Q1: Does Windows XP 32 bit support more than 2TB partition??
Ans: No. Windows XP X86 is using MBR which cannot recognizes any partition larger than 2TB.
However, Windows XP X64 and Windows 2003 server support GPT, which can support up to 256TB.
But, since Windows XP 32 bit cannot recognizes GPT partition, so any GPT volume is "protected" and cannot be read / write in Windows 32 bit.

Q2: I have a Tekram 3U 16-bay SATA sub-system, there is one problem when the raid volume is larger than 2TB, I cannot run parted and mount it in Linux, how to solve the problem?
Ans: The is one default setting's problem in the 3U raid controller, follow these steps to solve it:

- Enter password "0000" in the LCD panel.
- When creating the raid, in the option > 2TB, there are three Options: No, For Windows, and LBA 64
- Choose LBA 64
- In the menu, choose "U320 SCSI Target Configuration",
- In "Two TB CDB Sel." by default is "12 Bytes CDB", Must change it to "16 Bytes CDB."

That's it. When connect to the Linux system, and run parted again, it will show all the TBs.

Q3: How to install Debian 3.1 Sarge with Areca Raid controller?
Ans: Areca does not provide any drivers for Debian 3.1, howerver, as their website mentioned:

One of our customer create Debian installation ISO images, it supports Areca SATA Raid cards in kernel. you can install Debian directly to our Volumes.

the website address is : http://www.tienhuis.nl/areca/

So download the ISO image from the website, and install Debian to it. After installation, must update the SMP kernel from: http://huge.cajones.org/~dick/debian/kernels/

Q4: How to format and mount more than 2TB filesystem in Linux?
Ans: First of all you cannot use fdisk to create the partition table, because fdisk supports msdos disk label only, you need to use parted to create the partition table. Assume this is the second volume, /dev/sdb. Follow these steps:

parted /dev/sdb
mklabel gpt
p (Press p and it shows the range of the volume, ex: from 0 to 4198881)
mkpart primary ext3 0 4198881
q (Press q to quit, parted automatically saves it to you)
mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
finally, edit the /dev/fstab to include the new volume.

Q5: How to format and mount more than 2 TB system in FreeBSD?
Ans: Assume the more than 2TB volume is in the second raid controller, the /dev/da1, follow these steps:

gpt create -f /dev/da1
gpt show /dev/da1
gpt add /dev/da1
newfs /dev/da1p1
mount /dev/da1p1 /mnt

finally add the new volume to /etc/fstab.

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