 2TB for 512byte sector-based storages. It is limited by the amount of 2^32 sectors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Maximal_sizes


The reason why you could think, that 32GB is the maximum is, that Windows doesn't allow to create partitions with sizes >32GB. But 3rd party tools can do this.

[Shaun M. Neary]

No, FAT32 has a max partition size of 2TB for 512byte sector-based storages. It is limited by the amount of 2^32 sectors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Maximal_sizes


The reason why you could think, that 32GB is the maximum is, that Windows doesn't allow to create partitions with sizes >32GB. But 3rd party tools can do this.

Oh touche!
If it were me, I'd probably still partition it that way if I needed to copy stuff over in Windows (or another OS) without problems. But yeah, cheers for the correction. I haven't used FAT32 in a long time. I jumped to ExFAT.

[Prodatron]

Windows has no problems with larger partitions Other OS shouldn't have issues as well, as they will probably have FAT32 implemented in the official correct way (like SymbOS has), and there is no reason at all why this should end at 32GB (this is just an arbitrary number).

Windows just want to force you to use ExFat for larger ones, but it can handle 2TB without any problems.

[GUNHED]

About numbers.... How long would it take to read or write 2TB using CPC and SymbOS?

[Prodatron]

Half a year.

[TotO]

The good point is that a CPC can read data during six months.
A modern computer must do it very faster, before it crash! 

[GUNHED]

Half a year.

Perfect! Just the time till the next CPC meeting!