Install troubles on a 3TB disk

mk55

Hi all!
First of all thanks and kudos to all involved for this awesome project, i'm really loving it!

Got my first install with 5.21 on a 320GB HDD and all went very smooth, no troubles at all..
Combined with ARRM the system really rocked my world, so to speak, smooth sailing with lots of options - delightful!

Now i got me a 3TB disk and i can't even get the basic install to work correctly..

I figured that there is a 2TB limitation in disk size - is that correct?
Is there a way to use the whole disk anyway somehow?

But that's actually not the biggest issue i have..
If i flash the image (tried with 5.21 & 5.22) all i get is a mere 3GB partition?

Also the disk is divided into 2 parts ( 2TB and the rest ~800GB ) which i seem to can't remove/merge using diskpart (clean) on my win10 machine..

As well i've noticed the install doesn't seem to be correct since it doesn't save my settings after rebooting the system..

I've searched the forum and got some hints here and there but nothing really helped and i'm kinda stuck now hence this post..

So if any of you could provide some help that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Regards!
Mike

P.S. Here's what the filesystem looks like: http://prntscr.com/oea31k

Edit: typo on the versions it's about 5.21 / 5.22 not 5.23

BZZ

From what I got from older topics most people say the limit is 2TB. However seeing how I am using 3TB for rom storage that would not be precise. I am assuming that the limit is to actual install drive and not to secondary. So following that I guess you could try to use a simple USB with small size factor and then large HDD to run games from. But as I cannot find anything in wiki only people like @nadenislamarre could give you a clear answer. Dont go by my word though and check wiki yourself, I am up for over 28h now so a little slow on brain side. ;-)

Older topic about this:
mk55 https://forum.batocera.org/public/d/2581-install-troubles-on-a-3tb-disk
BZZ https://forum.batocera.org/public/d/2607-two-hdd-s

BZZ

The flash will create partitions like that. It sounds about correct. The merge partition is linux so if you're viewing in windows you will not see more than 3gb. Try 'DiskGenius' to see other partitions, also will let you play with them a little more. But from experience 2TB that the flash setup will do just fine....

mk55

BZZ Thanks for the reply, DL'ing DiskGenius and will have another look..

Still, the install is not working correctly, it doesn't save my settings and i have ~90MB free on /userdata
which seems pretty odd, even on linux: http://prntscr.com/oea31k

I actually may not completely grasp how the partitioning works here, but that can't be correct?

BZZ

mk55 What do you mean by not saving your settings ? Are you editing files via network ?

mk55

BZZ

After startup i setup my gamepad (8bitdoSF30Pro via usb)
After Reboot i have to do it again..

For clarification:

The build i'm working on is NOT my main machine...

I'm using a MSI FM1 board equipped with a AMD A8-3850 APU (4 x 2,9GHz) w/ 16GB DDR3 Ram @ 1333MHz
On my 320GB disk the thing runs everything pretty solid up to Gen6 (PS2 is very slow tho, DC and GC runs fine beside the bugs introduced w/ 5.23)

I'm connecting via PuTTY, yes

mk55

What is puzzling me is that the HDD is recognized as 2 drives - not as 1 3TB drive with partitions..
The drive is attached via an sata2usb adapter, i might try to connect it directly via sata to see if anything changes..

http://prntscr.com/oej31v

The drive in question is HDD 4 + 5
The drive above ( Local E: ) is the same drive working as it should..

Edit: It's definitly a problem with the disk (size) - tried with a 30GB SSD i've had laying around everything works as it should..

Sooo, max disk size is 2TB? Any more info's about this? Is this going to change somewhere in the future?
I mean, i could live with that it's just that i've got a 3TB spare disk now it seems :-/

Dragu

mk55
With the 2TB limit, there are 2 issues. First Fat32 (I dont know what you used for format) is limited to 2TB. Now, in general I use ntfs for the share part. But the second problem is the partition table. If your disk are MBR, you have also 2TB as limit If the disk is using the traditional 512B sector. If you use 4kn sector, with MBR your limit is 16TB. But better to avoid all this and use GPT as partition table. It is more recent and has no limits. You can even convert with some partition software disks with datas on the fly.

