| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
jonfr
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 1008
Location: Denmark
|
 Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:48 am Post subject: Formatting a 4k sector hard drive [unsolved] |
 |
|
I have been trying to find a good information on how to partition a 1TB WD Green hard drive. This hard drive has 4096-bytes sectors (4K). The current versions of cfdisk or fdisk don't support this by default. But I have to re-setup the hard drive to properly use the 4K sectors.
Information about the hard drive.
| Code: | sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb:
|
Thanks for the help. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Hu
Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 23064
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I believe you can use sfdisk to set the right values. I found it simplest to make partitions that were approximately right, then use sfdisk -d to print the table, edit it to be exactly correct, then reload it from the modified output. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
floppymaster
Developer
Joined: 07 Jul 2010
Posts: 231
Location: Detroit, MI, USA
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
From fdisk(8):
| Code: | -b sectorsize
Specify the sector size of the disk. Valid values are 512, 1024, 2048 or
4096. (Recent kernels know the sector size. Use this only on old kernels or
to override the kernel's ideas.) Since util-linux-ng 2.17 fdisk differenti‐
ates between logical and physical sector size. This option changes both sec‐
tor sizes to sectorsize. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
krinn
Watchman
Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 7470
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jonfr
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 1008
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I did format the hard drive using information from this web site. How can I check if the format is 4K cluster size ? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
augury
l33t
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 722
Location: philadelphia
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
Do you want the "low-level" formating?
I've used "sformat" to reformat 520 blocks (some OS's use these, SUN) into 512 blocks on fibre channel (the disappointing way to connect a hard drive -- or ten in a series) connected scsi drives. The reason: linux won't read those blocks. They are actually 512 blocks but there is some anti-corruption hash data in the other 8k. Linux won't work with that sort of crap on the lowlevel. What makes no sense to you at all ..?.. hmmm ..?.. They run a 2.4 kernel. The nfs is buffered with an ata posted off of the shelf.
You could use sformat, I would assume, to create blocks of any size. Getting linux to function/mount/fdisk them -- IDK.
It takes a little while. The drives controllers will need to be able to function with these new blocks. They are written to areas of the disk that will not be returned as data that has not been read. I would assume it is a nonissue. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
augury
l33t
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 722
Location: philadelphia
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
Debian has an sformat sformat_3.5-1.2_i386.deb at http://packages.debian.org/sid/i386/sformat/download
To unpack the binaries you need #emerge deb2targz
The sformat is good at finding and probing the luns.
I have a disk that is offline and I will have to unplug/replug with the power on before it will reset again. (this is my boot drive). It clicks when its "out". And I can't boot up. The system doesn't have any info for it.
It is in a raid 0 with "scsibus1 1,0,0"
| Code: |
sformat: No such file or directory. Can't open '/opt/schily/etc/sformat.dat'.
sformat SCSI format/analysis/repair utilities
Release 3.4, Copyright J. Schilling
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) *
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *
scsibus1:
1,0,0 100) 'ATA ' 'ST380817AS ' '3.42' Disk
1,1,0 101) *
1,2,0 102) *
1,3,0 103) *
1,4,0 104) *
1,5,0 105) *
1,6,0 106) *
1,7,0 107) *
scsibus2:
2,0,0 200) 'ATA ' 'WDC WD1200JD-00G' '02.0' Disk
2,1,0 201) *
2,2,0 202) *
2,3,0 203) *
2,4,0 204) *
2,5,0 205) *
2,6,0 206) *
2,7,0 207) *
scsibus3:
3,0,0 300) 'ATA ' 'ST3200822AS ' '3.01' Disk
3,1,0 301) *
3,2,0 302) *
3,3,0 303) *
3,4,0 304) *
3,5,0 305) *
3,6,0 306) *
3,7,0 307) *
Select target -1 (100 - 300)/<cr>: |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jonfr
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 1008
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
| If your drive "clicks" it is time to replace it. There is nothing that you can do for it. Just save your data to a new hard drive. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
augury
l33t
Joined: 22 May 2004
Posts: 722
Location: philadelphia
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 3:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
Not just my HD's, my memory is a failure and my processor is running on half time.
I bought 3 Seagate nearlines 400G (refubished) for $84. Should be here soon.
The disc is definitely unsuitable for operating. I have this error at .... oh shit, IDK, I've filled dmesg up with garbly-goop. I was able to get my data off of the 0 array alright. It is somewhere around 5G that I can no longer write to the disk and it is a major point of fuzzy logic to the system.
Those disks won't do 4096. I tried. sformat will write what it can. Works for FC discs though. It's really no matter, just as long as I get my bits in space of time we've all come to expect. 
I'm going to pick up my server. Play with it.
Still have my CRT  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
Kernel & Hardware
