Re: Support for hard drives > 2 TB?

["Thomas Mueller" <mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost>]

from "Michael van Elst" <mlelstv%serpens.de@localhost>:

> mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost ("Thomas Mueller") writes:

> >Can NetBSD be successfully installed, and run, on all or part of a hard 
> >drive > 2 TB?  Sector size would be 4 KB, though I think the hard-drive 
> >firmware can make sector size look like 512 bytes.  I know fdisk can handle 
> >up to 2 TB; this limit is not just for BSD but Linux too.

> >Western Digital has come out with a SATA hard drive of 3 TB.

> -current can. However, your PC probably has problems to boot from
> such a drive.

>                                 Michael van Elst

I wouldn't need the boot partition to boot > 2 TB.  I would have a partitioning 
scheme like

1: FreeDOS <= 8 GB (so FAT32 cluster size can be 4 GB)

2: NetBSD, subdivided for swap, /home, maybe /boot, /, maybe /usr (not in that 
order)

3: FreeBSD

4: Extended partition with logical partitions for swap, /home, possibly more 
than one Linux (one would be Gentoo), maybe nonbootable extra data partitions 
(try xfs?).

I still can't figure how I'd come close to filling 3 TB.

I might want to run grub4dos from FreeDOS, among other things, maybe even 
dosboot?

Could I run NetBSD 5.1, or would it have to be 6.0-work-in-progress, meaning 
-current?

I would in any case want to make a separate (sub)partition for /home.  That way 
I could update the rest, even newfs if necessary, and keep user data, though a 
backup of /home might make it safer, just in case something goes afoul.

Maybe I'd get a differenty partitioning scheme with parted or gparted?

Tom