My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive disappointment. I hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't
seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem impossible
to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had
taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8 balked and
chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read drives up to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with
i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:
My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive disappointment. I >>hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't
seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem impossible >>to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had >>taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8 balked and >>chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
Erm, the Gen8 should be fine at talking to 6TB drives. It's the software
you run on it that has decided to do weird partitioning things. What are
you running? If it's Windows, have you thought about running something
else?
Have a look at TrueNAS Community which is free and a nice NAS
appliance distro, a bit similar to Synology or QNAP. It'll also run VMs, >Docker and LXC containers.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read drives up >>to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
I've had 14TB drives in my N36L and it's fine. Of course I'm running Linux >where there are no such artificial limits. (I believe FreeBSD eg TrueNAS >Core would be fine too).
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with
i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS >>hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my >>server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
Generally speaking, Proper SATA beats USB any day. However if you're not >driving it hard (no RAID, no ZFS) then you may get away with it.
The M92e uses the same Ivy Bridge generation CPU as the Gen8 - have you >thought about swapping the i7 into the Gen 8? You'd need to check thermals >as I'm not sure what TDP the Gen8 chassis is rated for.
Or maybe make the Gen8 the fileserver running TrueNAS and an M92e running >Windows as a client?
Theo
On 24/04/2026 in message <Pdj*iBTEA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo
wrote:
Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:
My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive
disappointment. I
hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't
seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem
impossible
to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had
taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8 balked and
chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
Erm, the Gen8 should be fine at talking to 6TB drives.-a It's the software >> you run on it that has decided to do weird partitioning things.-a What are >> you running?-a If it's Windows, have you thought about running something
else?
Have a look at TrueNAS Community which is free and a nice NAS
appliance distro, a bit similar to Synology or QNAP.-a It'll also run VMs, >> Docker and LXC containers.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read
drives up
to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
I've had 14TB drives in my N36L and it's fine.-a Of course I'm running
Linux
where there are no such artificial limits.-a (I believe FreeBSD eg TrueNAS >> Core would be fine too).
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with >>> i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS
hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my
server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
Generally speaking, Proper SATA beats USB any day. However if you're not
driving it hard (no RAID, no ZFS) then you may get away with it.
The M92e uses the same Ivy Bridge generation CPU as the Gen8 - have you
thought about swapping the i7 into the Gen 8?-a You'd need to check
thermals
as I'm not sure what TDP the Gen8 chassis is rated for.
Or maybe make the Gen8 the fileserver running TrueNAS and an M92e running
Windows as a client?
Theo
Many thanks Theo :-)
Google AI says the Gen8 balks at larger drives, one day I will learn to research then buy! My N54L recognises it fine so I am re-loading it
across the network which will be a good test for it. I want a machine
that I can manage easily so its Win 10. I do have an N54L running Linux
Mint xfce but I use it as a one trick pony to produce iso files.
On 24/04/2026 13:17, Jeff Gaines wrote:
On 24/04/2026 in message <Pdj*iBTEA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo >>wrote:
Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:
My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive disappointment. >>>>I
hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't >>>>seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem >>>>impossible
to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had >>>>taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8 balked and >>>>chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
Erm, the Gen8 should be fine at talking to 6TB drives.-a It's the >>>software
you run on it that has decided to do weird partitioning things.-a What >>>are
you running?-a If it's Windows, have you thought about running something >>>else?
Have a look at TrueNAS Community which is free and a nice NAS
appliance distro, a bit similar to Synology or QNAP.-a It'll also run >>>VMs,
Docker and LXC containers.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read drives >>>>up
to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
I've had 14TB drives in my N36L and it's fine.-a Of course I'm running >>>Linux
where there are no such artificial limits.-a (I believe FreeBSD eg >>>TrueNAS
Core would be fine too).
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with >>>>i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS >>>>hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my >>>>server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
Generally speaking, Proper SATA beats USB any day. However if you're not >>>driving it hard (no RAID, no ZFS) then you may get away with it.
The M92e uses the same Ivy Bridge generation CPU as the Gen8 - have you >>>thought about swapping the i7 into the Gen 8?-a You'd need to check >>>thermals
as I'm not sure what TDP the Gen8 chassis is rated for.
Or maybe make the Gen8 the fileserver running TrueNAS and an M92e running >>>Windows as a client?
Theo
Many thanks Theo :-)
Google AI says the Gen8 balks at larger drives, one day I will learn to >>research then buy! My N54L recognises it fine so I am re-loading it >>across the network which will be a good test for it. I want a machine >>that I can manage easily so its Win 10. I do have an N54L running Linux >>Mint xfce but I use it as a one trick pony to produce iso files.
I run a Gen8 Microserver (Ubuntu Server) and have no issues with large >drives. "2 X Unreadable Partitions"? You may want to consider a better OS >;-)
The drive is fine on an N54L running Windows 10. Google is clear there are issues sometimes, perhaps variance in chipsets?
Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:
The drive is fine on an N54L running Windows 10. Google is clear there are >>issues sometimes, perhaps variance in chipsets?
If you're getting details from AI overviews I wouldn't trust them more than
I can throw them.
Is this perhaps to do with RAID? Then there might be odd issues with >limitations imposed by the RAID controller.
