2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

[binsonk]

If you have a computer with an older BIOS that uses MBR, there is a 2.1 TB barrier to how much hard drive space will be recognized by the system. If you have encountered this barrier and have discovered a workaround, please share your experience.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

install linux on it.
or:
install windows on the first 2tb and then install linux on the remaining space with dual-boot.

linux does not use the bios, so as long as the boot partition is within bios range - any drive will be fine.
you could even put an ATA2SATA adapter on the drive and use it on an old 586 board this way.

just make sure if the drive uses 4k clusters that you align the partitions to it or it wont be as fast as it could be.

[Per Hansson]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

If you have an Intel chipset, ICH9R or later you need to upgrade the BIOS option ROM to v10.5.0
Earlier versions have a bug where if the disk is larger than 2TB it will cause an overflow.
Meaning a 3TB disk will be listed by the BIOS as 801.6GB or 746.52GiB in Windows. (Windows incorrectly says GB instead of GiB)

With option ROM v10.5.0 this is fixed, and you will be able to address over 2.1TB if you create a GPT partition.
GPT partitions requires atleast Windows XP x64 they are not supported on XP 32bit and older.
Windows Server 2003 supports them starting with Service Pack 1

You require a EUFI BIOS to boot from a GPT partition, only new systems come with this, and this does require a 64-bit OS.
Windows Server 2003 x64 & XP x64 does not support booting from UEFI, only the Itanium versions do.
The earliest OS to support booting using regular 64-bit Intel or AMD processors is Vista.

You can use a workaround to boot a regular BIOS (non-UEFI) from a GPT partition.
If you put the Windows boot manager (bootmgr, not NTLDR) on a regular MBR partition you will then be able to boot the system from a GPT partition.
This however is an unsupported installation scenario not supported by the Windows installer.

On my system I have a 300GB SAS disk with XP x64 on it.
I also have 3x4TB WD Se disks in a RAID-5 array connected to the same LSI 8704ELP controller.
On this I have a single GPT partition with Windows 7 on it.
But the bootmgr & /boot folder sits on the 300GB disk, that is how I can boot it.
But to install it you first have to install to a regular MBR partition (so max size 2TB) then make a image of the installation.
Delete the partition, create the GPT partition & put the image back, increasing the size of the partition to cover the whole disk.
In my case I get a single 4TB usable partition this way, because my RAID controller does not support disks larger than 2TB, so it truncates them.

Doing this will most likely result in boot error 0xc000000e
It's because "device" & "osdevice" is listed as "unknown" in the Windows boot manager.
You can fix it by changing the configuration, adjust the below according to your needs (I have Windows 7 running from "D:" when it's up, & XP x64 from "C:"

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=D:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=D:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:

Also remember to use Windows Vista or later when formatting this big disks, because otherwise you will have the same issue that SSD's & high-end RAID arrays have.
That being that the partition starts at sector 63, which is not an even divisible number if you harddrive uses 4k sectors (aka "Advanced Format") instead of 512byte which is common on older harddrives

Further reading: Windows support for hard disks that are larger than 2 TB
Advanced format (4K) disk compatibility update

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

My computer is a Dell Dimension 3100, 2.8 GHz P4 w/HT, 1.0 GB DDR ram, 2TB Seagate hdd. The workaround I seek is for this particular computer, or at least, a similar older computer. So, for the purpose of this inquiry, the option to purchase a newer computer (with EUFI BIOS) is off the table. I'm trying to add a second, identical 2TB Seagate hdd to the computer. Unfortunately, the system does not provide access to the second SATA hdd, even when it is correctly identified in BIOS. I'm using an older version of Linux, which installs GRUB Legacy to the MBR. The second 2TB hdd will be for data, and is formatted ext3. The original 2TB hdd has two main ext3 partitions, a small partition for the Linux operating system, and a much larger partition for data.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

i'm confused.

you have a pair of 2tb drives, so why are you asking about a 2.1tb limit?
the limit is per-drive - not total drives.

what i suspect is that you didnt give user access rights to the second drive when you partitioned and formatted it.

try to access the second drive as root user.

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

The BIOS correctly identifies the second 2TB hdd, but when I get to desktop it is not available to be mounted. A resident program GParted lists the drive as a selection, but when the drive is selected for partitioning GParted reports No devices present. I believe the limitation is for the system, not just per drive. To format the second drive as ext3, I removed the first drive (with OS), installed the new drive in its place, and ran GParted from liveCD. When I reconfigured both SATA drives, the second drive was not accessible, as before, even when formatted ext3. OS-resident GParted still reports No devices present.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

are you running gparted as root?

can you post your fstab?

it's in the /etc folder

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

Yes, I am running GParted as root.

Beyond 2TB
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/

Linux OS support for disk drives beyond 2.2 TB
http://knowledge.seagate.com/article...S/FAQ/218575en

quick overview (YT video, Windows centric)
http://www.youtube.com/v/g7qxCSeRumk&locale=en-us

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

you arent beyond 2tb

what Linux is it anyway?

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

Puppy Linux is always and only root.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

do you understand the fstab file?

you need to create a folder that will be the second drive,
then add an entry in fstab pointing the second drive at the folder you created.
after you save the edited fstab you "mount -a"

then you may need to chown the folder to root:root

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

Here's my partition setup
sda1 - ext3 - LinuxOS (boot)
sda2 - ext3 - data
sda3 - linux swap
----------------------------------
sdb1 - ext3 -data (inaccessible)

Here is fstab contents
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 0 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts gid=2,mode=620 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,rw 0 0

I don't see a need to chown, as there is only one user = root.

With the above information, can you be more specific in your instructions?

Opinion: The limitation is on how much internal disk space the SATA controller can manage. Each SATA port does not have a separate controller.There is only one SATA controller for both onboard SATA ports. It doesn't matter how many hard drives are in operation. What matters, what is limited, is the aggregate internal disk capacity. The SATA controller is controlled by BIOS, which cannot see more than 2.1 TB. This is a design limitation, not a bug.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

why is there no fstab entry for /dev/sda2 ?
in theory you should not have access to your data partition.

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

/dev/sda2 does not boot up in a mounted state. I have to mount it manually. Easily done by clicking the desktop icon.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

make a folder in the root of your system and call it drive2 or something.

then add an fstab entry:
/dev/sdb1 /drive2 ext3 defaults 1 2

after you save it,
do "mount -a" to make the system re-read the fstab list.

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

/dev/sda2 does not boot up in a mounted state. I have to mount it manually. Easily done by clicking the desktop icon.

do you want that, or would you like it automounted?

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

How would I automount it?

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

just add an fstab entry.
fstab is a mountlist.
each line is like this,
first the physical drive,
then where to mount it,
then the filesystem,
then some options.

so for example,
you make a folder in root called data

then you add an entry to fstab:
/dev/sda2 /data ext3 defaults 1 2

that will mount sda2 as data in the root at bootup.
try typing "man fstab" and you should get a manual.

[binsonk]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

I followed your instructions to add fstab entry, with this result

# mount -a
mount: mount point /drive2 does not exist

[stj]

Re: 2.1-TB limitation on hdd space for older computers

you didnt create a folder in the root called drive2

do:
mkdir drive2