Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

wantilles · 2011-03-12 15:15:38

I am thinking of bying a Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB WD30EZRSDTL hard drive.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120

This is a drive over the barrier of 2TB that comes from 2^32*512bytes/sector, as we know it.

The drive is an "Advanced Format" drive.

From what its specifications say:

http://www.wdc.com/global/products/spec … language=1

it reports number of sectors below 2^32 (4 billion).

So it has logical sectors of 512 bytes, but internally it has and uses real physical sectors of 4K.

So here are the rest of the data, and the question I have:

- I want to use it with Archlinux x86_64
- I do not want to boot from it
- It will only function as a secondary drive only for data storage
- The motherboard it will be connected has a classic BIOS - not UEFI.
- The disk controller on the motherboard is an nVidia 8200 chipset.
- I will partition the disk with gdisk.
- I will create a GUID partition table on it.
- I will make the whole disk a single partition.
- It will be part of an lvm2 volume group.
- On top of the lvm2 group, an ext4 filesystem will be created.

And here is the question:

Will I have any problems, or everything will go smoothly?

PS: I have read and understood the following two relevant Archwiki articles:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Advanced_Format
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT

graysky · 2011-03-12 15:21:22

Dunno if any Archer has used one. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "yes" so long are the kernel supports it. As you know, Arch uses the latest kernel so you really can't get more bleeding edge. If you need to, you can compile an "unstable" kernel very easily. For example, this pkgbuild will give you the latest git version from Linus' git tree.

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-12 16:34:51

I just picked up a new WD 750G laptop drive about a month ago. My experience, as well as some inferrences:

- The Advanced Format simply requires you to start a partition on an even-numbered sector (e.g., 64 rather than 63); the most recent version of parted (gparted, et al) does this by default.
- I use Arch64 myself; don't see why that should matter, though
- Use of BIOS vs. UEFI also doesn't matter, as Windows still uses MBR by default. Presumably, WD doesn't want to alienate 90-odd per cent of the market.
- The real question you're reaching for is whether the kernel contains the proper modules. Well, AF is supported, as well as GPT. I can't really speak to the 3TB size, but there are probably some tweaks out there to optimize performance for such a large capacity. All in all, I don't think you should have problems. If you decide to go for it, just remember to run the hdparm tweak mentioned in the Advanced Format wiki page.

pyther · 2011-03-12 18:10:22

You'll have to use gpt if you you want a partition over 2TB

Mr.Elendig · 2011-03-13 13:24:08

Will work just fine if you use the testisos to install, since they have gdisk etc.

CPUnltd · 2011-08-31 06:28:25

I have a hitachi 3TB drive and am unable to create a partition above 2TB. I get errors on all partition table types when I attempt to apply the partition creation via gparted. I have gptfdisk installed, but there is no actual command of that name that I can invoke via console. I'm more than a little lost on this topic and wish to do a bit more research (and hope others chime in on this, as I intend to buy at least 2 more of these drives as soon as I can afford to)... As of this moment, it is sitting in my SATA dock waiting to be formatted into one large 3TB partition (either ext3 or ext4, as long as it's likely recoverable if something goes wrong)...

.:B:. · 2011-08-31 06:41:44

Try parted itself, it's pretty easy to create a GPT partition table... Not to mention it's been amply documented .

CPUnltd · 2011-08-31 06:45:29

SUCCESS... at least for the first part...

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/fdisk-una … r-2tb.html
followed this up to the point of creating the partition table, then quit and used gparted to make the partition (thought I had gpt installed on the system the drive is connected to, I was wrong)... intend to see if gparted has a gpt option for the partition table. Still waiting for the format to finish (been waiting about 6 minutes already)...

.:B:. · 2011-08-31 07:04:25

Why on earth do you keep switching between both? Just do everything with parted, as I said. The necessary variables are all set in the kernel, so it's not Arch that's your problem. You're creating your own problems.

The tutorial you link to has it all laid out nicely. Why do you think you know better, if you need a tutorial? Seriously.

CPUnltd · 2011-09-02 12:37:03

it's not that I think I know better... it's that the first part of the tutorial did what I needed to do for making the partition table (which was the error I was getting initially... after I crossed that hurdle, I went back to what tool worked best for me to complete the task. I could always go back and complete the tutorial, but I try not to do everything in console if possible. I was able to create the 2.79TB partition just fine, granted the formatting may have taken an hour or two. Was late at night and I got tired of waiting after 15/20 mins and went to sleep. Either way, I got what I was after.

.:B:. · 2011-09-02 13:33:15

Did you follow the whole tutorial in the end? If so, how did it work out?

CPUnltd · 2011-09-04 15:43:40

no, I did not follow the whole tutorial, only the part that was needed so that I could finish what I'd tried to start with gparted. The partition is fully functional (ext4, I believe) and I currently have no personal complaints. I would encourage others to follow the full tutorial if you so see fit, but I chose my methods for my own reasons. I hope people find the tutorial helpful in accessing their >2TB hard drives.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-12 15:15:38

Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#2 2011-03-12 15:21:22

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#3 2011-03-12 16:34:51

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#4 2011-03-12 18:10:22

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#5 2011-03-13 13:24:08

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#6 2011-08-31 06:28:25

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#7 2011-08-31 06:41:44

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#8 2011-08-31 06:45:29

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#9 2011-08-31 07:04:25

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#10 2011-09-02 12:37:03

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#11 2011-09-02 13:33:15

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

#12 2011-09-04 15:43:40

Re: Does Archlinux support 3TB Advanced Format hard drives?

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