Seagate Dockstar - Cheap NAS and Download Server

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archat68 said:
@varkey

How is the performance of the Dockstar with multiple torrent downloads (>2 torrents at a time)? Can you please update?
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+1. Check performance with multiple torrents and please update varkey. I would ideally like to be running 4-5 at once.

By the way, my dock arrived today from the US. :D Will bug you and mod it over the weekend!
 
The write speeds are pathetic when using a NTFS formatted drive, I am getting 3-4 MBps. Read speeds are good and its able to max the USB speed, about 30-32 MBps. So you will need to use a drive formatted as ext3 for better write speeds.

There is one problem if you have multiple USB drives connected at the same time, as it will fail to boot. Will post here if I find a working solution. So at present for it to work properly you can have only one drive connected at boot time.

Yes will check multiple torrents this weekend, but I don't think there will be any issues as the CPU utilisation for transmission is minimal, only the ntfs-3g driver is using the CPU. So if you use an ext3 file system it should be Ok. :P

techie_007 - Congrats! Hehe :P No probs!
 
I only have a 7.5% off coupon, so price comes to 2549/- after discount. not a good price since people have gotten the same for 2199/- before:|

varkey said:
The write speeds are pathetic when using a NTFS formatted drive, I am getting 3-4 MBps. Read speeds are good and its able to max the USB speed, about 30-32 MBps. So you will need to use a drive formatted as ext3 for better write speeds.

There is one problem if you have multiple USB drives connected at the same time, as it will fail to boot. Will post here if I find a working solution. So at present for it to work properly you can have only one drive connected at boot time.

Yes will check multiple torrents this weekend, but I don't think there will be any issues as the CPU utilisation for transmission is minimal, only the ntfs-3g driver is using the CPU. So if you use an ext3 file system it should be Ok. :P

techie_007 - Congrats! Hehe :P No probs!
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Try formatting it as ext4. works best for linux based systems. for transferring data to windows, setup a FTP server.
 
^ Actually wanted the drive to be in NTFS itself so that I can connect the drive to a windows system also comfortably. Looks like I have to go for a proper linux file system. Will setup samba also for the file transfer.
 
Questions:

varkey said:
The write speeds are pathetic when using a NTFS formatted drive, I am getting 3-4 MBps. Read speeds are good and its able to max the USB speed, about 30-32 MBps. So you will need to use a drive formatted as ext3 for better write speeds.
Click to expand...

1. I am guessing a smaller partition formatted to ext3/4 will also do?

2. Does the NTFS driver max out the CPU? Or does it take some resources but still bottleneck in terms of speed?

3. So long as it can give 3-4 Mbps and I have a 1 Mbps connection at max, I assume torrents shouldnt be affected, right? Only trying to write/copy larger files over the network etc should cause issues?

There is one problem if you have multiple USB drives connected at the same time, as it will fail to boot. Will post here if I find a working solution. So at present for it to work properly you can have only one drive connected at boot time.
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4. This includes the USB pen-drive being used to boot from? So that means I need to install the OS on a normal HDD if I want unattended downloads with auto power on when there are electricity outages?

5. Can I install Debian on Normal USB HDD instead of pen drive?

6. Else install/download everything on a pen drive?
 
techie_007 said:
Questions:

1. I am guessing a smaller partition formatted to ext3/4 will also do?

2. Does the NTFS driver max out the CPU? Or does it take some resources but still bottleneck in terms of speed?

3. So long as it can give 3-4 Mbps and I have a 1 Mbps connection at max, I assume torrents shouldnt be affected, right? Only trying to write/copy larger files over the network etc should cause issues?

4. This includes the USB pen-drive being used to boot from? So that means I need to install the OS on a normal HDD if I want unattended downloads with auto power on when there are electricity outages?

5. Can I install Debian on Normal USB HDD instead of pen drive?

6. Else install/download everything on a pen drive?
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1. If the data partition is ext3/4 then it should be ok.

2. Yes it maxes out the CPU, I tried doing a dd file transfer to the ntfs partition and the CPU utilization was 90%+

3. While downloading, the CPU usage by the ntfs-3g driver is less than 15-20% but I have set transmission to preallocate the space at starting itself and yesterday when I tried a 6.5 GB torrent, it took close to 40 minutes just to allocate the data. And reading from the ntfs partition is fine as I didn't notice any speed difference.

4. Yes only 1 drive which includes the OS flash drive so you need to install the OS on the normal hard disk. There is a solution posted here, but it didn't work for me. Maybe you can try it.

5. Yes it can be installed on a normal hdd as well. But I am not sure if a initial startup delay which may be there for a normal hdd will prevent it from booting properly. But you can always add a 10-15s delay in the bootloader if that happens.

6. But then you will have to keep moving the data from the pendrive frequently. Try installing the OS on the normal HDD itself.
 
my observations...

1. using ext3 f/s works best when running these linux embedded systems... read/write off ntfs causes a lot of orphan sectors on the disk...

2. i never get CPU bumping beyond 25%... even while i am running transmission, copying data and running a 720p mkv on my laptop using wifi...

3. booting from the first partition of the external HDD, works best... the drive should power on manually with the dockstar/plug else the plug will boot from the internal flash...

4. attaching a usb hub with multiple drive can be achieved but boot order and mounting order remaining the same at every boot is still an unsolved issue. they are trying a workaround on the forums...
 
apextwin146 said:
I got these
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Quote for 5
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Int'l Shipping Rs. 1,632.00
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TOTAL Rs. 12,865.00

Whoever is interested please confirm here
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Very interested, Is this still open?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Hi,

I need one of these babies. Can someone tell me the cheapest way to get hold of one. The listing on Ebay india isn't there anymore and the one on global easy buy is 3k INR.

Thanks
 
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