Using a 1 TB USB hard drive

[Neil Waldhauer]

I'm looking at using a 1 TB USB portable hard drive. But eCS sees it as a 500 GB drive. What do I need to do to see the full 1 TB?

[Eugene Gorbunoff]

Do you talk about bootable hard drive?

Bootable harddrive can't be larger than 500 Gb.

[Jan-Erik Lärka]

I use a 2TB USB hard drive (Seagate Backup Plus) to store data on... but not to boot from.

I used DFSee to adjust the size of the existing NTFS partition and created a JFS volume with the appropriate settings.

//Jan-Erik

[Martin Iturbide]

Do you talk about bootable hard drive?

Bootable harddrive can't be larger than 500 Gb.

A bootable harddrive can be larger than 500GB. I tried it with a 1TB and 2 TB HDD. Maybe you are saying that the bootable partition can not be larger than 500GB, I never tried that, I installed OS2-ecs in 20GB max.

[Eugene Gorbunoff]

Yes, bootable partition should be below the first 500 Gb.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I use a 2TB USB hard drive (Seagate Backup Plus) to store data on... but not to boot from.

I used DFSee to adjust the size of the existing NTFS partition and created a JFS volume with the appropriate settings.

//Jan-Erik

OK, apparently I don't know how to "adjust" the size of the NTFS partition. I remade the NTFS partition using Windows 7, and now eCS can't use it at all. JFS sounds like a good idea. This is a new Toshiba 1 TB drive that is half the physical size of a normal portable drive.

I don't intend to boot this drive. I have little use for a bootable USB drive at this time.

Please give details of what needs to happen to the NTFS partition so eCS will recognize it.

Thanks!

[Ian B Manners]

Hi Neil,

I'm looking at using a 1 TB USB portable hard drive. But eCS sees it as a 500 GB drive. What do I need to do to see the full 1 TB?

On the assumption you have the latest drivers.

BASEDEV=OS2DASD.DMD /D:0 /BOOTABLE /D:1 /FULLSIZE

 /D:0 = first disk, D:1 = second disk - boot then format HD's
/FULLSIZE   ONLY use on a new disk onwards for 500Gb or bigger

You might have to use FDISK or JFSEE to clear the first few sectors on the harddisk.
I started with clean new HD's, I simply put them in the ext USB cases, connect then,
power up, LVM, new volume etc, format as JFS, then simply use it.  (grammar correction)

I use 1 and 2TB HD's in external USB cases to backup my local drives and the server drives.

[Pete]

Hi Neil

To adjust the size of a Windows volume use the Windows Volume Manager to extend or reduce size - Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management if I remember correctly.

To get a 1Tb drive working with eCS requires the use of DFSee - http://www.dfsee.com - and either a blank 1Tb drive or a 1Tb drive that has had all wanted files copied elsewhere.

These are the steps I took to get my 1Tb USB drive working; I posted the below to the os2-uk user group:-

"Of course LVM saw this as a Big Floppy of 512Gb when attached so it needed a bit of a "fiddle" to get it working with eCS. Just in case anyone else needs to get a 1Tb USB drive working with eCS(OS/2):-

1] Use DFSee to wipe the boot sector completely

2] Eject the USB drive

3] Reattach USB drive

4] Run LVM which now "sees" the size of the drive but still thinks of it as a Big Floppy

4] Delete the Big Floppy partition

5] Create a new Volume on the USB drive - I also changed the USB drive letter to S

6] Exit LVM saving changes

7] Format the new drive - I selected JFS as I will not be using the drive with other operating systems (although I understand *nix can read/write OS/2 JFS, possibly with a bit of fiddling on the *nix side)

Eh, Voila! 1 1Tb USB drive working fine. "


You will need to (re)create your NTFS volume as well as creating the eCS volume(s).


Regards

Pete

[ivan]

Neil, is there any reason that you need NTFS on that drive?  If not then just use DFSee to blank the drive and then create a JFS partition.

I have several 2TB drives that I fitted into SATA/USB drive holders that I formatted as JFS and use to make image backups of our servers - no problems at all with WSeB seeing the full capacity or writing to the drives.

[Neil Waldhauer]

Pete's instructions didn't work. DFSee still sees the drive as a 500 GB. Ian's instructions did work.

The OS2DASD.DMD /D:0 /BOOTABLE /D:1 /FULLSIZE allowed DFSee to change the geometry. Even after changing, DFSee had the wrong volume size. So I ejected and reinserted the drive. Now DFSee had the right size. I created a partition.

I then went to LVM, and deleted the partition, which was a big floppy as Pete had noted.
I created a single primary and saved. Then I formatted JFS. I ejected the drive (but that failed -- after saying it was safe to eject, it said I had not ejected. I then did a chkdsk and the drive appears to be OK.

I then moved the drive to another eCS system that does not have the OS2DASD.DMD line that provides for the fullsize, and it recognized the whole drive.

Thanks everyone, and I hope you can see how to combine Pete's, Ian's and my posts into instructions on how to format a 1 TB portable hard drive.

[Doug Bissett]

What has worked, for me, more than once is:

- Move anything that is on the disk to another location, if you want to keep it.
- Use DFSEE to wipe the beginning of the disk, then close DFSEE.
- Eject the drive (reboot to get it unmounted, if necessary, but I never had to do that).
- Mount the drive again.
- Use (mini)LVM, or DFSEE,  to add the partition(s) and LVM drive letter(s). I have always used logical volumes, so that windows doesn't get confused. Note that the USB widget gets royally confused if the drive letter changes. Just ignore that (but it can be pretty stubborn).
- Close (mini)LVM, or DFSEE, while saving whatever it did.
- Format the partition(s). I have one disk where it is all JFS, and my other one has about 300 GB for windows, formatted NTFS by windows, and the rest formatted as JFS. Just be sure that windows (or anything else, other than (mini)LVM or DFSEE), never tries to create new partitions, or you will need to start over.

