From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 12 03:03:59 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CFFF16A40F for ; Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:03:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@svcolo.com) Received: from kininvie.sv.svcolo.com (kininvie.sv.svcolo.com [64.13.135.12]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E8E0913C45E for ; Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:03:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@svcolo.com) Received: from [10.66.240.106] (public-wireless.sv.svcolo.com [64.13.135.30]) (authenticated bits=0) by kininvie.sv.svcolo.com (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id l0C33uuZ086514; Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:03:57 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jrhett@svcolo.com) In-Reply-To: <20070112005510.2e145462.torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no> References: <45A5FD8A.6080409@svcolo.com> <2918081F-D376-410B-B6FD-42BDD3323575@svcolo.com> <20070111213444.GB17185@zone3000.net> <20070112005510.2e145462.torfinn.ingolfsen@broadpark.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <669E8D5D-E286-42DC-800F-24D7DDB2469F@svcolo.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Jo Rhett Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:03:49 -0800 To: Torfinn Ingolfsen X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Spam-Score: undef - SENDER Whitelisted (jrhett@svcolo.com: Mail from user authenticated via SMTP AUTH allowed always) X-CanItPRO-Stream: default X-Canit-Stats-ID: 43597 - 2dbb36e7bce9 X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . roaringpenguin . com) on 64.13.135.12 Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 2.4TB disk - MBR and GPT coexist? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:03:59 -0000 > On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:56:43 -0800 Jo Rhett wrote: >> Thanks for the reply. The problem is that I have a single 6-drive >> (550gb/ea) RAID-5 array. If I split two disks off to make a RAID-1 >> boot device, I'll lose 1TB of usable storage. On Jan 11, 2007, at 3:55 PM, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote: > Hmm, why can't you just make your controller create two logical arrays > onto the one physical array? Doesnt the controller support this > feature? Not any one that I've ever seen in commodity disks. Yes, on big fiber channel disk cabinets. No to 6-8 drive raid controllers. >> Since we're going to be stuck with old BIOSes for a long time after >> 2TB is a cheap disk drive at [store], is anyone considering doing >> the work to make GPT co-exist with an MBR block? It seems like the >> obvious and sensible choice. You boot from the MBR partition, and >> then load the GPT module and access the remaining data after that... > > Is there a reason why we can't have a boot loader that boots off a GPT > disk? Or is the problem with the bios? My understanding is that BIOS expects 32-bit partition sizes. So we must have a 32-bit MBR partition for the BIOS to boot from. I'm just wondering what it will take to make GPT (which in theory can co-exist with MBR) work for the remainder of the drive? -- Jo Rhett senior geek Silicon Valley Colocation