Why is my RAID volume not working? Help!

[Draug]

I am having some trouble getting my RAID5 volume set up. I have done all the troubleshooting I can think of, but am out of ideas.

Here is a little background:
I'm running a Gigabyte P35-DS4 motherboard, which has an onboard Intel 6xSata Raid controller and a Gigabyte 2xSata Raid controller. For over a year, I have been running a RAID0 on the 2 port Gigabyte controller using 2x500GB Western Digital drives, and also have been running a RAID5 on the 6 port Intel controller using 3x1TB Hitachi drives. XP Pro is the OS.

I am trying create a second RAID5 volume with 3x1.5TB Seagate drives on the remaining 3 ports on the Intel controller.

Here is what happens:
In the Intel configuration, it allows me to create the new volume and reports that it has a normal status.

In XP, the volume shows up in the Device Manager as a disk drive, and is reported to be working normally. The Raid controller also shows up in the Device Manager and is reported to be working properly (as evidenced by the original volume still working).

But, the new RAID5 volume doesnt show up in Disk Manager so that I can initialize and use it. My original Raid volumes still work fine.

Here is what I have tried:
I am sure the drives are hooked up fine since the Raid Controller reports them as working normally in the new Raid volume.

I am 99% sure the drives are working fine. I have tried hooking them up as individual drives, and XP recognizes them and they show up in Disk Manager. I can then initialize and use them. Note that I only performed a quick format on them (I am now fully formatting them just in case, but it will take hours).

I then tried to create the Raid volume again (after I had quick formatted them), but that didnt work either.


Anyone have any advise? What else can I try? Why else could it not be working?

Thanks so much!

[rbochan]

RAID explained:

[Draug]

I still cant get it working ...

I tried to format each of the new disks individually, and they work perfectly.

When I made a new Raid5 volume, it created fine. Then, windows detected new hardware of type "disk", and it shows up in Device Manager.

But, it doesnt show up in Disk Manager at all, even after a rescan. Oddly, Disk1 is missing in the Disk Manager as well, and my old Raid volumes are listed as Disk0 and Disk2.

Any ideas, anyone?

[GoinAllTheWay]

lol, that water cooler example is awesome.

[photon]

Is it possible that the chipset can't support 2 independent RAID 5 arrays? Though you can create it.. maybe the driver can't support it?

[Draug]

Originally Posted by photon

Is it possible that the chipset can't support 2 independent RAID 5 arrays? Though you can create it.. maybe the driver can't support it?

That might be it ... but, I disconnected my old Raid5, and tried to only have the new one, and that didnt work either.

But, I have tried all the combinations of Raid1 with the 3 new drives and they are all recognized with Disk Manager.

The intel controller is an onboard Intel ICH9R. I will have to investigate any limitations there.

Does windows have any limitations as to the size that a Raid array? The Raid5 with 3 x 1.5 TB drives is over 2TBs.

[Cliche]

Originally Posted by photon

Is it possible that the chipset can't support 2 independent RAID 5 arrays? Though you can create it.. maybe the driver can't support it?

AFAIK the intel raid controller should be able to support 2 logical drive raid 5 arrays.

I haven't tested this in practice of course, however I would think that to enable the rest of the drives, the OP would need the intel matrix storage management program, to get better enumeration of the drives available.

Maybe something like this might help, as it might address the logical address's with the drives rather than the absolute hardware.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Draug

Does windows have any limitations as to the size that a Raid array? The Raid5 with 3 x 1.5 TB drives is over 2TBs.

Yep ... that was the problem.... 7 hours later. For some reason, I wasnt aware that there was a size limitation in XP.

The three 1.5TB disks, as a Raid5, created a single volume of 2.8TB. I split the 2800gb into two Raid5 volumes and they show up as un initialized in disk manager ....

For the record, the Intel controller is now controlling 3 Raid5 volumes. One is a 1.8TB volume from 3 x 1TB drives, and the three 1.5TB drives make a 1.5TB volume and a 1.3TB volume.

Is there anyway to get XP SP3 to see a drive as large as 2.8TB?

[photon]

Ah yes, never thought about that.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919117

As far as I know there's nothing for Windows XP, other than upgrading to 64 bit Windows XP

http://www.carltonbale.com/2007/05/h...-system-limit/