Very Large Hard Drive
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Work in progressThis page is a work-in-progress describing the process necessary to install a very large hard drive into a Humax HDR Fox T2. |
With the release of Custom Firmware 3.10 it is now possible to fit a Humax HDR Fox T2 with a hard drive having more than 2^32 sectors. In practice this means that drives over 2TB in size can now be used.
Drives known to work
The following very large drives have been tested and are known to work:
| Vendor | Model | Description | Size | Physical Sector Size | Logical Sector Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seagate | ST4000VM000 | Video 3.5 HDD SATA | 4TB | 4096 | 512 |
Pre-requisites
Using a very large drive requires Custom Firmware 3.10 or above. The stock Humax firmware cannot read these drives at all (it will see them but consider them to have a zero size).
Partitions tables
With these large drives, it is necessary to use a partitioning scheme called GUID Partition Table (GPT). When using a GPT, a legacy MBR containing a partition table is also created on the drive. This MBR generally contains a single partition of type EFI GPT (code 0xee) encompassing the entire drive, well as much of the drive as can be represented in an MBR partition - 2^32 sectors. This is known as a protective MBR since its main purposes is to prevent non-GPT-aware systems and tools from viewing the drive as empty or available. In the case of the Humax, it is necessary to create three partitions on the drive so that the Humax software sees these and considers the drive to be properly formatted.
Creating the GPT
Once the large disk is installed the gdisk command can be used to create the GPT. This command will also create a new protective MBR.
humax# gdisk /dev/sda GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1 Partition table scan: MBR: hybrid BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: not present *************************************************************** Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory. THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by typing 'q' if you don't want to convert your MBR partitions to GPT format! ***************************************************************
Delete all partitions:
Command (? for help): o This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR. Proceed? (Y/N): y
Create the three required partitions:
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): 1
First sector (34-7814037134, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (2048-7814037134, default = 7814037134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +1G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (2-128, default 2): 2
First sector (34-7814037134, default = 2099200) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (2099200-7814037134, default = 7814037134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: -10G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'
Command (? for help): n
Partition number (3-128, default 3): 3
First sector (34-7814037134, default = 7793065984) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (7793065984-7814037134, default = 7814037134) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300):
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'
Which results in the following table (for a 4TB drive):
Command (? for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 7814037168 sectors, 3.6 TiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): C4FC1347-AF56-4BCA-B918-623B08454E30 Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 7814037134 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 2383 sectors (1.2 MiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 2099199 1024.0 MiB 8300 Linux filesystem 2 2099200 7793065614 3.6 TiB 8300 Linux filesystem 3 7793065984 7814037134 10.0 GiB 8300 Linux filesystem
Now write out the partition table:
Command (? for help): w Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING PARTITIONS!! Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda. The operation has completed successfully.
Creating the MBR Partition Table
First remove the protective partition that will have been created by the gdisk utility in the previous step:
humax# fdisk /dev/sda fdisk: device has more than 2^32 sectors, can't use all of them The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 266305. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with: 1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO) 2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK) Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 266305 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16128 * 512 = 8257536 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 266306 2147483647+ ee EFI GPT Command (m for help): d Selected partition 1
Then create the three dummy partitions for the Humax software to see:
Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 1 First cylinder (1-266305, default 1): Using default value 1 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-266305, default 266305): +1G Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 2 First cylinder (123-266305, default 123): Using default value 123 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (123-266305, default 266305): +1G Command (m for help): n Command action e extended p primary partition (1-4) p Partition number (1-4): 3 First cylinder (245-266305, default 245): Using default value 245 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (245-266305, default 266305): +1G
Resulting in the following partition table:
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 266305 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16128 * 512 = 8257536 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 122 983776+ 83 Linux /dev/sda2 123 244 983808 83 Linux /dev/sda3 245 366 983808 83 Linux
Change the type of the first partiton to EFI GPT:
Command (m for help): t Partition number (1-4): 1 Hex code (type L to list codes): ee Changed system type of partition 1 to ee (EFI GPT)
Move the first sector of the first partition to 1:
Command (m for help): u Changing display/entry units to sectors Command (m for help): x Expert command (m for help): b Partition number (1-4): 1 New beginning of data (0-1967615, default 63): 1 Recalculate C/H/S values? (Y/N): n Expert command (m for help): r
The final MBR partition table looks like:
Command (m for help): p Disk /dev/sda: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 266305 cylinders, total 4294967295 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 1967615 983807+ ee EFI GPT /dev/sda2 1967616 3935231 983808 83 Linux /dev/sda3 3935232 5902847 983808 83 Linux
Write it to disk:
Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered. Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
Now restart the Humax using the remote control.
Formatting the file-systems
Once the Humax comes back, the filesystems must be formatted from the command line:
humax# mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -O sparse_super /dev/sda1 humax# mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -O sparse_super -T largefile /dev/sda2 humax# mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -O sparse_super /dev/sda3
Now reboot the Humax once more and everything should be set up.