One tip: I suggest that you do NOT try a long format, especially on a USB disk. I have yet to see any need for that with JFS, or NTFS. I did try it when I first got the 1TB USB disk, just to see how long it took. I seem to recall that it was about 2 days. If you ever need to do a long format, it would be worth the time to remove the disk from the enclosure, attach it to an IDE, or SATA, controller, do the format (which will still take a LONG time), and put it back into the enclosure.

I haven't, yet, tried to make a large disk bootable. I do have a 640 GB disk that I intend to try, one of these days.

[Pete]

Hi Neil

No idea why my "using1Tb checklist" did not work for you. It has worked fine with 2 * 1Tb drives here to date - and I see Doug uses the same technique.

Maybe something to do with CHS...


Regards

Pete

[Doug Bissett]

Sorry, this one dropped off the radar, but it should be cleared up.

The OS2DASD.DMD /D:0 /BOOTABLE /D:1 /FULLSIZE allowed DFSee to change the geometry.

Odd. HELP OS2DASD.DMD states that OS2DASD.DMD has no parameters. Your parameters are probably ignored.

I ejected the drive (but that failed

How did you eject it? Did you change the drive letter? Did you depend on the badly broken USB widget for that information? Even the "fixed" widget, that I got, is still badly broken if the drive letter changes.

You need to use the eject command, and ignore whatever the USB widget might think (you may even need to reboot - with the device disconnected - to get it smartened up).

The main trick is to clear the front end of the drive, using DFSEE. Then the tools (DFSEE or (mini)LVM) can create a proper configuration. Once the disk is configured properly, you need to create all of the partitions, using (mini)LVM or DFSEE. Nothing else will do it right. Then, if you use windows to format part of it as NTFS or FAT32, you need to be sure that it does not "take over the world", and create new partitions, or you are back where you started.

Then, you need to remember that OS/2 stores the LVM information with the partition, while windows stores drive letters etc in the registry (and they tend to change, for no known reason, every once in a while). The windows approach can be very confusing, if you use multiple portable devices, and it will always offer to format partitions that it doesn't understand (HPFS, JFS), so you need to pay attention when replying to the popup.

Hopefully, this clears up some of the confusion...

[Ian B Manners]

Hi Doug,

This is cleared up

OS2DASD.DMD has always taken parameters, simply not always documented.

I am however certain that /FULLSIZE and /BOOTABLE were publically documented somewere, maybe in Dani's readme for her DaniS506.ADD ?

/FULLSIZE should be the default for Disk 1 and onwards but I noted that this did need to be stipulated for a Western Digital 1TB HD I formatted from new, for the full capacity to be seen a few years ago.

added:-
there is a note in the IDEDASD package about options you have to apply to OS2DASD.DMD for harddisks greater than 512GB in size.

[Doug Bissett]

Hi Doug,

This is cleared up

OS2DASD.DMD has always taken parameters, simply not always documented.

I am however certain that /FULLSIZE and /BOOTABLE were publically documented somewere, maybe in Dani's readme for her DaniS506.ADD ?

/FULLSIZE should be the default for Disk 1 and onwards but I noted that this did need to be stipulated for a Western Digital 1TB HD I formatted from new, for the full capacity to be seen a few years ago.

added:-
there is a note in the IDEDASD package about options you have to apply to OS2DASD.DMD for harddisks greater than 512GB in size.

I don't know about "cleared up". If anything it is more puzzling.

My first 1 TB drive is a Samsung Story Station USB drive (it is a SATA drive, in the case). When I got it (a few years ago), all I did was use DFSEE to clear the front end of the drive, then make two partitions. One was formatted, with windows, as NTFS. The other was formatted by eCS (probably an early 2.0 version) as JFS. It was never any problem. I even changed the partition sizes, at one point (probably using DFSEE), and reformatted it, still no problem (other than USB 2.0 is slower than the second coming).   

My second 1 TB drive, is a Seagate drive, that I put into my old Asus A8N-SLI machine. I got that not long before Christmas. I replaced a 640 GB drive, used DFSEE to clear the front end, created a single partition, and formatted it JFS, with eCS 2.1. No troubles.

Okay, the first is a USB drive, so I would assume that IDEDASD, Dani, or AHCI, would have nothing to do with it. The second is a SATA drive, but the machine does not support AHCI, so it uses the Dani drivers.

After all of that, I don't know where OS2DASD.DMD comes into the picture. I know that OS2LVM,DMD sorts out the drive letters. OS2SCSI.DMD also gets into the act. AFAIK, all that does is create a software SCSI interface to the drives (possibly only the CD/DVD drives). Then, there is OS2CDROM.DMD, that supports CD/DVD drives (one parameter /Q to keep it from complaining if the drive is turned off). I would hope that any parameters, on any of the ones that say there are no parameters, would default to something that would always work. Whether they actually use any given parameters, or not, depends on how lazy the programmer was when (s)he created the version in use.

The bottom line is, that we don't know (without disassembling the software), for sure, if parameters do anything, or not. I can't see any reason why WD drives would work any different than Seagate drives. Of course, you may have been using an older version of OS2DASD.DMD, that did need parameters, when you first tried it. Whether the parameters are still needed, or not, would require that you start over, which I would assume you don't want to do.