From: gil@netcom.com (Gilbert Nardo) Subject: Re: Big disks, can Linux handles these? Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1993 02:27:40 GMT
morley@suncad.camosun.bc.ca (Mark Morley) writes:
> Oh boy oh boy oh boy....
>
> Ahem. Ok, so I got this *great* deal on a couple of Quantum 1.2GIG SCSI
> hard disks - 11ms, 512K cache on each disk, etc. Nice. Fast. Goosebumps.
> They'll be here in a week or so (which will feel like a year, I'm sure).
>
> I'm planning on making one into a DOS (blech!) drive, the other into
> Linux. In the near future I'll be turning them both into Linux drives.
> Of course, I can only do this if Linux 'll handle the size. I (think I) know
> the minix fs won't do it... (Come to think of it, I don't know if DOS can
> handle a 1.2G partition either. Hmmm....)
^^^^-->This is probably the unformatted size. Once you do
a low level format (or if the manufacturer sends it preformatted) then
you get "user" data area <= 1G. My SCSI controller (Adaptec 1542B) comes
out of the box with a firmware that can handle (for DOS'nt) a max of 1024
cylinders and must compensate for the size by faking 64 heads at 32 sectors
per cylinder when used with a Maxtor 1.2G drive. (There is a firmware update
you can download to change this allow larger drives, but thats another story).
You may have to check what your controller can handle, since you did not
specify what controller you were using.
For Linux filesystems, you have a host of alternatives, but I'll let
you read those in the FAQ, or some other kind soul to mail or post - :).
-- Gil Nardo | gil@netcom.com Migrant Computing Services | (415)664-1032 (voice) 1032 Irving Street, #435 |----------------- San Francisco, 94122 | Save the Universe: Stop Entropy Now!