Adam Preset on Thu, 12 Oct 2000 13:48:48 -0400 (EDT)


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Re: [PLUG] Q: linux and big hard drive


On Thu, Oct 12, 2000 at 12:41:10PM -0400, Mike Leone wrote:
> From: Adam Preset <preset@swarthmore.edu>
> >Could be some weirdness with the partition table on the disk.  See if you
> >can ignore it with:
> >
> >/sbin/cfdisk -z /dev/hda

> You should never just ignore something so potentially serious, at
> least without a lot more investigation; ignoring things like this can
> eat your HD. 

> IIRC, support for HDs > 32G didn't get put in the kernel until 2.2.10
> or .12 - something later than what you're using. Try a later version of
> the kernel. Check the changelogs at <http://www.kernel.org>.

Right you are.  It is something later.  According to

	http://www.linuxdocs.org/Large-Disk-HOWTO-12.html

there were patches for 2.0.38 and 2.2.12.  But 2.2.14 supports the larger
drives.  All my work on large drives has been using that kernel or above,
but I shouldn't have glossed over the kernel version in that message.

> Oh, and remember to make /boot it's own partition, 1st on the disk. 10M
> is plenty - even overkill. BUT ... it means that the kernel is always
> within the 1st 1024 cyclinders, and it'll boot every time.

This is good advice.  Jeff did mention, though, that he's not planning to
boot off his big drive.


 
> >On Thu, Oct 12, 2000 at 11:17:51AM -0400, Jeff Abrahamson wrote:
> >> I got this nifty 40 Gb hard drive (7200 rpm, UDMA/66, $160,
> >> Staples). I'm not planning on booting off of it: this is a second
> >> disk. So I believe the BIOS don't matter, because linux doesn't use
> >> the BIOS except to find /boot/vmlinuz.
> >> 
> >> So I run /sbin/fdisk and I'm told the following:
> >> 
> >> Disk /dev/hda: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 13870 cylinders 
> >> Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes
> >> 
> >>    Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
> >> /dev/hda1             1     13870   6990448+  83  Linux
> >> 
> >> Now the drive (a Maxtor DiamondMax) has 16383 cylinders, 16 heads, and
> >> 63 sectors. So already something is wrong. Moreover, /sbin/cfdisk says
> >> this is a 7 Gb drive, not a 40 Gb drive.
> >> 
> >> So something is wrong.
> >> 
> >> This is a machine I bought new in November 1998. It's a Gigabyte
> >> motherboard, although I don't have the version number handy. Looks
> >> like I'm running a 2.2.5 kernel.
> >> 
> >> Any suggestions?
> >> 
> >> -- 
> >>  Jeff Abrahamson
> >>  610/270-4845
> >>  abrahj01@molbio.sbphrd.com
> --
> *-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*
> Michael J. Leone <mailto:userdude@yahoo.com>
> PGP Fingerprint: 0AA8 DC47 CB63 AE3F C739 6BF9 9AB4 1EF6 5AA5 BCDF
> 
> --


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