Partitioning a 4TB Drive

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mike acker
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Partitioning a 4TB Drive

Post by mike acker »

someplace in my memory I'm thinking there's a 2TB partition limit -- does this apply on EXT4 Partitions?

On a new drive we first have to set up a file system -- "GUID" I think is the "right" one-- after that we add partitions-- first a small ~~ 40GB or so MBR partition and then a larger EXT4 partition for /Home. Finish up with a swap partition and maybe add an Extended partition if we think we need one -- maybe add a 512 GB NTFS partition to share if there's any of those other systems around....

can the EXT4 /Home partition be set to -- e.g. 3TB ?
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austin.texas
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Re: Partitioning a 4TB Drive

Post by austin.texas »

mike acker wrote:someplace in my memory I'm thinking there's a 2TB partition limit -- does this apply on EXT4 Partitions?
You are correct that the old msdos partitioning creates a limit of 2TB for any partition - ext or other.
Understanding the MBR's limits
mike acker wrote:On a new drive we first have to set up a file system -- "GUID" I think is the "right" one-
It is "GUID Partition Table" (or "GPT"). GPT partitioning allows partitions larger than 2TB.
If you want to install Mint in Legacy mode to a GPT partitioned drive, I wrote a tutorial for that.
Last edited by austin.texas on Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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txba516
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Re: Partitioning a 4TB Drive

Post by txba516 »

Yes, you can do that. Technically, the functional limits of EXT4 are a single volume of 1EiB (exbibyte) and a single file can be up to 16TiB (tebibyte). But most of the time if you are approaching large size filesystem needs, there are other, more suited filesystem choices (XFS, BTRFS, etc). For a 3TB volume size though you should be fine with EXT4.
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mike acker
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Re: Partitioning a 4TB Drive

Post by mike acker »

thanks guys!

i think using UEFI boot for the Linux system is probably the better way to go,-- "down the road" -- get away from the "Old Way"

i just started work on the parts list for my 1st RYZEN build. ( I guess I'll have to give my current "Research Box" away :D )

I added two WD(Black) 5T drives...... my brother asked for 4T but the 5T is only a little more. These I want to put into a RAID (Mirror) configuration.

We're looking down the road a bit here though -- I think I need Kernel 4.10 -- to properly support RYZEN (all my builds are AMD/Radeon)

Looking at this it appears the new AM4 socket is going to support A-series APUs as well. I like the integrated graphics myself -- but I'm not all that big on video so the APU works fine. The new build though may end up supporting a Win10 guest on V-Box.

we'll see on all of this. a 6 or even 8-core chip would make sense for the VM guest config. the one i have setup now -- on a 4-core A-series APU doesn't like to play video in the VM guest unless it has at least 3 cores to use ( pig ) . but hey -- from time to time I have to test videos that will be played on Win devices :(

for this reason I want to explore the possibility of providing hdw video boost to the VM guest......

all kinds of fun stuff to fuss with !!
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mike acker
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Re: Partitioning a 4TB Drive

Post by mike acker »

an interesting approach would be to install ( e.g. ) a 128 GB SSD, partition as MBR ( + swap ) and install the kernel partition -- with a 4T drive partitioned for the /home directory

i think i'll try this out on the Research box.
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