I want to format a 4tb portable hdd but i keep getting this error
message.

error creating partition on /dev/sdb: command-line parted --align
optimal --script "/dev/sdb" mkpart primary ext2 1 mib 4000787029503b
exited with non-zero exit status 1:error: partition length of 7814035119 sectors exceeds the msdos partition table imposed maximum of 4294967295

(udisk error quark,0)

Any ideas


Thanks

Use a GPT partitioning scheme instead of an MBR one (which is normally limited to 2TiB partitions/disks).

or just split it up keeping in mind MBR limits of partitions as well.

The 2 TiB MBR limit also applies to the disk as a whole.

Unless of course you indulge in jiggery-pokery or use 4096-byte logical sectors.

I just eat saltine crackers and play with my 3TB hdd. hehe

its an 3tb external HDD all formatted ext4 no partitions.


But yeah -- I'd go GPT just cuz -- only added that as an option.

but I do think one can still split it and get 2TB each even tough it is not formatted to 2TB my 3TB isn't really even 3TB

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Thanks, that worked everyone

It shows it has one partition - /dev/sdc1.

But wait, my saltine cracker-eating friend. Are you telling me that the drive in question is MBR partitioned with its single partition 2.73 TiB? Seriously, how did you manage that? Can you provide the fdisk -l or parted -l output for the disk in question?

Glad to hear it. Since you're using GPT, note that if you ever use it as a boot disk, be aware that you will have to create an EFI System Partition or a BIOS Boot Partition, depending on whether you're booting it from EFI or BIOS.

yeah I was wondering how to make sure of that -- hold on --
oops its been awhile sense I formatted this hdd - eating my crackers now
I could have sworn it was MBR -- though I did play with it a while back -- makes me wonder if I did have it all one drive in MBR ---

because it was and I remember moving everything off it just to see that GPT was all about and it was because of GPT more that 4 logical partitions - and I said self - I am not going to be spiting it up anyways and just reformatted it keeping it GPT and put everything back on it again.

makes me want to see if I can move everything off it again and switch it back to MBR just to see -- for myself.

Thanks BW. You're using 4096-byte (Advanced Format) instead of the typical 512-byte logical sectors. That means that MBR can cope with up to 16TiB (the limit is actually 2^32 sectors), so you most probably were using it with MBR.

Cutting edge as usual...

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