BZZ

I used to have an USB case for HDD that used to do that to all my drives. That is make it look like multiple disks. Most older HDD external cases are not capable of detecting larger HDD's. While it might sound odd it is possible that either the external case has a soft built in that does that to get around restrictions or the actual HDD is 'damaged'. I am not sure if the limit is 2TB, but the Batocera Flash always creates with me 3 partitions. so if you have 1x2TB and two others it sounds about right.

Sorry to be brief but due to medical challenges I cannot really test.

BZZ

Dragu FAT32 is just older 'version/format' of NTFS. I dont know if I would convert on a 'striped' linux version. I would just leave it as it is. Your explaination seems correct but very technical ;-)

The bottom line is -> leave it as it is.

mk55

Dragu

Thanks for taking the time, i understand the problem much better now!
It is indeed a FAT32 partition..

Also, by using a direct SATA connection i could remove both partitions easily and the drive is back to normal now.

Dragu

BZZ
Finally you make what you want.
What I told is just very basic disc organisation. And dont worry about Batocera 'stripped' linux version. All my x86 Batocera disk use ntfs and gpt. All the library needed is present. On both boards I have mixed Windows10 with Batocera and use a common disk. And save my Batocera /share backups under windows. There is no voodoo. 🙂

BZZ

Dragu I understand what you said. However 'basic' is relative to point of view in this case of someone that knows what you're talking about. I did read your past post about shared win/batocera boot and understand where you're coming from.

NTLINUX

Hello I ran in to the same issue with a 2TB hard drive. I read this and I looked the problem logically.
I Found that if you can get G-parted to detect the Hard Drive after the install with Linux Slax/Mint etc.. simply convert the largest partition to EX3 then you are go to go…

When Map the //BAROCERA/share/ you well see all the free space well become available.
If G-Parted Reports errors try a different Linux Live Distribution.
I hope my 2 cents helps someone ..

dmanlfc

This is now fixed & should be in the next v30 beta

DMAN

blaze2051

this is not fix on the lastest 5.30 because im having the same issue

joinski

blaze2051

it is version 30 and not 5.30 (the naming has changed from 5.27.2 to 29, then 30 and next will be 31)

this issue will be fixed in 31

for version 30 you can do a workaround method by going into System Settings, Developer, Format A Drive and format your drive there. After a reboot you will be able to use the full capacity of your disk

Tnix

Hi all,

I’ve seen this thread and I think is related with my problem.

I’m trying to install Batocera 36 in an external M.2 NVMe 64 TB SSD USB. I think it’s a 4kn device (4096 bytes physical and logical sectors size). I’ve tried in several ways to change the logical sector size to 512 bytes to get UEFI boots but I think it’s hardcoded from factory and I cannot do anything.

Is there any solution to install and boot Batocera into without boot from any smaller USB device?

Thanks.

joinski

Tnix M.2 NVMe 64 TB SSD USB

what kind/model is it exactly? are you sure it is 64 TB?

BZZ

Tnix I have not been on the forum in ages but seeing 64TB in my inbox brought me back. 64TB seems like a lot for consumer, external SSD. I hope its not an Aliexprses scam ;-)

Tnix

Thanks for your answers.

Yes it’s bought at AliExpress (it’s a similar product, the original shop where I bought it are temporary closed: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005005188913454.html). Maybe could be a scam but I had coupons and the price and storage seemed good so why not try? :D

The info showed by the device is:

048d:1234 Integrated Technology Express, Inc. Chipsbank CBM2199 Flash Drive

Size reported by Gparted: 61.04 TiB , 67.1 TB

Maybe it could be reliableless but I’d like to try. Copying directly the Batocera .img file makes the device with an unrecognized partition table so I had to do it manually. Partitions in GPT mode are seen by several drive partition utilities but it cannot be seen by UEFI nor CSM so it cannot boot. I think because it’s a 4kn drive (4k physical and logical sector size) and UEFI nor CSM cannot boot with this.

I’m afraid that I’ll have to boot from another USB device … I dont’ know.

Thanks.

joinski

Tnix

It definitely is scam. You should ask the seller for a refund.
Your drive does not have 64TB because that is a huge amount of storage for such a cheap price and the biggest nvme ssd drive existing at the moment is 16TB i believe and costs several thousand dollars usually.
Your drive might not even have 1GB and that’s why you have issues with installing batocera on it.

BZZ

Tnix Sorry mate but joinski is 100% correct. Your drive is likely a ‘throw away’…. You will not get much out of it…