"I know for sure that OS 3.1 can read partitions bigger than 2gig using the regular FFS. I have a 3gig that I formatted it and read it and works fine, now I am sure it can read at least up to 4.3gig, Am I right?"
Standard FFS from OS3.1 can't handle partitions bigger than 2GB and total used space from beginning of the HD more than 4GB. You can make partitions over those limits, but when you write data over those limitations you get trouble.
For example: if you have 20G HD and you make two 3G partitions like this: | 3G | 3G | unused space |
then you get trouble in two situations when you fill up those partitions with files. With first partition when you fill it up more than 2G and with second partition when you fill it up more than 1G (3+1=4, which was the limit of the total HD space).
So, if you want to use big HD without updating the filesystem (scsi.device too if used), you have to make partitions this way: | partitions | unused space over 4G |
For example: | 1G | 1G | 2G | unused space |