250GB hd: Can FreeBSD use >137GB (bios) as Linux or Windows do?
me at janh.de
me at janh.de
Thu Jul 31 13:13:36 UTC 2008
Yesterday, I wrote about "CANNOT READ BLK" from my new hd that I
filled via firewire:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2008-July/179646.html
The response suggested to check for faulty hardware, which I am still
trying to do.
I found FreeBSD reporting the drive to have 128GB instead of 232GB as
FreeBSD did when the drive was connected via firewire. Searching the
web, I found one reference of someone else having problems with
>128/137GB using the same (latest) bios on this five year old
(Centrino) laptop (Acer TM800).
>From Western Digital, I got "Lifeguard", which installed ddo (dynamic
drive overlay). With ddo, FreeBSD can access the full drive.
Unfortunately, I need to dual boot Windows XP, which seems to be
impossible with the ddo MBR.
Anyhow, both Linux (Knoppix, 2.6.24) and Windows XP (SP3) can access
the whole drive without ddo. With Linux, I checked that I can indeed
write and read high sectors. Thus, it is only the bios, not the
controller that is limiting lba48 access. (At least with the geometry
the disk reports.)
Is there any way to have FreeBSD access the whole drive without ddo,
too?
If that is not possible, can you think of any way to load ddo only for
FreeBSD, but have Windows XP started with a "regular" MBR?
I am not sure, why the ddo MBR does not boot Windows XP, but since
Windows XP does not need it and ddo is not supported in dual boot
environments, I guess I cannot complain.
Thanks a lot for any hint,
Jan Henrik
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