[SOLVED] cfdisk or gpart for 1 TB and larger drives
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I have noticed some differences in drive info, such as errors with partition block location, when viewing partions of larger drives. As I am now going to put together a system for longtime use I am questioning on which partitioning software is best for use on 1 TB and larger drives?
Last edited by newbeliever; 01-06-2015 at 03:20 PM.
Reason: Adding some info I left out
Using GPT or MSDOS (BIOS) partitions is a matter whether your system can boot it. If your system uses EFI then it can boot GPT partitions. BIOS support drives upto 2TB. For more than this only GPT supports it.
If your motherboard firmware is BIOS or if you can emulate it under EFI (aka as "compatibility mode") AND your HD has less than 2 TiB, you can use fdisk (or cfdisk) following the Slackdocs Partitioning instructions:
Thank you to all who posted, I was able to fix my issue and learn quite a bit in the process.
I checked my bios settings and there was two choices IDE or AHCI I used the latter one, because the motherboard docs stated it provided better compatibility and performance for raid 5 if I choose to. I then used gdisk and chose MBR as it was the first available and upon reboot the disk was not able to be seen when I tried to mount /dev/sda. I then used the GPT option and viola I was able to see the disk /dev/sda with no issue, I am assuming that gdisk option for MBR rendered GPT useless and MBR on this drive is there only for windows legacy boot needs; I will have to look further into this before I can confirm; What I did learn is that gdisk is great for resizing partitions as long as the start sector is the same in deleting and resizing the partition the same or larger. This was the reason I was seeing the files from my previous install using cfdisk on my previous install when mirroring the larger drives /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc. The start sector was the same location and the only change was that I used the whole drive instead of a small partition with raid 0 for the boot. This did not destroy the data as I created my mount points after my initial install of the OS. I used the gdisk and used the GPT and this in turn allowed me to start my partition, if I am understanding correctly, in a more appropriate sector that the drive firmware would not have to offset for the partition location.
I have noticed quite a difference in search and file moving from one drive to the next as the performance is much faster than when I had used cfdisk to partition the primary drive on the first install.
I have also noticed the errors are not showing for block assignment locations. I have much to learn, but I am having a blast with Slackware.
If I had a penny for all my attempts and failures, my ignorance in knowing and understanding my computer would make me a very rich man. I can not believe how much I have learned about how much I did not know about my computer. It is completely awesome. I know that when I choose my next hardware I will be looking more at firmware and bios and north/south gates and such and bus speed but most of all the cache size in CPU and hard drive, it ALL has made a difference in how I am using and understanding the hardware and software relationship.
Thanks again to all of you who pointed me in a direction to think outside the box. I like the outside of the box much better!
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