Re: Best size partition for a mdadm array

[Roman Mamedov <rm@romanrm.ru>]

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On Mon, 27 May 2013 19:11:32 +1000
"Adam Goryachev" <mailinglists@websitemanagers.com.au> wrote:

> On Mon, May 27, 2013 18:38, Andrea Bolandrina wrote:
> > Hi Tudor.
> >
> > All disks I have report the same size, even though they are different
> > brand/model
> 
> Discussion on this list in the past would suggest the manufacturers have
> agreed to make equal sized drives in future, so this shouldn't really be
> an issue for 2TB drives or larger.

There are also some overly smart BIOSes, which in certain motherboard models
and versions are configured to automatically store a backup of the BIOS on the
primary HDD. What they do is cut off a small area from the HDD's "tail" by
establishing an HPA there, and put the BIOS copy on that area, possibly
overwriting whatever was there previously.

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=885212
http://matt.simerson.net/news/2009/07/22/hpa-host-protected-area
http://www.gigabyte.com/webpage/8/article_04_bios_explained.htm

The forum discussion linked cites the actual number to be 2113 sectors which is
about 1 MB.

Personally I always leave about 8 MB in the end of all disks just in case.


-- 
With respect,
Roman

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