From owner-freebsd-usb@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 8 03:31:15 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-usb@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF3B8106566C for ; Tue, 8 Feb 2011 03:31:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd_user@guice.ath.cx) Received: from guice.ath.cx (wsip-98-191-59-226.ri.ri.cox.net [98.191.59.226]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 68DEA8FC16 for ; Tue, 8 Feb 2011 03:31:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wtp1.ath.cx (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by guice.ath.cx (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p183VD78049521; Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:31:14 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from freebsd_user@guice.ath.cx) Received: from 98.191.59.226 (SquirrelMail authenticated user email) by wtp1.ath.cx with HTTP; Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:31:14 -0500 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <4D50A3CB.9030301@freebsd.org> References: <201102071853.p17IrlhC009850@belinda.androcles.org> <4afb11a2cba1286de56928b6b8c61c00.squirrel@wtp1.ath.cx> <4D50A3CB.9030301@freebsd.org> Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 22:31:14 -0500 From: freebsd_user@guice.ath.cx To: "Julian Elischer" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.21 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal Cc: freebsd-usb@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mount and umount large capacity external USB HDD (fstab) X-BeenThere: freebsd-usb@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD support for USB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:31:15 -0000 ... snip snip .... >> >> We will read that recipe. Should anyone make additions to this thread >> we >> are all eyes_&_ears. >> > > As was mentioned before, the limitationcomes from the defintion of the > partition > structures. Firstly the fdisk structure introduced with the IBM PC (I > think) has onlt room for > 32 bits on its sector tables. secondly the bsd 'label' structure > introduced > in the 80s has a similar limitiation. > The new structure to get around this is the GPT structure. you need to > partition > the drive with a gpt capable partitioning tool.. gpart claims to do > this (though > I have never done it as I don't have a need (yet)). This limitiation > will affect > any system which you wil use to write those partition types and is > indepenent > of file system. In addition Once you have made a partition big > enough, you > will need to populate it wirth a filesystem capable of representing > data to that scale. > UFS2 and ZFS are two candidates for this. > > If you take a modern Windows, it will probably partitionthe drive > using a GPT table > or some similar modern structure.(I don't have any modern windows > system so I can't tell > you exactly what they do, but they MUST have done the same thingif > they didn't use GPT itself.) > This is a separate step from puting the file system on, though the > windows tools may > present it as a single step. > > I hope y'all will find this useful. > Thank you. As Mr. Hesser pointed out earlier; it must be time for us to learn gpart and friends :-)