oldman wrote:
> Is there a definite maximum number of partitions allowed on a
> drive, and have I reached it?
dj+fedora@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I have drives with 14 partitions on them. I've had up to 25 before.
I believe there are three caveats to that:
1. The SCSI subsystem only allows 15 (I think) partitions on a disk. And
with the standard MS-DOS style partition tables, that always includes
all four primary partitions. So one primary + eleven logical partitions
is the limit.
2. The libata support for SATA disks uses the SCSI subsystem, and
inherits the same limitations.
3. libata support for IDE (= PATA) has been merged and is scheduled to
be available for 2.6.19. It won't be the *default* set of drivers, and
it's very unlikely to become the default *during* a Fedora Core release,
but given Fedora's aims and engineers, I would not be surprised to see
this turned on in official Fedora kernels for the FC7 release. (If not,
FC8. We're probably talking the next year or so.)
When libata support *is* turned on for parallel IDE, then existing
partitions on IDE devices above /dev/hdx15 will become unmountable.
At the same time, the rest of the partitions will be known as /dev/sdx.
Standard Fedora installs will not be affected by this, since they always
mount by label. Anyone who has changed this may have to change it
back...
Hope this helps,
James.
--
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