Question

55

Trouble creating 3TB ext4 partition due to msdos-partition-table-imposed error

rated 0 times [ 55] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 88706 / 3 Years ago, tue, july 6, 2021, 12:41:23

I just bought a 3TB WD green drive, but when I try to partition in in gparted I get an error like:

======================

libparted : 2.3

======================

partition length of 5860530176 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum of 4294967295

And when I try with Ubuntu "Disk Utility" I get a similar error like:

Error creating partition: helper exited with exit code 1: In part_add_partition: device_file=/dev/sdc, start=0, size=3000592982016, type=0x83

Entering MS-DOS parser (offset=0, size=3000592982016)

MSDOS_MAGIC found

looking at part 0 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)

new part entry

looking at part 1 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)

new part entry

looking at part 2 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)

new part entry

looking at part 3 (offset 0, size 0, type 0x00)

new part entry

Exiting MS-DOS parser

MSDOS partition table detected

containing partition table scheme = 0

got it

got disk

new partition

Error: partition length of 5860528002 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum of 4294967295

ped_disk_add_partition() failed

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

inglehare

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 330

Total Questions: 111

Total Answers: 95

Location: Sint Maarten

Member since Tue, Mar 29, 2022

2 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago atelti · Accepted Answer

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.