From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jan 13 08:03:43 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: 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 28D3216A407 for ; Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:03:43 +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 1094913C44C for ; Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:03:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrhett@svcolo.com) Received: from [172.16.12.22] (covad-jrhett.meer.net [209.157.140.144]) (authenticated bits=0) by kininvie.sv.svcolo.com (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id l0D83gc1016767; Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:03:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jrhett@svcolo.com) Message-ID: <45A8925D.7050303@svcolo.com> Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:03:41 -0800 From: Jo Rhett Organization: Silicon Valley Colocation User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (Windows/20061207) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Marcel Moolenaar References: <45A5FD8A.6080409@svcolo.com> <2918081F-D376-410B-B6FD-42BDD3323575@svcolo.com> <20070111213444.GB17185@zone3000.net> <45A74F01.7040200@svcolo.com> <59462C3F-B132-4597-8462-8BF3E031789F@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <59462C3F-B132-4597-8462-8BF3E031789F@mac.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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: 44270 - 466b4bbeb068 X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . roaringpenguin . com) on 64.13.135.12 Cc: 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: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 08:03:43 -0000 > On Jan 12, 2007, at 1:04 AM, Jo Rhett wrote: >> To make this into a step-by-step, what do you mean by "restore the MBR >> partition" ? From backup, or...? Marcel Moolenaar wrote: > Manually recreate, I guess. When creating a GPT, the MBR is replaced > by a PMBR. A PMBR is a MBR with a single partition spanning the > whole disk (or as much as can be covered by the MBR) that has type > 0xEE. The GPT kernel code expects such a partition but does not care > if there are others. If you restore the MBR from a backup, the 0xEE > partition will be gone and the GPT will not be used. > > It would probably be nice if gpt(8) could migrate without destroying > the existing MBR partition, because restoring the MBR partition is > the least intuitive step. Let me think about this for a bit... I am very interested in solving this problem, and have machines I am more than willing to dedicate to this project. I'm just somehow lacking a clear understanding of what I need to do to test this: 1. Install FreeBSD with a normal MBR partition and leftover free space 2. Migrate the partition to GPT (can I do this from CD fixit mode?) 3. Create a GPT partition using the remaining space 4. Recreate the MBR partition in the original space ... this makes sense, but I suspect that I'm missing a step/option here. -- Jo Rhett senior geek Silicon Valley Colocation