🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <bXgP5.7$rP4.2156@news0.optus.net.au>, "DucST4" 
<slider_au@yahoo.com> wrote:

->Is there any limit to the size of a HDD connected to a PowerMac 5500/250?
->And does the interface make the answer any different? (ie: Internal,
->external, SCSI or ATA)
->

I'm not 100% sure about the limitations of a 5500, but here's what I learned the 
hard way about a 7200:
While  modern HardDisk Drivers can read disks of unlimited size,  until I 
upgraded my OS from 7.6.1 to 8.x, I could not boot from a hard drive (or hd 
partition) greater than 2 gig.    Once I booted from a smaller partition I could 
use any size disk or partition.
And internal/external doesn't matter.  So check which OS you are using.
-- 
Carl Witthoft  cgw@world.std.com  carl@aoainc.com  http://world.std.com/~cgw
Got any old pinball machines for sale?

DucST4 wrote:
> 
> Is there any limit to the size of a HDD connected to a PowerMac 5500/250?
> And does the interface make the answer any different? (ie: Internal,
> external, SCSI or ATA)

The limits imposed are those of the filesystem (eg, software), not the
hardware.  Version of MacOS prior to 8.1 are limited to the HFS
filesystem, which is limited to 65535 allocation blocks.  With 7.5.3
through 8.0, at least the restriction on block-size is quite loose-- up
to 16MB per block, IIRC, so that works out to 1TB per volume.  Apple's
partition map I think allows up to 16 partitions per physical drive, so
those old systems max out at 16TB per drive.

Starting with MacOS 8.1 Apple added support for the HFS+ filesystem,
which supports up to 8 billion allocation blocks, each up to 2GB in
size, for a maximum partition size of 8 exabytes (8 billion GB).

Given that the largest single drive currently being manufactured is only
80GB, I think we can safely conclude that there isn't any PRACTICAL
limit, except that HFS is quite wasteful on large volumes (each alias
and folder icon-- as well as any other file-- takes up at least one
allocation block).

It is my understanding that any size is possible under the older (pre OS 8)
OS's as long as you partition the drive into 2GB partitions. Correct me if I'm
wrong as I'm always willing to learn

Matthew Pritzker wrote:

> DucST4 wrote:
> >
> > Is there any limit to the size of a HDD connected to a PowerMac 5500/250?
> > And does the interface make the answer any different? (ie: Internal,
> > external, SCSI or ATA)
>
> The limits imposed are those of the filesystem (eg, software), not the
> hardware.  Version of MacOS prior to 8.1 are limited to the HFS
> filesystem, which is limited to 65535 allocation blocks.  With 7.5.3
> through 8.0, at least the restriction on block-size is quite loose-- up
> to 16MB per block, IIRC, so that works out to 1TB per volume.  Apple's
> partition map I think allows up to 16 partitions per physical drive, so
> those old systems max out at 16TB per drive.
>
> Starting with MacOS 8.1 Apple added support for the HFS+ filesystem,
> which supports up to 8 billion allocation blocks, each up to 2GB in
> size, for a maximum partition size of 8 exabytes (8 billion GB).
>
> Given that the largest single drive currently being manufactured is only
> 80GB, I think we can safely conclude that there isn't any PRACTICAL
> limit, except that HFS is quite wasteful on large volumes (each alias
> and folder icon-- as well as any other file-- takes up at least one
> allocation block).

In article <3A108F08.123C175B@chem.usyd.edu.au>, Technicians
<jeffa@chem.usyd.edu.au> wrote:

> It is my understanding that any size is possible under the older (pre OS 8)
> OS's as long as you partition the drive into 2GB partitions. Correct me if I'm
> wrong as I'm always willing to learn

Yes, I think that is true, but the allocation block size would be huge,
making minimum file sizes large and wasting good disk space.

HFS+ is the way to go.

-- 
---

_____________________________________________________________________________
Jason  | Email:  matreya@mac.com        | "The surest way to corrupt a youth
Haines |                                | is to instruct him to hold in
       | WWW:    http://machome.w3.to/  | higher regard those who think alike
       | IRC:    #macintosh channel     | than those who Think Different"
       | IRC:    client.oz.org          | - with apologies to Nietzsche
_____________________________________________________________________________

Thank you all for your help. I'm currently running OS 8.6 so the 2 GB volume
limitation isn't an issue (particularly given that the 5500/250 came out
with a 4 GB internal disk as standard) I also partition my disks down to
about 1 GB each so the block sizes shouldn't be a problem either. Thank you
all again for your help.

Cheers,

Ben
================================
PowerMac 5500/250MHz/96MB RAM/OS8.6
http://BenManton.go.to
mailto:BenManton@go.to
================================

Matthew Pritzker, using mpritzke@home.com, felt an overwhelming urge to
share the following insight with the group:

> DucST4 wrote:
>> 
>> Is there any limit to the size of a HDD connected to a PowerMac 5500/250?
>> And does the interface make the answer any different? (ie: Internal,
>> external, SCSI or ATA)
> 
> The limits imposed are those of the filesystem (eg, software), not the
> hardware.  Version of MacOS prior to 8.1 are limited to the HFS
> filesystem, which is limited to 65535 allocation blocks.  With 7.5.3
> through 8.0, at least the restriction on block-size is quite loose-- up
> to 16MB per block, IIRC, so that works out to 1TB per volume.  Apple's
> partition map I think allows up to 16 partitions per physical drive, so
> those old systems max out at 16TB per drive.
> 
> Starting with MacOS 8.1 Apple added support for the HFS+ filesystem,
> which supports up to 8 billion allocation blocks, each up to 2GB in
> size, for a maximum partition size of 8 exabytes (8 billion GB).
> 
> Given that the largest single drive currently being manufactured is only
> 80GB, I think we can safely conclude that there isn't any PRACTICAL
> limit, except that HFS is quite wasteful on large volumes (each alias
> and folder icon-- as well as any other file-- takes up at least one
> allocation block).

   Also have to remember that back then, to have a 1Gb harddisk you 
possibly either have a sugar daddy or a money tree in your backyard.

In article <141120001204021973%matreya@remove_mac.com>, Jason Haines 
<matreya@remove_mac.com> wrote:

> In article <3A108F08.123C175B@chem.usyd.edu.au>, Technicians
> <jeffa@chem.usyd.edu.au> wrote:
> 
> > It is my understanding that any size is possible under the older (pre 
> > OS 8)
> > OS's as long as you partition the drive into 2GB partitions. Correct me 
> > if I'm
> > wrong as I'm always willing to learn
> 
> Yes, I think that is true, but the allocation block size would be huge,
> making minimum file sizes large and wasting good disk space.
> 
> HFS+ is the way to go.