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Author Topic: Volume Size Limit  (Read 85 times)

oz_paulb

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Volume Size Limit
« on: August 18, 2004, 03:01:00 PM »
QUOTE (NghtShd @ Aug 18 2004, 10:38 PM)
Has anyone discovered exactly what is causing the filesystem to get corrupted on really big volumes? The limit was said to be around 280GB which, as it turns out, is probably 256GB since 1024^3 * 256 = 274,877,906,944. 274,877,906,944 is 0x4000000000 and if you devide that by the number of byte per cluster (0x4000) that gives you 0x1000000 clusters, which overflows 24 bits so maybe the limit is a 24 bit cluster count.

A while back, I bought a 320GB Maxtor drive, with the plan to run my 'fill up the entire hard drive with files' application (what I used for testing LBA48 (to see if it would 'wrap' when it got to the 128GB LBA28 limit)).

I ran the app, and found that the drive was incredibly slow.  It took weeks (yes, weeks) to run before I finally got tired of messing with it.

But, I was looking at the same possibility of a 24-bit cluster limit, and got far enough to find that the FAT contained cluster numbers starting with 0x1000000, 0x1000001, etc.

I thought that if there had been such a limit, then I should see some of the data from cluster #0x1000000 actually being written to where cluster #0 is, cluster #0x1000001 going to where cluster #1 is, etc.  I didn't find any such corruption.

I would have liked to let it continue running/filling the drive all the way.  But, I think I needed the Xbox for something else, and was also just getting sick of waiting.

At the time, I thought the speed issue was an incompatibility between the drive and the Xbox (perhaps Franz was right about LBA48 drives only working on UDMA3, for example).  But, I've since connected it to a PC, actually hoping to use it, and found that it took forever to format (long enough that I eventually gave up waiting).  As I had just formatted a 200GB Maxtor, I had a feel for how long it should take on a PC - it was definitely a problem with the drive.

Anybody want to trade a working 320GB (or 400GB!) for a broken 320GB Maxtor? smile.gif

QUOTE
One way to overcome that would be to format with 32k clusters, which I tried, but I still got 16k clusters according to the volume boot block. Anyone know if FATX will work with 32k clusters?

I had also planned on investigating this - once I was sure I could 'corrupt' a drive with standard cluster sizes, I would change the cluster size/re-run my app to see if it worked.

I don't know for sure if FATX works with different cluster sizes, but I seem to recall looking at KERNEL code that actually pulled that info from the FATX header and used it when accessing clusters, so I'm guessing it'll work.

If you format a memory card FATX, what cluster size does it use?  If it's smaller than the 16KB used for hard drives, then I think the FATX code would probably use whatever you gave it.

- Paulb
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NghtShd

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2004, 04:44:00 PM »

Ok, not sure what I did wrong before, but I just succeeded (as far as I can tell) in formatting with 32k clusters. The volume reads and writes fine and the superblock shows a cluster size of 64 sectors. Now if I just had a 300GB drive to test with.
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AlTheKiller

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2004, 07:57:00 PM »
beerchug.gif

so, if it tests out ok that would put the ceiling on the partiton size at 512gb right?

now all you have to do is get the homebrew devs to support ozpaul's partition table instead of hard coding and we'll be set to customize our HDDs as we please.
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NghtShd

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2004, 08:30:00 PM »
QUOTE (AlTheKiller @ Aug 18 2004, 11:00 PM)
thats awesome, great work guys!  beerchug.gif

so, if it tests out ok that would put the ceiling on the partiton size at 512gb right?

now all you have to do is get the homebrew devs to support ozpaul's partition table instead of hard coding and we'll be set to customize our HDDs as we please.

With X-ecuter supporting the partition table on the disk I think it will help convince developers to support more volumes. As I said in another thread, it's very simple to do. Just mount them. Of course, if this 32k cluster formatting solves the problem (assuming there even is one) it kind of obviates the need for even a G partition, though it's still good to have flexible partition setups.

XBpatitioner has a function to format individual partitions (i.e. it can just be used as a formatting tool) and I'll add and option to format with 32k clusters in the next release. Maybe that will allow someone to test whether it works or not, assuming there really is a problem.
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NghtShd

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2004, 09:54:00 PM »
[somewhat related so I'll not start a new thread]

Paul or anyone who knows,

Is it important to make partition sizes a multiple of cluste size? I was told that I should and I thought it was probably a good idea, but I noticed that the stock E drive isn't dividible by 32 sectors so I'm thinking maybe the filesystem code is smart enough to just give an out of space error when it finds only a partial cluster left.

Update on the 32k cluster format:

I don't know why I didn't think to do this earlier, but I just checked the free space on my F partition which I had formatted with a cluster size of 32k, and then copied a one-byte file over to that partition and checked it again. The one-byte file used 32k so I guess the 32k cluster format worked. (I knew the superblock showed 32k clusters, I just wasn't positive the kernel wasn't ignoring that.)
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oz_paulb

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2004, 10:41:00 PM »
I've got a 300GB drive now, which doesn't seem to have the speed issue the 320GB had.

