Unable to partition new 8 Terabyte internal HDD

[geekydude]

Hello,

I'm having difficulty partitioning my new Seagate 8 TB internal hard drive.
It will allow me create two 2 TB primary partitions, but won't create any more primary or extended partitions.
It won't allow me to create ANY extended partitions under any circumstances, and therefore doesn't allow me to create logical partitions either (since extended partitions are containers for logical partitions).

This is the drive I just purchased:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm running a home built custom system with the following specs:

Asus P5Q (Deluxe) Motherboard
Sata 3 controllers
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz.
12 GB Memory
12 Terabytes HDD space (3 - 4 TB drives)
1 - 8 TB drive I'm attempting to partition to replace a 1 TB drive that failed.

Kernel 3.16.0-76-generic (#98~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 24 17:04:58 UTC 2016)
Kubuntu 14.04

What I want to do is divide the new 8 TB drive into 2 ext 4 partitions with the first and largest partition being 5 TB and the remaining space allocated to the second partition.

I'm using the KDE partition manager.

The only error I get is:

Create a new partition (5.00 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’
Job: Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’
Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.
Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’: Error
Create a new partition (5.00 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’: Error

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[Qqmike]

Quick thoughts: Looks like NEW hardware. Your computer will be booting by UEFI, not the older MBR way. Your drive should be partitioned as a GPT drive, not the older MBR drive. With GPT, there are no extended partitions. All partitions have the same "rank"--as primary partitions--usually up to 128 of them. Also, to boot properly, you must create a special partition, an EFI System Partition, or ESP (usually made as sda1 or sda2 but can be anywhere, size: 500 MB, format: FAT32, and set the boot flag on it if you are using GParted, or type it as Type EF00).
I would do this work using GParted Live CD/USB:
http://gparted.org/livecd.php
Hit the "features" link you see there at the beginning--that tells you what GParted can do and with what it can do it.
Also see Usage Instructions, if needed. Works about like the KDE Partition Editor.

[geekydude]

Thanks for your reply...

My system is BIOS only. It is older hardware.
I built my system several years ago when the technology it uses was "bleeding edge" technology.
The other drives are partitioned using MBR, but the 4 TB drives were partitioned into two 2 TB partitions on each drive.

[geekydude]

Gparted is the gnome interface to parted.
The KDE partition manager is the KDE interface to parted.

[jlittle]

My system is BIOS only. It is older hardware.

Does your system, and will it in the future, have another drive that is MBR that the BIOS can boot from? Then you can make the 8 TB drive GPT.
If you don't have a linux install on any of those other drives, you could make a small partition on one of them just for grub, a few MB would be enough. If the drives are fully allocated, you could shrink a partition a little to make room (it might need to be in the first 2 TB) . Grub will be happy to boot an OS from a GPT drive, so long as it can load its GPT module using BIOS calls.

(In principle it's possible to install grub into the MBR gap on one drive including GPT support that allows grub to complete its startup from the GPT drive, but... that doesn't sound good these days, it would be done a fair bit last decade but now support would be spotty.)

Otherwise, you might have to wipe the drive to be able to partition it properly. You might even have to zero out the partition table.

Regards, John Little

[oshunluvr]

There's a lot of confusion and FUD going around about GPT vs. MBR and EFI vs. BIOS. The fact is, you can access and even boot from GPT formatted drives from BIOS with proper partition configuration. I do it every time I boot with my 2009 AMI BIOS - no EFI in sight. BIOS does not equal MBR and EFI does not equal GPT. It's simpler to boot to GPT from EFI, but EFI is not required. Regardless, this is not what the OP has asked about.

It's more likely your BIOS won't support an 8TB drive or you have it configured in a way that doesn't allow that large of a device (IDE vs. ACHI mode). You might check with Asus tech support, they're pretty responsive in my experience. BTW, there's 7 BIOS updates for that motherboard, last on released in June 2010 (or around then). Might be worth an upgrade if you haven't since it was new.

In the mean time, try partitioning the drive in GPT mode (gdisk from the CLI or KDE Partition manager). I have a 6tb drive with my 2009 bios, but you never know where Asus/AMI have a limit. Also - basic stuff - check the cable and change SATA ports, etc.

@JLITTLE: I've been booting to gpt tabled drives using 2009 AMI bios for a couple years. I'd like to know what "spottiness" you've experienced or read about. All you have to do is create a small partition with the partition type EF02 to allow grub to install to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS_boot_partition I did read that some BIOS do drive checking that can cause booting issues, but usually these "features" can be disabled.

[jlittle]

There's a lot of confusion and FUD going around about GPT vs. MBR ... this is not what the OP has asked about.

My point was to suggest to the OP to reconsider using GPT.

. I'd like to know what "spottiness"....

