Raid 5

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paulHTPC

New Member
Hello,

I am using an Asus P5W DH Deluxe Main board, Vista, E6600, sli3132 port multiplier and 5 Western Digital 1tb Drives. After taking a day and a half to finish the Raid, the complete drive looks to be partitioned 3 ways and only visible in Disk Management. I have now formatted one of the partitions and it now shows up in my computer. Does anyone know if this is correct? Before I format the other partitions in the Raid.

Thank you.
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
Is this a software RAID? Otherwise you configure it in the RAID controller's BIOS, and it should show up as 1 volume in windows after wards, but you can make many partitions.

This isn't a desktop computer is it?
 
S

SirKenin

banned
First, it's a desktop computer

Second, it's hardware RAID 5 (the board supports it natively).

So, it needs to be configured in the RAID controller BIOS. You join all the disks to the array, then it will be one drive in Windows. Currently you're seeing separate drives because it's not configured (at least not properly anyways).
 
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paulHTPC

New Member
tlarkin said:
Is this a software RAID? Otherwise you configure it in the RAID controller's BIOS, and it should show up as 1 volume in windows after wards, but you can make many partitions.

This isn't a desktop computer is it?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is a desktop and it is software RAID. The problem is the RAID seems to have split the 5 drives into 3 and the largest partition can't be formatted.
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
5TB, damn that is a lot of porn, even in HD its a lot!

I don't really know of any software solutions that do RAID 5, I know there is dynamic disks, but for RAID 5 I suggest you go out and buy a PCI-E RAID 5 controller. Be prepared to spend some $$$ too.

OR

Go buy an external FW RAID 5 array. Those are easy to set up. I had one for back up on an older mac server at work made by Lacie. It was a 2TB RAID 5 firewire array. Actually not a bad product at all.

**EDIT

I google'd your motherboard and did not see native RAID 5 support, so you must be running software level RAID. What software solution is it?
 
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nyhk

New Member
If you use the standard partitioning scheme (MBR) you cannot partition a logical unit larger than 2TB. That might be your problem if you cannot partition and format the whole thing.

But luckily Vista has support for GPT. With that you can break that barrier
 
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paulHTPC

New Member
SirKenin said:
It does RAID 5 through the ICH7 Southbridge (I have this board in my spare computer).
Click to expand...

I thought the only way to RAID 5 using this particular port multiplier was to use Silicon Image RAID software. Something isn't working with this software, as it is partitioning all 5 drives into 3 and only 2 out of 3 partitions are showing up in vista. If there is another way, please advise?

Thanks.
 
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paulHTPC

New Member
nyhk said:
If you use the standard partitioning scheme (MBR) you cannot partition a logical unit larger than 2TB. That might be your problem if you cannot partition and format the whole thing.

But luckily Vista has support for GPT. With that you can break that barrier
Click to expand...


Ideally I'd like all 5 drives not to be partitioned. Iin Vista Disk Management the drives have been partitioned into 3 and the largest can't be formatted.
 
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paulHTPC

New Member
tlarkin said:
5TB, damn that is a lot of porn, even in HD its a lot!

I don't really know of any software solutions that do RAID 5, I know there is dynamic disks, but for RAID 5 I suggest you go out and buy a PCI-E RAID 5 controller. Be prepared to spend some $$$ too.

OR

Go buy an external FW RAID 5 array. Those are easy to set up. I had one for back up on an older mac server at work made by Lacie. It was a 2TB RAID 5 firewire array. Actually not a bad product at all.

**EDIT

I google'd your motherboard and did not see native RAID 5 support, so you must be running software level RAID. What software solution is it?
Click to expand...

I'm using Silicon Image software, apart from taking 35 hours to RAID it seems to have done it's job. Vista Disk Management sees the 5 drives as 3 partitions but the largest can not be formatted and so it can't be seen in my computer. Any ideas?
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
OK, like I said, I don't know of any RAID 5 software solutions can you please give more information about your set up? When I google software RAID 5 it turns up like nothing specific. Are you using Windows Dynamic disks to build a software based RAID 5?

Do you want to run the OS on the RAID or just store data? What is the configuration and what is your ultimate goal? I can better help you with more information.
 
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paulHTPC

New Member
tlarkin said:
OK, like I said, I don't know of any RAID 5 software solutions can you please give more information about your set up? When I google software RAID 5 it turns up like nothing specific. Are you using Windows Dynamic disks to build a software based RAID 5?

Do you want to run the OS on the RAID or just store data? What is the configuration and what is your ultimate goal? I can better help you with more information.
Click to expand...

The software I'm using is called Silicone Image SATARAID5 1.5.3.0, it's the only one available for the port multiplier: http://www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=15995&rr=1

Which then leads into two other multipliers: http://www.span.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=15709&rr=1

Each powering five Western Digital 1tb HDD's. All ten HDD's sit in an OrigenAE S21T case. I'm now trying to RAID 5 one of the sets of five drives. The OS is running on a MTRON SSD seperate from the ten HDD's. The ultimate goal is to have a Home Theartre PC, safely storing my vast DVD/Blu-ray collection, running to a projector.

I had no idea the RAID part of this build would be so difficult and would really appreciate the knowledge of someone with more experience in this field.
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
from that link

For RAID 5, 10 you will need a Sil3726 SATA Port Multiplier and RAID GUI utility.
Click to expand...

That is the software you will use to create the RAID. You must use that to configure it.
 
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nyhk

New Member
it's unclear to me, in disk management, does your setup show up as 3 drives, or one big drive with 3 partitions?
 
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