I've just now started up my 'fill the entire hard drive with (unique) 1GB files' app (telling it to stop at 256GB so I can see how things look then).

After it runs, I'll run a modified version of the app that goes back and verifies that all unique data written is still there.

I don't know exactly how long this'll take - maybe a day or so to run the test.  But, it'll probably take me longer (because of my work schedule) to actually take a close look at the results.

I'll report back here on what I find.

(My plan/hope is to force corruption @ 256GB (or so), then to re-partition with 32K clusters/see if I can still force the problem).

- Paulb
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WabidWoveren

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2004, 06:09:00 PM »
I had discussed this with NghtShd via email and I am pretty sure that there is currently a 256 gig limit.  I also had a 320 that had a corruption problem.  (6 months later a hardware failure, the drive only booted when it was positioned upside down.)  Now tested on a second drive I got the same results.  

I loaded the drive with 217 gigs of video files, then filled it up to 260 with games.  (I new that the 280 gig math was wrong right away, so was aiming for 256)  The last game wolfenstein corruped the first 4 videos (alphabetically on the drive)  which i saved if anybody wants to take a look at them.  

Thanks NghtShd for starting this, and i hope it works with 32k clusters.

Btw if for kicks heres a video of the hd (it looks like i edited it, but the camera only had 30 second video clips) - http://dell.gruposid...BMC/hdsSUCK.wmv
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luma

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2004, 01:50:00 PM »
any more word on this?  i've had a 320gb maxtor for almost a year now, and was one of the first people here to bring up this problem, but there's still no resolution on it.  i'm eyeing the new hitachi 400gb these days....yummy - except that a 137GB partition would leave me with a 263GB partition for G:, which puts me somewhere back into the danger zone for corruption.
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ub2slw

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2004, 01:44:00 PM »
Very interested, I just picked up three 400gb drives...I did one as ALL f: (391gb) Using flashfxp, I got down to 110-100gb of free space before the current trasfer starting failing. It automatically went to the next folder which I waited until that was done to reboot. I logged back in and ONLY that one folder was there...grrr

Drive #2

I loaded an f/g bios and formatted the drive f: has 129gb and g: has 269gb

I've filled up ALL but 37gb on the g:\ I'm curious to see what happens if i attempt to fill that one up.

Drive #3

Unformatted, just out of the wrapper....How do I format into 32k clusters?
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batnun

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #9 on: November 24, 2004, 02:19:00 AM »
sad.gif

I have Maxtor 300GB HD, with only C:, E: and F:.

I tried to transfer another game to F: (I had about 16GB free in that partition),
When the transfer just hang. I restarted the Xbox, just to discover that all my
files (280GB) disappeared, except part of the last game...

Does anyone know about a way to restore the hard drive content ???
(I can see that the free space is still 16GB, so the files exists somewhere...)

Can I connect the HD to PC and try to recover the files ???


Thanks in advance,
Batnun
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ub2slw

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #10 on: November 24, 2004, 01:57:00 PM »
QUOTE (batnun @ Nov 24 2004, 11:22 AM)
Just happend to me... sad.gif

I have Maxtor 300GB HD, with only C:, E: and F:.

I tried to transfer another game to F: (I had about 16GB free in that partition),
When the transfer just hang. I restarted the Xbox, just to discover that all my
files (280GB) disappeared, except part of the last game...

Does anyone know about a way to restore the hard drive content ???
(I can see that the free space is still 16GB, so the files exists somewhere...)

Can I connect the HD to PC and try to recover the files ???


Thanks in advance,
Batnun

I don't think you'd want the data back, it's starting writing over itself.  If you format in 32k clusters using xbpartitioner running from the e:\apps or a boot disc you can have one complete F:\

EDIT: BTW: search for my most recent posts about what's beed happening, curious to know if it happens to you to.
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fiurico

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2005, 03:30:00 PM »
Hey all,

I have now screwed this up twice (two weeks worth of time) and I have now foudn the information I needed.  Can you please tell me what I need to do in what order as I'd greatly appreciate it.  I have the following:

XBOX 1.4
400 GB Drive
Chameleon Mod Chip
x2 4983.67 Bios
Evox (standard Slayers 2.6 install)

Thank you very much for your time.  Good day.
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fiurico

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Volume Size Limit
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2005, 12:13:00 PM »
Well, I put on x2 4979.06 and I did the XBpartitioner to 1 392 gig partition with 32K clusters.  I wanted to know if this will do the trick?  Also, can I upgrade to x2 4981.06 without a problem?  oz_paulb and NghtShd, thx so much for the information above and contributing to the scene.

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