RAID is set up, now what?

[MadMike]

I've finished putting the server together, and everything seems to be working, but I don't know what to do with the RAID 5 array I created. I connected the drives (all 8 of them), installed the driver and software, created the array, initialized it (which took about 13 hours), and... well, now I'm stuck.

Everything seems to have finished sucessfully, but I don't see it in Windows anyway. I see the hard drive that the OS is on, and that's it. I thought I'd be seeing my array listed as a second drive. If I run the software again, it shows the array, and it looks like it's OK. This is the first time I've attempted something like this, so I'm not sure what I'm doing.

I tried googling for information, but all I can find is examples where the array was also the primary drive, where Windows was installed. This isn't the case with my setup. On the advice of one of the other members, I installed it on a smaller, separate drive.

So now what do I do?

[Pedersen]

Right click "My Computer"
Click "Manage"
In the window that pops up, go to "Disk Management"
You should see your drive listed there as one monster honking drive. Right click it, create a partition.
Right click the new partition, format it, assign a drive letter.

Welcome to a large space to store stuff

[MadMike]

OK, I see it, but it looks like it's a lot smaller than it should be.

The RAID management software shows it was 5.25TB, which is about right. There are 8 750GB drives.

Disk Management is only showing it as 2047.97GB, or roughly 2TB.

I haven't gone ahead with creating a partition just yet. I want to make sure nothing's wrong before I do.

[Der Cute]

Mike
are you using a RAID card or doing this by software raid?

Just curious.

Isnt this affected by server BIOS config and also the OS software? (I personally have not set up a RAID server for a home yet. The ones I do at work are big honking workhorses w/ TERAS of storage.)

Cutenoob

[MadMike]

RAID card. Paid over $200 for the damn thing, I hope I can get it working.

[Lehk]

what do you plan on using this array for? software is usually plenty or you can even do a sloppy RAIDless RAID if it's for long term file storage(such as digital photographs) using PAR2.

[Pedersen]

I'm fresh out of ideas, MadMike. I've looked up online to see if maybe NTFS has a problem, and it will allow 16TB filesystems, which is 3 times the size of what you have. At this point, I'd call up the makers of the RAID card and ask them what's going, as they probably have more info you can use on how to get this working properly.

[MadMike]

Damn. I was hoping there was a logical explanation and an easy fix.

OK, I just fired off an email to their support address. Hopefully they have something for me. Those drives aren't exactly cheap, I'd like to be able to use them.

Lehk: It's a media server, for all my music, movies, DVDs, etc. to use in conjunction with a Media PC I've built.

[JustADude]

Only idea I have is to make sure you don't have it set up for mirroring (RAID 1) instead of Distributed Parity (RAID 5), and to make sure the controller is seeing all the disks.

[MadMike]

Everything looks OK to me. It's showing RAID 5, and all eight disks.

I have an email into Highpoint, and a post on another message board. If I don't get anywhere, I might just try recreating the array. Sucks because it took 13 hours the first time.

[MadMike]

Well, here is an interesting, if not disturbing response I got on the other board:

Under 32-bit Windows XP you will never see more than 2 TB.

It won't be a huge deal to get the 64-bit version, since I can just use the copy I have for the next Media PC I build, but I need to find out if the other ones on the network can be the regular 32-bit version, or if those would have to go 64-bit as well.

[Forgreatjustice]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntfs
looks like your limit is 2 ter a partition but you could always make more then one partition.
i wish you luck.

theres always the linux route lol.

[MadMike]

If Linux would work, I'd be willing to try it. The RAID card I got will supposedly work with several different versions, but I don't know which ones off the top of my head, and I'm not home.

Which ones are not subject to the 2 TB limitation?

[Pedersen]

If Linux would work, I'd be willing to try it. The RAID card I got will supposedly work with several different versions, but I don't know which ones off the top of my head, and I'm not home.

Which ones are not subject to the 2 TB limitation?

Mike: Here's the one I would try, it's called Ubuntu. From what I can tell, this one looks to be the one poised to take over the Linux desktop market, so would be the one I'd recommend based on that.

Go for the desktop version, as it's the one that will give you the most bells and whistles. I don't remember if your new rig has 64 bit cpu or not, so can't take direct to the right link.

Also, feel free to tag me by way of IM for quicker q&a with Linux. My addresses are in my profile.

[MadMike]

This is the processor that's in the server. I can't tell if it's 64-bit or not, I don't see anything in the name (except maybe the 640) that indicates that it is, and I don't see anything in the specs.

I don't see anything in the instructions about installing it under Ubuntu, but if you think it will work, I'm willing to try. The ones mentioned in the manual are Fedora Core 3, Red Hate Enterprise 3, and SuSe Linux Enterprise Server 3. It also mentions FreeBSD if that helps. Thankfully, since it's just a server, I don't need to worry about trying to get a whole lot of different things working -- pretty much just the RAID and the wireless network.

I just got back from vacation and might not be doing much today, but I definitely will contact you soon. Hopefully we can get this working without having to spend more money than I already have.

I got a reply back from Highpoint, the company that makes my card, and they said that I should be able to use all the space under 64-bit XP, 2003 (which I think is another name for Server), or Vista. At least I have some options if we can't get it to work thru Linux.