4x3TB Drive Raid - Asus P5Q-E Board

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Hi folks,

Been spinning my wheels on this for 2 days now, trying to figure out why I can't create a proper-sized raid drive using my Asus P5Q-E Board. This board has the ICH10R Storage Chip, and the Intel P45 Chipset. Board is from 2008/2009.

History..

I had previously had a 4x1TB Raid-5 setup with no problems. This was created using the <ctrl><i> Intel Matrix Storage Software at bootup. I wanted a bit of an upgrade, and made the plunge to buy 4x3TB WD Red Drives.

After Install:

I installed the 4 drives, and the Intel Matrix Storage screen at bootup shows the 765mb (not the ~3TB I would expect.. ). When I try to create an array through these screens, the total volume size maxes out around ~1.6tb.


Windows:

When booting into Windows - I had previously had the 8.00.x.x Intel Matrix Storage Software, and it too didn't see the sizes correctly. I installed the upgrade to 12.x.x.x, both for the Drivers, and now to the newly branded Intel Rapid Software.

Upon reboot, the Intel Rapid Software does report back the correct sizes!! I can go into Windows Disk Management and initialize/format each drive individually to ~2.7tb, no problem using GPT.

When opening the Intel Rapid Software, the drive sizes are reported correctly, but no 'manage' type buttons (I think its actually called 'Create') which allow me to create the RAID I'd like - but all drives report the correct sizes?

Upgraded Bios:

I upgraded my bios to the latest (from a few years ago) - Matrix Array 8.00.x.x is still installed - I think this may be my culprit...

I found a 'modded' bios with the newer version of Matrix Array - but no longer can I <ctrl><i> to modify the volume (will need to investigate this more).

Anything I may be overlooking here? My fear is that I've spent ~$600 on drives that are useless to me, without having to buy a new machine/RAID card etc.

Alternatives:

Assuming I need to bite the bullet and pick up a 4 Port Sata Raid card, what should I be looking at? I've seen some as low as $30 - but you get what you pay for. I don't want to spend a fortune, but would like something reliable. Can you make specific suggestions on brands/models?

Any help/insight you can provide would be great.
Cheers.
Mike

 

[Dereck47]

History..

I had previously had a 4x1TB Raid-5 setup with no problems.

Yes, you won't have any problems when the individual drive sizes are 2TB and less.

When a single drive is greater than 2TB and you are trying to boot from it then your motherboard has to have UEFI firmware. Your motherboard has BIOS, not UEFI.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581408

 

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These are not for booting, pure storage. Using a 1TB drive which includes just the OS/Programs.

 

[Dereck47]

If that case then each drive has to be initialized with the GPT Partitioning Scheme before the array can be created. Have you done that?

 

[magnified]

Yes, in fact, I can create 4x3TB partitions without any problems, which fully utilize the disk.

Problem is trying to set up a hardware RAID... No 'create'/'manage' button inside Intel Rapid Storage, dispite him seeing 4x3TB drives..

During bootup, the Intel ROM sees 4x765mb drives... Thinking this might be the culprit, but I can't confirm.

 

[FireWire2]

Yes, in fact, I can create 4x3TB partitions without any problems, which fully utilize the disk.

Problem is trying to set up a hardware RAID... No 'create'/'manage' button inside Intel Rapid Storage, dispite him seeing 4x3TB drives..

During bootup, the Intel ROM sees 4x765mb drives... Thinking this might be the culprit, but I can't confirm.

1st Intel RAID in MB BIOS is not a hardware RAID
2nd I'm pretty sure something strange with MB's RAID engine. It seems the RAID can not handle RAID volume over 2TB.
Try this create a RAID5 with 3 drives only (2TB volume).
If it works - Your MB's RAID does not support RAID volume over 2TB

 

[popatim]

Your board supports it but you would need a bios update with something higher than the 10.5.0 version Intel raid option rom in it. Since Asus hasn't updated the bios since April of '09, you don't have official support. And with hacked bioses, you get what you get. Good luck.

Oh. it (3tb drives) should work fine in sata mode and you can use win7 to software raid the drives if you'd like.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/

 

[FireWire2]

Your board supports it but you would need a bios update with something higher than the 10.5.0 version Intel raid option rom in it. Since Asus hasn't updated the bios since April of '09, you don't have official support. And with hacked bioses, you get what you get. Good luck.

Oh. it (3tb drives) should work fine in sata mode and you can use win7 to software raid the drives if you'd like.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/36504/how-to-create-a-software-raid-array-in-windows-7/

Software RAID in Win7 does not support RAID5

 

[popatim]

I never said it did. Merely pointing out an available 'free' option to you in case you cant find a modified bios and don't have $500 to spend on a real raid card.

 

[weisan]

The Intel Raid ROM needs to be higher than 10.5/10.6 to be able to support drives > 2.2TB. Without the updated ROM, the drives can still be accessible in Windows using the newest Intel RST drivers.

This, I'm sure you have already discovered.

The problem with updating the Intel Raid ROM module in the Asus BIOS comes from having a limited size for the module (specific to the P5Q series) coupled with the increase in size of the Intel raid rom from 10.2 onwards - so, the latest version you can use that will work stably is 10.1, but that doesn't solve your problem as it doesn't support drives > 2.2TB.

So, the short of it is you can use the drives, but you cannot use them in an Intel RAID array with the P5Q. Now, if somebody has found a way to increase the size of the placeholder in the P5Q ROM to allow the newer intel ROM modules to fit, that would be great!

 

[FireWire2]

The Intel Raid ROM needs to be higher than 10.5/10.6 to be able to support drives > 2.2TB. Without the updated ROM, the drives can still be accessible in Windows using the newest Intel RST drivers.

This, I'm sure you have already discovered.

The problem with updating the Intel Raid ROM module in the Asus BIOS comes from having a limited size for the module (specific to the P5Q series) coupled with the increase in size of the Intel raid rom from 10.2 onwards - so, the latest version you can use that will work stably is 10.1, but that doesn't solve your problem as it doesn't support drives > 2.2TB.

So, the short of it is you can use the drives, but you cannot use them in an Intel RAID array with the P5Q. Now, if somebody has found a way to increase the size of the placeholder in the P5Q ROM to allow the newer intel ROM modules to fit, that would be great!

This is one of the reason why i always recommend to use low cost hardware RAID SPM393/SPM394.

Once you use it, you wont go back to MB's raid