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Author Topic: X3 Bios Questions  (Read 45 times)

capboy210

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X3 Bios Questions
« on: March 30, 2007, 07:37:00 PM »
Do any of the X3 family BIOS'es support on-disk partition tables ?

I need to do custom partitions to a 750 GB hard drive and was wondering if the X3 BIOS will work with custom partition sizes. I was wondering at all if a X3 BIOS and a 750GB hard drive could work together without errors or data corruption.
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capboy210

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X3 Bios Questions
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2007, 10:20:00 AM »
Does anyone know?
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capboy210

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X3 Bios Questions
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2007, 03:21:00 PM »
Can someone confirm that this is true or false that the X3 family BIOS'es support on-disk partition tables?

Here is what I got after a search:

QUOTE(Big_Whoopin @ Aug 31 2006, 09:26 PM) View Post

Actually, there is a BIOS like that, two of them so far as I know.  The current Team Xecuter X2 and X3 BIOSes both support reading the partition table off the drive instead of having it controlled in the BIOS itself. (I believe there is an option you need to take in X3CL to enable this tho.)  Use XB Partitioner to set up the F and G partitions as desired, format with 32k clusters if the partition is larger than the 16k cluster limit, reboot and allow the BIOS to read the partition table off the disk much like how it works on a PC.

There may be other BIOSes that have this same function, I'm not sure.  I've just been working with Xecuter chips and BIOSes my entire time modding (except for the brief M8 stint before Xecuter released a 1.6 compatible X2 BIOS) and more or less know those setups inside and out.

Regarding a question on where to select the cluster size in XBPart., I believe you first need to toggle the "action" to format instead of write partition table.  Been a month since I did this.  The 16k/32k marker does show up in the top right of the screen so if you are having a problem with overscan on your TV you may not be able to see it.

-Whoopin'


EDIT:


Maybe the X3 does, after more refined searching I got a screenshot of a X3 BIOS:

IPB Image

Author says:

QUOTE
Use Saved Partition Table: Enable this if you have the partition table information saved and can use it. I'm not sure about this feature. I leave it disabled and setup my partitions using the LBA48 Option defaults.


Is this what I have been looking for all along? What the hell does it do?
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capboy210

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X3 Bios Questions
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2007, 05:24:00 PM »
Please can some one help me out here....
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capboy210

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« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2007, 06:35:00 PM »
Alright great. Finally time. So you are using custom partiton sizes with the X3 and there is no corruption or problems right?

Good news for me!
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capboy210

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X3 Bios Questions
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2007, 08:08:00 PM »
If there are any problems let me know. And finally one more question:

How did you portion your F and G drives? Did you just do a even split with 246 GB for each?
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CantSayNo

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X3 Bios Questions
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2007, 07:37:00 AM »
I didn't give what I would call extended testing to even partitions, but I did try them out and made sure they worked. I formatted them using 32k clusters with XBPartitioner and then filled just the G: drive completely with games and video content without noticing any major problems. Ultimately, I went with a "F: up to 137gb, G: gets rest" type setup by cloning my current 300GB to the new 500GB with Chimp's Tools, keeping F: at 16k clusters, setting the custom partition table option in x3CL, formatting G: with XBPartitioner using 32k clusters, and manually moving or re-creating my G: data on the new drive.
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