How do I remove the 2TB limit on my RAID5

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510
Hi guys,

I have an ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard that I'm very sure has UEFI. I set it to RAID mode in the BIOS and managed to join my 4x3TB WD Green hard drives. I then proceeded to installing Windows 7 on the single partition created and I finished off by installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (IRSTe). My problem is that, even though IRSTe and Disk Management are showing the total space and recognizing the RAID 5, I can't seem to change it to GPT or delete any volume, so that My Computer shows the 8TB instead of 2TB. In disk management, Format, Add Mirror and Delete volume are greyed out, and I know it is because my system files are on that Partition, only Properties and Help are available options on the unallocated space. What can I do to resolve this?

Thanks for your help.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
RealBeast

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Sep 13, 2010
17,109
473
104,790
Did you format them as GPT drives before building the RAID array? If not, I would break up and delete the array and start over.

All are connected to the 3Gbps black ports correct?

And you aren't running your OS off a Green drive or array of them are you? They are not great for RAID due to the rapid head parking and are rather slow for OS drives.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510


No, I did not, I couldn't find the option in the BIOS, and I don't know of any other way of doing so without installing the OS. Yes, hey are all connected to the 3Gbps black ports.

I am running the OS off the green drive. Like you said they are slow, but I will be stuck with that for a while until i buy an SSD.

Thanks for your reply, if you know of a way of formatting them as GPT drives before OS installation do tell.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
F

FireWire2

Distinguished
Oct 30, 2006
1,304
1
19,665
If DM shows over 2TB volume, then it means there is nothing wrong with the RAID volume

You need to clean it with diskpart command

Run Command Prompt as Admin

Select the disk, then clean it

Once you clean it, go back to the DM re-partition

Do you need step by step procedure? If you do let me know
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510


Thank you, I managed to clean it, and thanks to your answer I managed to find out how to change the disk to GPT prior Windows installation. Only problem now, is that it's taking ages to format in disk part, about 1% since 2 hours ago. So if I run into any other problems, I will update.

Can I skip the formatting, after I GPT in disk part?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510
This is how to GPT before Windows installation:
On the Windows Installation screen before selecting "Install Now"
•Shift and F10
•type " diskpart.exe " hit enter
•type " list disk " hit enter
•type " Select disk #" hit enter ( # refers to the disk number)
•type " clean " hit enter
•type " convert GPT " hit enter
•type " create partition primary
close the window.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
F

FireWire2

Distinguished
Oct 30, 2006
1,304
1
19,665


The format part is not a major issue, the rebuild time that you need to look at...
You can skip the formatting, but test the rebuild to see how slow/fast it rebuid

If it takes days then it is not good, because during rebuild another HDD failed you data is toasted.

Here is how to check it
Hot remove a raid member, wait for 20sec plug it back in
- A good raid5 engine it should automatically rebuild w/o user interfere
- See how fast it rebuild. If it's too slow you need to take a look at an alternative RAID engine
- While it rebuild, can you access your data? if you can not, then you have a not so good raid engine
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510


It did rebuild in a short time and I could access my data (without the disk and when it was rebuilding), thanks a bunch, I really appreciate it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

ksamba

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
6
0
10,510


I already had UEFI, but my flash wasn't. I had to reformat it using "Rufus" to make it a "GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer".

Here is the tutorial:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

Thank you for the help.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom