Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
13 Posts
0
92312
PowerEdge 1950, PERC5/i controller will not see more than 2TB of 3TB drives.
Hi,
I've got a PowerEdge 1950 (shipped 19/09/2006) which I wish to put 2x 3TB SATA drives in but the controller will only detect up to 2TB drives. I've upgraded the BIOS to the latest version (2.7.0) and also have applied the Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 5 Series Firmware Update Package Version: 5.2.2-0072.
I still cant see the drives as 3TB, is this an unsolvable problem or am I missing something?
Many thanks.
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 07:00
Which raid controller do you have?
I ran into this myself yesterday when I connected a 3TB Hitachi drive to the SAS6iR on my Precision Workstation; it would only see 2048GB of the 3TB. I then tried it on one of the unused SATA ports that's part of the ICH10 on my motherboard and there the drive was fully seen.
You may need to wait for a firmware upgrade for your raid controller. If you have a PERC5i, I wouldn't count on such an update as that controller has been discontinued, so Dell probably wouldn't add new features to that controller. If you have a PERC6i, a firmware update might come out as that controller is still being offered in current servers. I would think the SAS6iR might get an update too, but as there are some versions of these integrated on motherboards and others are stand-alone cards, Dell would have to release firmwares for each option (and on different servers with integrated cards, they may have to write different firmwares).
Techvet
10 Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 14:00
Are you certain it's not a Windows limitation? See http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2010/02/18/understanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage.aspx for details.
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 18:00
To use a disk of over 2TB in size, you need to change to a GUID Partition Table partition style. Assuming your hardware supports it, you can convert an empty drive to GPT under the following conditions:
- you use the drive as a data drive (not a boot disk)
- your OS is Windows 2003 (32 or x64) SP1 (or later), Windows XP x64 SP1 (or later), Windows 2008/Vista or Windows 2008 R2/Windows 7 (Note that 'regular' Windows XP (32-bit) isn't in this list and therefor won't support disks over 2TB in size)
(to convert an empty (as in; no partitions) drive, in Windows, go to disk management, right click the disk (not the partition area) and select "convert to GPT")
To use a 2+TB drive as a bootdisk, you have to have a UEFI on your system (some of the newest retail motherboards have support for this and from Dell I think the only systems are the 11th generation PowerEdge servers so far) and an x64 version of Windows 2008/Vista or 2008 R2/Win7. A computer using a UEFI can only boot from a GPT disk. A computer using a bios can boot only from a 'regular' (MBR) disk. This also means that changing from bios to UEFI or vice versa requires a computer harddrive wipe to accommodate the change from MBR to GPT or the other way around.
Seb Spiers
13 Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 02:00
Hi Techvet,
There isn't an OS installed, when I enter the raid controller menu at boot the disks are only seen as 2TB each. The server will be running Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 so will have no trouble seeing the 3TB VD.
I think I could be trumped by this, I may have to make use of the 3TB disks elsewhere and just use a pair of 2TB discs. Boo Hoo :(
theflash1932
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16.3K Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 08:00
2.09TB is a real limitation that we've been creeping up on for years, but it is not a Windows limitation. It is a limitation of MBR-type disks and 32-bit architecture, so regardless of whether you use Linux, Windows, or similarly-coded firmware - unless it was designed to deal with that limitation (64-bit/GPT), you won't be able to use the full size.
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
0
February 8th, 2011 11:00
As I mentioned before, if the raid controller sees only the first 2TB of the disk, a firmware upgrade (from Dell) may allow the controllers to see the whole 3TB.
Whether or not Dell will release a firmware for this depends on them and probably on whether the PERC in question is still a model they sell at the time that they release the firmware.
Seb Spiers
13 Posts
0
February 10th, 2011 01:00
Can anyone recommend a compatible controller which will support 3TB drives?
Dev Mgr
9.3K Posts
0
February 10th, 2011 06:00
The latest PERC H700 firmware says in the "Fixes and enhancements" that it adds support for drives larger than 2TB.