1 Topic by tomash

  • tomash
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Topic: Ext4 partitioning freezes for large HDs

I want to format 2 x 1TB in ext4 (different mount points), but for some reason the creation of partitions is halted by something. I left it overnight (8 hours), but in the morning there was still no progress. Cancelling the operation results in an endless "Scanning of devices". Even after 2 hours and that when I forced it to quit. When doing it again, it stops at the same operation (or is endlessly busy).

The HDs are brand new and unallocated/ unformatted. I plan to install Ubuntu Karmic on it. For some reason I think Gparted has problems recognizing the HDs. The HDs are Samsumg Spinpoint Eco (F2 HD103SI). I read somewhere that the HDs had only two heads, each covering 500 Gb.

Using Windows partitioning tools I managed to partion/format the disks in Ext3, but these do not support Ext4 yet. Is there a setting I am missing?

Please advice.

2 Reply by gedakc

  • gedakc
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Re: Ext4 partitioning freezes for large HDs

To try to diagnose this problem would you be able to provide the output from the following two commands?

fdisk -l -u

where one of the options is a lower case "L" and not a one.

parted /path-to-your-device unit s print

where /path-to-your-device is something like /dev/sda.

3 Reply by tomash (edited by tomash 2009-11-13 10:49:41)

  • tomash
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Re: Ext4 partitioning freezes for large HDs

Actually, I was incorrect wrt the number of heads. Disk information indicates: 255 heads, 63 sector/tracks, 121601 cylinders and 1953520065 (total) sectors.

Hooked up the first HD (the one with the/boot) to my laptop. Find below the output of the commands:

Model: SAMSUNG HD103SI (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1953525168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start        End          Size         Type      File system     Flags
1      63s          1028159s     1028097s     primary   ext3            boot
2      1028160s     1953520064s  1952491905s  extended
5      1028223s     22009049s    20980827s    logical   ext3
6      22009113s    26218079s    4208967s     logical   linux-swap(v1)
7      26218143s    141564779s   115346637s   logical   ext3
8      141564843s   745560584s   603995742s   logical   ext3
9      745560648s   1349556389s  603995742s   logical   ext3
10      1349556453s  1953520064s  603963612s   logical   ext3

The output for the second HD is:

Model: SAMSUNG HD103SI (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1953525168s
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start        End          Size         Type      File system  Flags
2      16065s       1953520064s  1953504000s  extended               boot
5      16128s       653283224s   653267097s   logical   ext3
6      653283288s   1303401644s  650118357s   logical   ext3
7      1303401708s  1953520064s  650118357s   logical   ext3


The strange thing is that -when I first started partitioning and formatting these disks- the unallocated space used to be a lot larger then the quoted 931Gb in Gparted (around 980-990Gb). I wonder what happened to the difference.

With the second HD I tried to format again to Ext4. Mananged to get one partition formatted, but GParted (not the live CD but within Karmic) broke. Find below the details:

GParted 0.4.5

Libparted 1.8.8.1.159-1e0e
Create Extended Partition #1 (extended, 931.51 GiB) on /dev/sdb  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
        
create empty partition  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
        
path: /dev/sdb1
start: 63
end: 1953520064
size: 1953520002 (931.51 GiB)

========================================
Create Logical Partition #5 (ext4, 311.50 GiB) on /dev/sdb  00:06:25    ( SUCCESS )
        
create empty partition  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS )
        
path: /dev/sdb5
start: 126
end: 653267159
size: 653267034 (311.50 GiB)
set partition type on /dev/sdb5  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )
        
new partition type: ext4
create new ext4 file system  00:06:24    ( SUCCESS )
        
mkfs.ext4 -j -O extent -L "/sdatd" /dev/sdb5
        
Filesystem label=/sdatd
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
20454336 inodes, 81657856 blocks
4082918 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
2492 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8208 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 37 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
warning: 523 blocks unused.

========================================
Create Logical Partition #6 (ext4, 310.00 GiB) on /dev/sdb  00:00:03    ( ERROR )
        
create empty partition  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS )
        
path: /dev/sdb6
start: 653267223
end: 1303385579
size: 650118357 (310.00 GiB)
set partition type on /dev/sdb6  00:00:01    ( SUCCESS )
        
new partition type: ext4
create new ext4 file system  00:00:01    ( ERROR )
        
mkfs.ext4 -j -O extent -L "/sdate" /dev/sdb6
        
mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
/dev/sdb6 is mounted; will not make a filesystem here!

========================================
Create Logical Partition #7 (ext4, 310.01 GiB) on /dev/sdb

========================================

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: at first I was using the 0.4.8 Live CD. The above logs are of the GParted included in Karmic (0.4.5).

Regards,

Tomas.