Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > NAS/RAID & Technologies > 4.5TB RAID5 Array (Promise TX4310 and 4x 1.5TB Seagates)

4.5TB RAID5 Array (Promise TX4310 and 4x 1.5TB Seagates)

Forum Storage : NAS/RAID & Technologies - 4.5TB RAID5 Array (Promise TX4310 and 4x 1.5TB Seagates)

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I recently purchased 4x 1.5TB Seagate Drives (ST31500341AS) and updated their firmwares to the latest (SD1A).

I also purchased a Promise FastTrak TX4310 and updated its firmware (2.8.1.4).

After building the RAID5 array, the logical disk size is 4.5TB (expected). Upon reboot, but before Windows loads, the Promise controller shows the logical disk size to be 2TB. Windows Server 2003 performs a checkdsk for a few minutes and then Windows finishes loading. After a second reboot, the RAID array is now gone and needs to be completely rebuilt. The data is lost.

I contacted Promise technical support by phone and they were aware of problems with using 1TB drives in a RAID5 array, but not of problems of using 1.5TB drives in a RAID5 array. Promise also stated they were working on a firmware fix for the controller and they should have a working firmware in 6 to 12 months.

In the mean time, I am using the disks in JBOD mode, and creating a software RAID5 array in Windows Disk Management

For those interested in creating a 4.5TB RAID5 array with these disks, I noticed that another RAID controller should be able to work in this setup.

The HighPoint RocketRAID 1740 controller does have 64bit LBA support which supports arrays greater than 2TB.

I hope this helps someone, if I had known this information sooner I would have purchased the HighPoint Controller instead of the Promise.

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The Promise controller is a host-based controller; that means that it's not hardware RAID but driver RAID; all work is done by the drivers.

The real RAID-controllers from promise are called SuperTrak, the FastTrak series are just normal SATA controllers with bootstrap support and RAID drivers; some like to call it Fake RAID.

Also, it might overwrite the last sector of each disk, causing your configuration to be gone. This can be prevented by creating partitions that leave some space at the end of each drive.

But if you want RAID5 on Windows, why not buy a reasonable controller like Highpoint RocketRAID 2310 or 2320. These have a PCI-express interface which is much much better than PCI which is what you're using now. And yes you need 64-bit LBA but so does the operating system! And Windows requires partitions on all volumes, and normal partitions have a 2TiB limitation. So you need the new GPT partitions which can be bigger. Not all Windows versions support these, i can't tell you which does since i'm mostly working with Linux+BSD.

If you can afford the RR23xx series you should have a controller that can be with you for a long time. Anything with PCI or even PCI-X is obsolete by todays and tomorrows standards. For PCI-X the biggest problem is the inability to move it to a newer PCIe motherboard. PCIe is clearly superior and should be used whenever performance is important.

------------------------------ With sufficient enlightenment we can give substance to any distinction: mind without body, north without south, pleasure without pain.
Reply to enlightenment

I understand the difference between hardware and software RAID, and the need to use GPT partitions. I am running Server 2003 which does support 64bit LBA.

The reason I'm using PCI and not PCIe is because my motherboard (Tyan Tiger MPX) is 7 years old and obviously does not have PCIe slots.

Also, I see no need to upgrade the machine since I only use it as a glorified NAS and use my laptop for most of my work (Lenovo T61p)

Reply to ccb056

enlightenment basically said it all...

Server 2003 supports GPT disks as does Vista and Server 2008 (none will use it as a boot drive unless you have an EFI bios though not sure what that Tyan is)

That Tyan has PCI-X which will give you a few more options for better RAID cards. although enlightenment is on the spot again as it wont really be transferable (although ive heard that most of these will work in ordinary PCI slot but will lower bandwidth when compared with the PCI-X). Basically if it doesnt have an XOR processor onboard its software RAID.

------------------------------ "This thread made me strap on my lolerskates and head for my roflcopter."
Reply to chookman

most software raid have the 2TB (32bit) limitation as well where as most hardware raids have the 64bit (alot of TB) limitation and only have the 2TB limitation when used on a system that don't support GPT.

have said it many times before, stay away from software raid, it is not as good as it pretends to be.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Godiwa

Godiwa wrote :

Got a 3T array out of 1Tx4 drives on WinXP 32 bit.

Reply to tpg0007

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