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From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com>
To: dleimbac@earthlink.net, webmaster@wmptl.com
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: (Freebsd doesn't see disks larger than 8gb; was: "No Subject")
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 16:16:21 -0700
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Modern PC BIOS software supports huge drives, it is simply a matter of 
implementing support in the initial boot software (In Linux's case, LiLo). 
LiLo now supports larger drives, but this isn't really a "work-around" per 
se as it simply now supports extended BIOS translations that allow for 
larger drives.
Once the OS has actually booted, though, none of this matters (with the 
exception of certain versions of Windows).
Linux and FreeBSD both use their own code for accessing hard drives. This is 
mostly because accessing drives through BIOS is slow, bad style, and worst 
of all--real mode (i.e. 16 bit). I believe that the largest partition that 
FreeBSD supports right now is in the petabytes.

Far larger than any RAID array that I have ever heard of.

>I seem to remember that non BX intel motherboards <pre BX> don't recognize
>more than 8GB in  the BIOS.  I think linux had some kind of workaround for
>this <not use the BIOS :)>
>
>You may be experiencing a similar problem.
>
>I have a 15 GB drive :)
>
>Dave
>
>On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Nathan Vidican wrote:
> > Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 08:07:56 -0400
> > To: Anton Alin-Adrian <alanton@home.ro>
> > From: Nathan Vidican <webmaster@wmptl.com>
> > Subject: Re: (Freebsd doesn't see disks larger than 8gb; was: "No
> > Subject")
> >
> > Anton Alin-Adrian wrote:
> > >
> > > First of all, thank you for your kindness.. What i mean is i know
> > freebsd
> > > does not see a hdd bigger then 8GB. Sure you can't on a Mac :).
> >
> > I beg your pardon? I've got several 60Gig ATA100 disks running under
> > FreeBSD. What do you mean it doesn't see an HDD bigger than 8Gig? If
> > using the mylex RAID (ml) then the system cannot boot off of a disk
> > using the 8gig geometry; but it can most certainly 'see' larger disks
> > than 8gb!
> >
> > Nathan Vidican
> > webmaster@wmptl.com
> > Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd.
> > http://home.wmptl.com/
> >
> > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
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>
>To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
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