From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 14 13:23:24 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 923CE106564A for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:23:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [IPv6:2a01:170:102f::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 173738FC16 for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:23:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id q7EDNJpR019643; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:23:19 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id q7EDNJhW019642; Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:23:19 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:23:19 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: <201208141323.q7EDNJhW019642@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-hardware User-Agent: tin/1.9.6-20101126 ("Burnside") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/6.4-PRERELEASE-20080904 (i386)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.3.9 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:23:19 +0200 (CEST) Cc: Subject: Booting from 3TB drive (UFS, BIOS) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:23:24 -0000 Hi, I've got a small PC that currently has two disks: The first one is 1 TB with a standard MBR, used to boot FreeBSD, and the second one is 3 TB with GPT, used as data disk for FreeBSD (the BIOS doesn't have to care about this one at all because it's not used for booting). Now I would like to replace the first disk with a 3 TB one, too. However, will I be able to boot from it? The PC is not exactly a new one (ASRock A330GC with Atom 330 processor, a few years old) and has a standard BIOS (dated 07/16/2009). I understand that I will have to use GPT in order to be able to use the full capacity of 3 TB, and that I will have to install a pmbr to enable the BIOS to detect the disk as bootable. Is this correct? Will that work? (Assuming that the boot partition will have to be within the first 2 TB of the drive, of course.) If everything else fails, I'd consider using an additional drive for booting, probably an SSD. But I'd like to avoid this if possible. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Geschäftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün- chen, HRB 125758, Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd "The scanf() function is a large and complex beast that often does something almost but not quite entirely unlike what you desired." -- Chris Torek