I've bought a Samsung 500G SATA harddrive just like the ones detailed here: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15050&highlight=

In my current boxen is a spinpoint 250 PATA drive. What would be the best way of adding this to my current setup... (hardware list in sig.).

I've looked into the LVM stuff on the wiki and here: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13971&highlight=lvm

But slightly concerned about getting the full capacity of the harddrive by following the LVM instructions. Don't want to fry my currant install, but i need mote space.

Suggestions on the best way to proceed please, would be greatfully recieved.

Thanks

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

Here is post where I outlined an approach: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 8792#88792

In that post I suggest using XFS rather then EXT3, as XFS is much more efficient at file deletes. On the other hand EXT3 is more flexible as an EXT3 file system can be shrunk and well as grown. The practical implication is that if 1 disk in an LVM volume group goes bad, you can remove it if you built it using EXT3 without loosing the content that is on the other drives. The same is not true for XFS.

Marc

The LVM overhead isn't all that bad. Looking at my disks I'd guess it's maybe 5-10 minutes of recording time. Doing a little more math it's not even 0.5%.

I just looked at the referenced thread -- the issue with the "lost" 100 GB is that he still needed to perform the step that makes the new space actually available. As TJC points out, the actual overhead of LVM is insignificant.

Marc

Thanks for the replies guys. What I'm thiniking now is that the whole 500 will be turned over to recording tv, while the original 250 (minus home etc.) will be saved for being the videos and ripped DVDs.
I've physically installed the hdd now, but have yet to actually set it up.
I'm going to go with the XFS file system, as the only thing I may do is add another 500 as they are cheap here too atm. (£70!)
If I run into trouble getting this up and running I'll be back.
Thanks again

_________________
Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)