From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Martin K. Petersen" Subject: Re: Adding a smaller drive Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:33:47 -0400 Message-ID: References: <20090628194705152.ITZI24524@cdptpa-omta02.mail.rr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20090628194705152.ITZI24524@cdptpa-omta02.mail.rr.com> (Leslie Rhorer's message of "Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:47:00 -0500") Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: lrhorer@satx.rr.com Cc: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids >>>>> "Leslie" == Leslie Rhorer writes: Leslie> I may have to rethink my position on using raw drives. If I Leslie> partition the drives, I can make the partition a bit smaller Leslie> than the whole drive, allowing for the addition of a future Leslie> drive whose size is a bit off. I hate to waste space, but being Leslie> stuck with an undersized or limping array is worse. This is not nearly as big a problem as it used to be. Drive manufacturers need to adhere to an IDEMA standard which requires them to use a specific LBA count for each capacity class. I.e. a 500GB Seagate drive must have exactly the same number of sectors as a 500GB Western Digital or Hitachi. The IDEMA LBA standard applies to 3.5" form factor drives over 160GB as well as 2.5" FF drives over 80 GB. -- Martin K. Petersen Oracle Linux Engineering