[RESOLVED] Can't Create Partitions on 3TB hard drive

[ScottyK]

I have a hard drive that was formatted with ext4 and three different partitions. I decided I wanted one big drive, so I moved all the data off the drive and wiped the partitions.

When I go into KDE Partiton Manager, I try to create a single 3TB partition using ext4, but get this vague error.

"Create a new partition (2.73 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’
Job: Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’
Command: sfdisk --force --append /dev/sdb

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.
Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’: Error
Create a new partition (2.73 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’: Error"

So I go back and reduce the size, making it just over 2TB. I thought ext4 could handle 2+TB drives. Guess not.

"Create a new partition (2.01 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’
Job: Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’
Command: sfdisk --force --append /dev/sdb

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.
Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’: Error
Create a new partition (2.01 TiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’: Error"

Reducing the size under 2TB, it then successfully creates the partition.

However I've got 830Gb or so sitting there unallocated, so I want to do something with that also.

I try to create a primary partition with the remaining space, and that fails. '
Then I try to created an extended, then Logical, and that fails also.

"Create a new partition (839.84 GiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’
Job: Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’
Command: sfdisk --force --append /dev/sdb

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.

Failed to add partition ‘New Partition’ to device ‘/dev/sdb’.
Create new partition on device ‘/dev/sdb’: Error
Create a new partition (839.84 GiB, ext4) on ‘/dev/sdb’: Error"

Any idea what is going on? The program tells me it fails, but not why.

[Snowhog]

The ext4 file system can support volumes with sizes up to 1 Exabyte (EB) (1,000 Terabytes = 10¹⁸Bytes) and files with sizes up to 16 Terabytes (TB).

I would try by using GParted. There are spurious issues using KDE Partition Manager. It just isn't 100% reliable, 100% of the time.

[Qqmike]

you cannot create a Linux partition larger than 2 TB using the fdisk command

https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/fdisk...eater-2tb.html

I think GParted is your way to go (as Snowhog has said). Just install GParted using, say, Muon. (Of course, I'm sure you are using a GPT and so on ..., not the older MBR ...)

(after installing GParted, you can find it at K > Applications > System)

[jlittle]

(Of course, I'm sure you are using a GPT and so on ..., not the older MBR ...)

I'm not as sure about that... in any case, if you haven't, I think writing a new GPT partition table to the drive would be a good idea.

[ScottyK]

Got Gparted installed, and went to create a single partition using the entire disk. Threw out an error, but managed to capture it..

Create Primary Partition #1 (ext4, 2.73 TiB) on /dev/sdb 00:00:00 ( ERROR )
	create empty partition 00:00:00 ( ERROR ) libparted messages ( ERROR ) partition length of 5860530176 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum of 4294967295

[Qqmike]

In GParted, if you click View, then Device Information, you should see on the left side, "Partition table" Does that say gpt or ms-dos or what?

[Qqmike]

An msdos partition table can only format up to 2TB of disk space .... A GPT partition table, however, have the potential to address up to 8 zebibytes of space.

Trouble creating 3TB ext4 partition due to msdos-partition-table-imposed error
https://askubuntu.com/questions/8453...-imposed-error

The traditional partition table format used on PCs includes a 32-bit field to record the number of sectors a particular partition covers.
With 512 byte sectors, this sets the maximum partition size at 2TB (512 * 2³²).
If you need a partition larger than 2TB, you will need to repartition the drive using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) format for the disk. If you are not trying to boot off this new disk, you are unlikely to run into any compatibility problems.
Using GParted, you can do this by going into Device->Create Partition Table and select "gpt" from the list.

[ScottyK]

That fixed it!

I checked and saw it was set for MSdos, not GPT. Then I remembered that I pulled this hard drive from my old Window machine, and never fully formatted it. Just kept the current partitions that were on there, which conveniently were all under 2TB!

[Qqmike]

Ha! Yep, it happens like that. Glad you got it. jlittle was, as always, correct on his intuition!