Thanks for that, I didn't know about GPT BIOS partitions. I wonder how in the first stage of the boot loader, that has to live in 512 bytes, manages to to find the partition; perhaps it gets baked in.

[Qqmike]

I didn't know about GPT BIOS partitions. I wonder how in the first stage of the boot loader, that has to live in 512 bytes, manages to to find the partition; perhaps it gets baked in.

Of those 512 bytes (MBR),
64 bytes are the partition table (old style, MBR, 4 primaries);
and so, there's room for pointer to the BIOS boot partition.
2 bytes of the 512 are for an end-of-file marker (in hex);
the rest of the 512 bytes is for bootloader code (e.g., Stage 1).
... or something like that (not sure my memory is exactly exact, but you get the picture).

EDIT:
Actually, I'm not real sure where that pointer to the Bios Boot Partition is. I typed faster than I was thinking. However, I'll leave my response as is, for now. Thinking ... if it's a GPT, one only needs the start of the GPT, the header, etc., and there's not much use for those 64 bytes in the MBR, so ... why not put the pointer to the BIOS boot partition in there? or, it could be placed in the code area of the MBR, the 446 bytes that contain Stage 1 bootloader code.

[Qqmike]

Looks like this might be a clue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB

See the figure under Operation, Booting, GNU GRUB on a GPT-partitioned hard drive,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:G...isk_drives.svg

=> the 446 bytes contain a pointer to Stage2 (core.img) = the BIOS Boot Partition.

[oshunluvr]

From the Arch wiki:

• Keep in mind that if your Boot-Manager is GRUB, it needs a BIOS Boot Partition. If your MBR Partitioning Layout isn't too old, there is a good chance that the first partition starts at sector 2048 for alignment reasons. That means at the beginning will be 1007 KiB of empty space where this bios-boot partition can be created. To do this, first do the mbr->gpt conversion with gdisk as described above. Afterwards, create a new partition with gdisk and manually specify its position to be sectors 34 - 2047, and set the EF02 partition type.

AFAIK, grub detects the EF02 partition and uses the space. Technically, you're creating a "hybrid" MBR/GPT drive. Grub uses the reserved space for it's needs while you're freed from MBR partitioning limitations. IME, it's never failed. I partitioned all my drives this way so I could boot to any of them.

Interesting info, but again - not what the OP's issue is.

[geekydude]

Thank you for your posts!

A couple of notes specific to this discussion in the event it becomes needed info in the future:

1.) The drive is new and un-formatted bare drive shipped from Seagate.
2.) My system has only BIOS and no EFI of any kind.
3.) It has the original BIOS firmware version it shipped with, so updating is very good idea (Thanks!).
4.) I will try your suggestions for booting to GPT before going pointing to MBR partitions.
5.) The boot partition is MBR and resides on an existing drive and OS install.


You have given me some things to examine and re-examine.
I will post back with results.

[dequire]

Is it just possible, since the motherboard is old, that it just simply has no way of inherently using an 8TB HD? I know we all usually assume this is software / grub / UEFI issue, but couldn't it just be that simple? This problem seems rather unique, since one would expect a newer MB with such a newer HD. I'm not curious if a bios upgrade fixes the issue...

[geekydude]

Is it just possible, since the motherboard is old, that it just simply has no way of inherently using an 8TB HD? I know we all usually assume this is software / grub / UEFI issue, but couldn't it just be that simple? This problem seems rather unique, since one would expect a newer MB with such a newer HD. I'm not curious if a bios upgrade fixes the issue...

Perhaps... It can see all of the space, but it cannot partition more than half of the drive (in 2 terabyte increments).
I will upgrade the BIOS and try again tomorrow.

Will keep you posted.

[oshunluvr]

Is it just possible, since the motherboard is old, that it just simply has no way of inherently using an 8TB HD? I know we all usually assume this is software / grub / UEFI issue, but couldn't it just be that simple? This problem seems rather unique, since one would expect a newer MB with such a newer HD. I'm not curious if a bios upgrade fixes the issue...

I thought of this too. But since the mobo has SATAIII one would assume that it could read 8TB drives, but maybe not. They are a rather newish capacity.

[oshunluvr]

Thank you for your posts!

A couple of notes specific to this discussion in the event it becomes needed info in the future:

1.) The drive is new and UN-formatted bare drive shipped from Seagate.
2.) My system has only BIOS and no EFI of any kind.
3.) It has the original BIOS firmware version it shipped with, so updating is very good idea (Thanks!).
4.) I will try you suggestions for booting to GPT before going pointing to MBR partitions.
5.) The boot partition is MBR and resides on an existing drive and OS install.


You have given me some things to examine and re-examine.
I will post back with results.

Installing and formatting this drive will have no impact on booting unless you intend to replace one of your other drives. However, if you end up using GPT for this drive, reserving the small partition for booting would be a good idea just in case the other drive(s) fail down the road.