3TB drives are 800GB?

pdr · l33t Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 618

fdisk, parted, and directly formatting with mkfs.ext4 all think my new 3TB Western Digital green 3TB drives are 800GB. I had no problem with 2TB drives - am I missing a kernel setting?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:07 pm Post subject:

pdr,

On a 32 bit or 64 bit install?

Thats right for wrapping from 2TBi
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

BT · Guru Joined: 13 Jun 2004 Posts: 318

Are you using MSDOS or GPT partitioning? MSDOS partitions have a 2 TB size limit.

chithanh · Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 7:34 pm Post subject:

If directly formatting with ext4 shows it as 800GB then it is not a partitioning issue.

Looks like maybe your BIOS needs an update.

pdr · l33t Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 618

This is a 32-bit install (and through USB to an external enclosure); I'll try my server (64 bit) and see if that helps. But if it is 32/64, will I still be able to access on the 32-bit? One of these is going to be my backup drive...

chithanh · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 8:02 am Post subject:

32 bit Linux will handle >2TB drives fine too.

But unless you run a system with very little memory (less than 1 GB) or depend on 32-bit only proprietary software, running 64 bit is preferable anyway as long as your CPU supports it.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:21 pm Post subject:

Does any other OS (Linux, Solaris, Win, Linux Live CD like Systemrescue cd, or Gparted) show the full drive capacity?

Are these drives detected by the Bios correctly?