Cannot access 3 TB drive.

[Absolute Terror]

I'm using KDE Partition Manager to try and format a 3 TB drive. The drive was working okay in Windows 7 but due to the enclosure that it was in only 2 TB of it are accessable. Now it's in a new PC with Kubuntu hooked up internally via SATA and I can't format it at all or even access the files that were on it.

I get this output.

Create a new partition table on ‘/dev/sdb’ 
Job: Create new partition table on device ‘/dev/sdb’ 
Create new partition table on device ‘/dev/sdb’: Success
Create a new partition table on ‘/dev/sdb’: Success

Create a new partition (2.73 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 (2.73 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’: Error

I am able to successfully create a new partition table, but I can't create a new partition. There's nothing on the drive I need to rescue, I just need it to be usable.

[tek_heretik]

I always format storage drives with NTFS as logical, that way it can be accessible from both OSes, makes for a lot less headaches. That's part of the reason I love Linux, it 'plays' well with almost everything. The thing is, I'm not sure of NTFS limitations, drive size wise.

From Wikipedia:

"Maximum volume size
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 264−1 clusters. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 232−1 clusters partly due to partition table limitations. For example, using 64 kB clusters, the maximum Windows XP NTFS volume size is 256 TBs minus 64 KBs. Using the default cluster size of 4 kB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 TB minus 4 kB. (Both of these are vastly higher than the 128 GB limit lifted in Windows XP SP1.) Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TB, dynamic or GPT volumes must be used to create NTFS volumes over 2 TB. Booting from a GPT volume to a Windows environment requires a system with UEFI and 64-bit support.[68]

Maximum file size
As designed, the maximum NTFS file size is 16 EB (16 × 10246 or 264 bytes) minus 1 kB or 18,446,744,073,709,550,592 bytes. As implemented, the maximum NTFS file size is 16 TB minus 64 kB or 17,592,185,978,880 bytes. With Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the maximum NTFS file size is 256 TB minus 64 KB or 281,474,976,645,120 bytes.[4]"

[SteveRiley]

Keeping the following in mind...

Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TB, dynamic or GPT volumes must be used to create NTFS volumes over 2 TB.

And seeing this as the description...

I'm using KDE Partition Manager to try and format a 3 TB drive. The drive was working okay in Windows 7 but due to the enclosure that it was in only 2 TB of it are accessable.

I doubt it has anything to do with the enclosure. You are going to have to create a GPT style partition table rather than MBR to see more than 2 TB. Install the gdisk package. Then run:

sudo gdisk /dev/sd[I]X[/I]

where X is the correct letter for your disk. Go to the "experts" menu and "zap" all structures -- answer "yes" to everything. Then run the command again and create a new partition that spans the entire drive.

Finally, Put an EXT4 file system on the partition:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sd[I]X[/I]1

[jlittle]

I always format storage drives with NTFS as logical, that way it can be accessible from both OSes, makes for a lot less headaches.

Except that using NTFS doesn't play well with rsync across several users.

Regards, John Little

[tek_heretik]

Everybody has their own needs in their situation, NTFS was just a suggestion, honestly, I would love to go pure Linux, but the WinDOHS! cancer (that's what Ballmer called Linux) seems to follow me around. =(