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Is there any possible way round the FAT32 2TB capacity limitation?
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Frankenpod:
I'm getting to the point where I might upgrade a flash-modded ipod to greater than 2Tb total storage. I realise there are some big problems in doing that - am curious whether they are likely to be insurmountable.
I'm frankly confused about the whole topic. I gather FAT32 can cope with larger partitions, by using larger cluster sizes, but the problem is with the limitations of MBR? And, I gather Rockbox itself would need major work to use GPT? (and it's not likely to happen for a long time, if ever). Or would using different cluster sizes in itself create a problem?
There's also the question of whether Windows could see the disk properly in order to sync files to it.
How about using more than one partition? Would that be a possible workaround? (Is the limit on partition size or on total disk size?)
I'll most likely just carry on increasing the ipods I have towards 2TB (upgrading the smallest one, then making a new one with the cards removed, and so on...), but every time 1Tb cards come down in price I get tempted and wonder about the possibility of exceeding that limit.
amachronic:
The 2 TB limit is on total disk size and solving that would require a lot of work. Adding partitions won't help. We can only address 32 bits worth of sectors (= 2^32), and at 512 bytes per sector that's 2 TB.
That said, I think the iPod 6g has 4k physical sectors so it might be able to "cheat" and go up to 16 TB in theory. I have no idea if that would work as expected with MBR / FAT32.
Frankenpod:
Hmmm, OK. Probably will settle for 2Tb max for the foreseeable future, then. Really wasn't sure whether the limit applied to partition size or total disk size. I guess the crucial issue is the use of MBR?
With cards increasing in capacity, I presume this will eventually become an issue for other players, not just modded ipods? (Always assuming there is any future for standalone players and native-RB anyway)
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