Hi, Have a look at this fdisk session where I try to divide a 1874.6 GB disk (well, a SCSI "disk" provided by an external cabinet) in 4 more or less equally sized partitions:
=================== cut here 1 ================= The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 227919. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-227919, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-227919, default 227919): 56980 Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 2 First cylinder (56981-227919, default 56981): Using default value 56981 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (56981-227919, default 227919): 113960 Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 3 First cylinder (113961-227919, default 113961): Using default value 113961 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (113961-227919, default 227919): 170940 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdk: 1874.6 GB, 1874698698752 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 227919 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdk1 1 56980 457691818+ 83 Linux /dev/sdk2 56981 113960 457691850 83 Linux /dev/sdk3 113961 170940 457691850 83 Linux Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Selected partition 4 No free sectors available =================== cut here 1 ================= Why doesn't it see that there is still free space left? When dividing the same disk into 2 partitions, everything works: =================== cut here 2 ================= The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 227919. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-227919, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-227919, default 227919): 113960 Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 2 First cylinder (113961-227919, default 113961): Using default value 113961 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (113961-227919, default 227919): Using default value 227919 Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sdk: 1874.6 GB, 1874698698752 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 227919 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdk1 1 113960 915383668+ 83 Linux /dev/sdk2 113961 227919 915375667+ 83 Linux =================== cut here 2 ================= So, the problem could to be that it doesn't accept a starting cylinder beyond 1 TB. Is this a bug? P.S. I've seen even more weird things with devices between 2 and 8 TB, but AFAIK that isn't supposed to work with the prehistoric PC partitioning design anyway... -- -- Jos Vos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV | Phone: +31 20 6938364 -- Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Fax: +31 20 6948204 _______________________________________________ rhelv5-beta-list mailing list rhelv5-beta-list@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhelv5-beta-list
