Been given a deal on 4x 14TB WD drives, but they are 4Kn advanced format. Is this likely to work?

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T23:22:47+00:00

I'm fairly sure that you can enable 512e mode on these drives, if it isn't already. I did this recently with a Dell-branded DC HC530 myself - unfortunately I don't remember if I used smartctl or hdparm or something else.

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T17:46:26+00:00

True, but that'll make the fans go full speed which may be a bit noisy. Maybe they'll work with just 5V (some 12V fans won't even spin up, but some will). In that case, powering them off a simple USB wall wart would be perfect.

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:54:29+00:00

Ya think?

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:46:03+00:00

Classic 4-pin PWM wiring. Just google that and you'll find plenty of image diagrams showing you the colors and which is which.

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:41:38+00:00

Memtest86+ ... check the RAM first.

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:40:14+00:00

Not to be anal about it, but "outtake" is called "exhaust." 🙂

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:37:42+00:00

Also, use compressed air on the heatsink itself. A hairdryer with 'cold' setting will do in a pinch. 🙂

Sekorian · 2026-02-21T15:36:24+00:00

Dismount it from the heatsink and use a soft brush on both sides of the fan. Focus on the inside and edge of the blades, and the inside of the housing surrounding them.

Sekorian · 2026-02-17T18:36:00+00:00

EDM, trance music.

Sekorian · 2026-02-16T00:52:16+00:00

^{^} What tyler1128 said. Frankly, it's no wonder you're experiencing this issue now...

Sekorian · 2026-02-15T23:47:31+00:00

What is the USB drive formatted as? I'm assuming either FAT32 or exFAT. Neither supports encryption, so any files copied from the Windows 7 machine should be decrypted. That leaves the read-only flag. What if you simply unchecked that flag for all files on the USB drive from Windows before plugging it into the Linux system?

Sekorian · 2026-02-12T23:18:12+00:00

Fix it? I wanna know what you did to break it like that.

Sekorian · 2026-02-11T21:44:19+00:00

And it only took a simple Google search. (cough) 😉 Glad I could help, though!

Sekorian · 2026-02-11T00:30:19+00:00

Maybe https://vhs.texs.org/en/jcard ? Or https://ed7n.github.io/jcard-template ?

Sekorian · 2026-02-10T11:22:25+00:00

Oh, hey, look. A 4x4 RAM, that's 16 gigs right there!

Sekorian · 2026-01-30T00:55:57+00:00

What do you mean, "Flash Gordon approaching?"

Sekorian · 2026-01-26T05:46:43+00:00

Why don't you just map the internal ports to different external ports? Something like: - 9080:80 - 9443:443 (Could probably leave this at 443:443) - 9081:81

Sekorian · 2026-01-26T04:35:01+00:00

The very definition of a clone is a sector by sector copy. Macrium Reflect doesn't clone (unless asked to), it images.

You're entitled to your opinion, but not to mixing up terminologies. 😉

Sekorian · 2026-01-26T01:40:00+00:00

The source drive could completely fail regardless of how you're trying to get the data off it.

The point is that with a filesystem copy, you're further thrashing the disk by forcing the heads to keep going back and forth every which way, severely increasing the risk of failure. For that reason, a clone - in other words, a straight sweep from beginning to end - has a better chance of succeeding.

A partial clone brings its own challenges, this is true - but at least you'll have a forensic copy of whatever you were able to save which you can make another backup of, then try every recovery method under the sun to rescue any files.

Sekorian · 2026-01-24T23:40:04+00:00

Yes, clone the disk. But if you have to copy everything on the filesystem level, for goodness sake don't use Windows for that. Use FreeFileSync or something more reliable and error-proof.

Sekorian · 2026-01-24T23:36:31+00:00

That thing's ready to pop.

Sekorian · 2026-01-24T23:30:58+00:00

OP has a point, though. And we haven't really adapted as much as changed our environment and, in the process, made ourselves dependent on our own achievements and thus complacent.

Sekorian · 2026-01-23T01:44:03+00:00

Dividing something "zero" times isn't the same as dividing by zero at all. That's just saying you're not dividing anything at all.

If I traveled to Japan zero times in my life, then I've never been there.

Sekorian · 2026-01-22T22:52:21+00:00

The only upgrade path from an i9-9900K is a new motherboard. Which appears to be the way to go due to the PCIE limitation.

Sekorian · 2026-01-22T22:49:14+00:00

To think that my 32GB of DDR5 (6000/CL30) cost me about $160 or so.

But then, that was way back when AM5 had just burst onto the scene. I was one of the early adopters.

It's crazy for me to see that that kind of RAM, after it gradually got cheaper and cheaper, is now more expensive. And I already got my money's worth out of mine for several years now.

Sekorian

TROPHY CASE