As a general rule, you never want hardware RAID. It just locks you in to
the vendor of the RAID controller, and nowadays CPUs are good enough that >software RAID is just as fast. With s/w RAID you can move the OS to a >completely different machine and your RAIDs will still work.
Often the RAID that is sold with motherboards (eg Intel RAID) is not
actually hardware RAID but is software RAID done at the BIOS/driver level. >That's something you want to run a mile from too, as it has all the
problems
of hardware RAID with none of the performance benefits.
Windows is quite capable of doing software RAID[*] so that should decouple >you from any strange limitations of the RAID system. In BIOS, if you set
the drives to be AHCI rather than RAID it'll present them to Windows as
'just a box of discs' (JBOD), and then you can configure them in software >RAID however you like.
Linux as a general rule doesn't get involved with so-called 'fakeRAID', >although it can use drives already configured that way. It will drive >hardware RAID controllers but if you're going to set up such a system it's >better for Linux not the controller to be doing the RAID, and just use the >controller as a JBOD.
Theo
[*] I think it's via storage spaces or alternatively ReFS, but I have no >experience of either
In respect of the Gen8 and 6 TB drive all I know is it took 16 hours to load, I installed it in the gen8 (set up for AHCI so I lose disk 1 to booting), the Gen8 couldn't make any sense of it so I put it back in my previous machine (Asus 170-K) and Partition Wizard saw a 2 TB
(unreadable) partition and 4 TB of unused space.
Jeff Gaines wrote:
In respect of the Gen8 and 6 TB drive all I know is it took 16 hours to load, I installed it in the gen8 (set up for AHCI so I lose disk 1 to booting), the Gen8 couldn't make any sense of it so I put it back in my previous machine (Asus 170-K) and Partition Wizard saw a 2 TB
(unreadable) partition and 4 TB of unused space.
Doesn't seem likely the Gen8 itself would cause that, more Win10's fault ...
Jeff Gaines wrote:
In respect of the Gen8 and 6 TB drive all I know is it took 16 hours to >>load, I installed it in the gen8 (set up for AHCI so I lose disk 1 to >>booting), the Gen8 couldn't make any sense of it so I put it back in my >>previous machine (Asus 170-K) and Partition Wizard saw a 2 TB >>(unreadable) partition and 4 TB of unused space.
Doesn't seem likely the Gen8 itself would cause that, more Win10's fault
...
Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
Jeff Gaines wrote:
In respect of the Gen8 and 6 TB drive all I know is it took 16 hours to >>>load, I installed it in the gen8 (set up for AHCI so I lose disk 1 to >>>booting), the Gen8 couldn't make any sense of it so I put it back in my >>>previous machine (Asus 170-K) and Partition Wizard saw a 2 TB >>>(unreadable) partition and 4 TB of unused space.
Doesn't seem likely the Gen8 itself would cause that, more Win10's fault >>...
If it's got an MBR partition table that goes to max 2TB. GPT partitioned >drives have a 'protective' MBR table (so you don't go thinking it's a blank >drive when there's stuff on it an old OS can't see). Perhaps Partition >Wizard can't recognise the GPT for some reason (is it a very old version?) >and is looking at the protective MBR?
I would do a full wipe of the drive (leaving no partition tables, nothing, >just zeroes) and then start again. Make sure you put a GPT partition table >on it and there should be no size issues.
Theo
My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive disappointment.
I hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem
impossible to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8
balked and chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read drives
up to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with
i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
On 24/04/2026 12:18, Jeff Gaines wrote:
Very simple thing to do in Gen 8 or N65L
My 2 x Gen8 Microservers are turning out to be a massive disappointment. >>I hoped they would be a bit more responsive than the N54L but they don't >>seem to be. The non standard screws on the drive carriers seem impossible >>to obtain and this morning I installed my new 6 TN Iron Wolf which had >>taken 12 hours to load up on another machine and the Gen8 balked and >>chopped it into 2 x unreadable partitions.
I am running up my No.2 N54L which is suppose to be able to read drives >>up to 8 TB and has sensible drive carriers.
A thought before I proceed. I have a couple of Lenovo Tiny M92e PCs with >>i7 3.4 GHz which are very sprightly. Would one of those with a USB3 DAS >>hanging off it work as a server for data/multimedia? I need to split my >>server and backup to ensure I don't put old data over new.
Attach a small SSD like 120/256GB in DVD slot, just glue it using double >side tape. Connect it to MB using a sata cable, you might need Power >connector and sata cable for it. Go Into BIOS and set it as boot device
and disable all other boot options.
Then install Windows 10 on it and get it all working with update etc.
Then shut it down and install 4 hard drives and 3.5rCY Caddies. Boot and
get into RAID controller setting by pressing (I think it is CTR +I). Set
all 4 drives into RAID as you like, I prefer 2 times Mirror Raids. Once
set reboot into Windows.
Start Disk Management and there you will see your RAIDs and one or 2
drives (depending on your set up). Just format them as NTFS drives and
start using them.
Benefit of setting Mirror RAID is: If one drive or server fails, you plug >one hard drive in any PC or USB cradle and Windows will see it and you can >access your data.
I am sure others will be here to prove it wrong, but I used it for last 12 >years with no problems on N65L, Gen 8 or old PC without any problems.
I try not to use RAID since it always seems so dependent on the PC/NAS,
at least with individual disks you can just read them in another machine.
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