160GB Seagate drives

[sven]

I've seen that Seagate will have a 160GB notebook drive this winter.  Since my mp3's just topped over 112GB I've decided to wait to upgrade my DMS til these new drives come out in order to have all my music on one drive (since a 120GB is no longer enough space).

I was wondering if this large of a drive will work with the hack?  Is this something that can only be proved by just trying it?  Granted, it'll be some time before the drive is available, but I was just curious to how things might go.

Thanks.

[skew]

I don't think anyone knows because if there was a limit it would be 127 gig and there is no 2.5 drives that big yet. Maybe someone has tried a 3.5" just to see if there is a limit or not?

[Terry_Kennedy]

I've seen that Seagate will have a 160GB notebook drive this winter.

I was wondering if this large of a drive will work with the hack?  Is this something that can only be proved by just trying it?  Granted, it'll be some time before the drive is available, but I was just curious to how things might go.

Chances are that it won't work properly without modifying the PhatBox Linux kernel. Kernels of the age used in the PhatBox don't have 48-bit LBA support. Fortunately, PhatNoise made their kernel config and other changes available (as required by the GPL) so it should be possible for someone to add the 48-bit LBA support and build a new kernel.

By the way, I'd wait for a while after the 160GB drives are out. 120 -> 160 is a very tiny step when compared with the gains available with perpendicular recording, and I suspect Seagate is using it as a testbed to get any remaining kinks out before announcing much bigger drives. In case you're wondering "how much bigger?", I can tell you that when Kodak/Vertimag test-marketed a perpendicular-recording floppy in the early '80s, it held 10MB compared with regular floppies that held 1MB.