How to finish partitioning the 8TB drive I put LibreElec 10 on?

Better connect your drive to a PC, and use GParted to enlarge the second partition.

An msdos partition table is limited to 2 TB. Since the drive has an msdos partition table then you will need to consider reformatting the drive with a GPT (GUID Partition Table) to be able to access more than 2 TB. Remember to back up all your important information first!

gedakc Good point. Should be doable with GParted, too.

Quote from menkalos

Partition Table: msdos

I'd say that GPT is a better suited partition table.

Create a bootable USB stick with the GParted ISO, and install the GPT partition table on the 8TB drive (all info will be wiped).

Then create the EXT4 primary partition, and after that, you could do a full disk check since it seems to be a new drive. It can take some time, but better be safe than sorry. Also check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. error log.

When that's all done, you're good to go with the RPi4 & LibreELEC.

Quote from Klojum

you could do a full disk check since it seems to be a new drive. It can take some time

a "smartctl -a /dev/sda" before reports how long it will last

e.g.

Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.

Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 104) minutes.

so

smartctl -t short /dev/sda for the first

smartctl -t long /dev/sda for the second

both will report when the command is complete !

smartctl -X /dev/sda (uppercase "X") will abort the test

Compatibility reasons. Just do what we said.

Quote from menkalos

and then create one massive partition for my media storage

I would do the following after you changed the partition table to GPT:

- I'm unsure if and how it's doable -

e.g.

a) does the LE installer leave the partition table as is during a new LE install ??? and

b) is it possible to limit the size of the storage partition under the installer ?

if both answers are "yes":

I would partition the disk as following:

1. one usual boot partition for LE

2. one usual storage partition for LE, let's say ~1 GB or more in size

3. a third partition for the whole media's mounted [1] in an directory on the usual storage partition of LE (size: rest of the disk)

in short:

a usual LE install with a limited size of the LE storage partition and an additional third partition

background:

if in the future a LE release comes out and a new/fresh/clean install is recommended (e.g. a upgrade is impossible)

one could unmount the third (media) partition, new install the shiny new LE and mount the partition back again

benefit:

NO movement of the whole media's to another disk is needed (maybe time consuming) before fresh install !

[1]

via a script or maybe it's done automatically [2]

[2]

running an release LE on an ssd and an nightly LE on an USB Stick: media from the ssd is mounted into a directory of the stick without manually intervention

(via udev, systemd ???)

+++ EDIT +++

tested it with release LE 10.0.1 :

answer for question b) is NOanswer for question a) is unclear (don't know what the partition table was before; now it is GPT on a 500 GB disk)

partitions from another disk in the same box are auto. mounted to /var/media/

Quote from menkalos

The "msdos" partition table type is what LibreElec created for me when I installed the software using the imager.

Wait.. Are you installing LibreELEC itself directly on the 8TB drive? I would not recommend that.

Keep LibreELEC on a SDcard or bootable USB stick, and keep your media (movies/series/music) on the 8TB drive.

Quote from Klojum

Wait.. Are you installing LibreELEC itself directly on the 8TB drive? I would not recommend that.

Keep LibreELEC on a SDcard or bootable USB stick, and keep your media (movies/series/music) on the 8TB drive.

It would be more reliable to run LE from the 8TB drive as less chance of failure than an SD card or USB stick.

The biggest downside of course being to recreate the partitioning. If the start and end sectors are noted it should be possible to wipe out msdos and create a gpt table, then recreate the partition at the correct place. No data is inherently lost, but care needs to be taken to pull it off successfull.

Quote from mrtrev

It would be more reliable to run LE from the 8TB drive as less chance of failure than an SD card or USB stick.

Meh... Keeping your programs and tools away from your data is one lesson I learned years ago. Besides, disk fragmentation could be increased by all the small thumbnail cache files that will plant themselves amoung the big(ger) movie/tvshow files over time.

SDcards are at the top of the f-o-o-d chain as far as storage corruption goes, IMO.

USB-sticks are more sturdy, I have experienced much less corruption with them.

I now use a USB30/SATA cable on a OCZ Vertex 1 60GB SSD (from 2009...) for LibreELEC only, and it still works. All media is on a NAS.

I use a 6TB drive in a setup too for LE+Media (no NAS etc).

I already lost my data because I needed to redo something so the data was lost too

I would really avoid such setups, better add a USB Stick or something.

Quote from CvH

I would really avoid such setups, better add a USB Stick or something.

yup, seems to be the best