largest usable hard drive in a Series2

[crashHD]

What is the largest size drive a Series2 can utilize?

I am going to attempt to use as much as I can of a 2TB drive.

My understanding of the limitations of this system are as follows:

MFS partitions are limited to 1.0TiB in size (correct?)

A hard drive is limited to a maximum of 3 MFS partition pairs (of this I am certain)

An Apple partition map is limited to a total of 2.0TB (correct?)


Now, if I haven't gone wrong yet, should it be possible to use all of a 2TB drive starting with a 6.2-minimal image (starts with single, small mfs partition pair), expanding twice, taking care not to make expansion partitions beyond 1.0TiB?

Am this a bad plan?

[RandC]

Funny you should ask that question as I was thinking the same thing. I am currently having to replace a 1TB failed Seagate drive on a dual 1TB system. I have a 1.5TB I am playing with. The 1.5TB has 289GB left available after the 1TB MFS media addition, however that makes the 3rd media partition so I can't try it to find out.

According to what I have read you are correct 3 media partitions are it, and 1.0TB max (have seen something about 1.2TB somewhere though), and I have also seen the 2.0TB total max. So I agree with what you are saying, now it's just a matter of trying it out. New drive will be here next week so I will have time to try it out when I get everything back up and running.

[crashHD]

first attempt didn't work. GSOD/reboot loop at about 2 minute intervals. Not sure what went wrong. It's been a few years since I worked on this, and I'm not really equipped for it anymore. serial port cable is lost, as is the pc i used to use for cdrom boot/image work. Not sure if I even have a ide pc anymore (not really relevant, since it at least boots, I think the ide/sata adapter I'm using is not the problem).
Second attempt, with a different image, is off to a better start. Has booted, and successfully completed a C&DE. Now to put it back in the PC and expand it...

[crashHD]

I think the 1.2TB limit you have seen is instances which start with a factory 250GB drive. A factory drive has only one remaining partition pair for expansion, and adding a maximum size (1.0TB) partition to a expanded factory image gives 1.2TB if one allows a slight rounding error.

Testing continues. Running 0 hour image has just successfully booted after the first 1.0TB expansion. System info says 1077 hours. Now back to the pc for the second partition pair expansion. The first time I did everything all in one shot, and it didn't work. Don't know why. Hopefully this won't be the point where I break it.

[crashHD]

WinMFS terminated the second expansion operation with some sort of zone map error. System is in the same GSOD reboot loop at approximately 1-2 minute intervals. nuts

[RandC]

I think the 1.2TB limit you have seen is instances which start with a factory 250GB drive. A factory drive has only one remaining partition pair for expansion

That's what I noticed when I re-imaged a drive with a 250GB format and looked at the partition map. Unless there is a way to delete the second mfs partition anything larger than 1TB you will have alot of wasted space trying to hit the 2TB mark.

[RandC]

WinMFS terminated the second expansion operation with some sort of zone map error.

I have had trouble with WinMFS on 1TB drives. I finally had to use MFSLive to even restore a backup. WinMFS kept giving and error on partition 10, IIRC.

[crashHD]

I'm trying to figure out what MFSLive will do if I attempt an expand with 1.8TB of free space. WinMFS automatically asks to limit the expansion to a 1 TB partition.

[RandC]

I'm trying to figure out what MFSLive will do if I attempt an expand with 1.8TB of free space. WinMFS automatically asks to limit the expansion to a 1 TB partition.

You used WinMFS to expand one partition to 1.0TB, then on the second expansion it gave and error. What if you used WinMFS to get the 1.0TB partition then used MFSLive to try to add the remainder of the drive.

[crashHD]

I thought about that first, but settled on trying a different route.
MFSLive has been more reliable for me than winMFS, I'm trying to stick with it.

I put the 0 hour image on a 1TB drive, and used MFSLive to expand to fill it fully, then backing up that image. Restoring that image onto the 2TB drive gave me an image with two mfs partition pairs spanning 1.0TB, and after this upcoming boot test, I will try expanding, again, with MFSLive.

[crashHD]

By time I'm done with this, if I'd have just spent that much time at work, I'd have made enough to just buy a new tivo...

[crashHD]

It worked. It was a bit of a sloppy workaround, but it booted alright. I will report back when finished.

[crashHD]

figured out how to make MFS partitions manually, that was a much simpler way to do it. You can't make a partition exactly 1TiB, it has to be some value underneath that.

[RandC]

figured out how to make MFS partitions manually, that was a much simpler way to do it. You can't make a partition exactly 1TiB, it has to be some value underneath that.

Beat me to the post. I modified a 1TB drive with 3 media partitions down to 2 media partitions thus leaving one open for adding the extra space on a 2TB drive.

Partition map (with 512 byte blocks) on '/dev/hda'
#: type name length base ( size )
1: Apple_partition_map Apple 63 @ 1
2: Image Bootstrap 1 4096 @ 64 ( 2.0M)
3: Image Kernel 1 4096 @ 4160 ( 2.0M)
4: Ext2 Root 1 262144 @ 8256 (128.0M)
5: Image Bootstrap 2 4096 @ 270400 ( 2.0M)
6: Image Kernel 2 4096 @ 274496 ( 2.0M)
7: Ext2 Root 2 262144 @ 278592 (128.0M)
8: Swap Linux swap 262144 @ 540736 (128.0M)
9: Ext2 /var 262144 @ 802880 (128.0M)
10: MFS MFS application region 1048576 @ 1065024 (512.0M)
11: MFS MFS media region 216091648 @ 2113600 (103.0G)
12: MFS Second MFS application region 1048576 @ 218205248 (512.0M)
13: MFS Second MFS media region 1734266880 @ 219253824 (827.0G)
14: Apple_Free Extra 4464 @ 1953520704 ( 2.2M)

I even modified partitions on a 250GB drive down to 1 media partition and everything appeared to work except for info module in TivoWebPlus. Now I have a 1TB on the way and I could have gotten away with a 2TB drive.

[crashHD]

I think I've read about this before. What is the process for this? Can you get away with it as easily as deleting two adjacent partitions, and recreating one that covers the same space?