Dell Precision T5500 new hardrives

Exceeding max storage capacity can severly slow down or freeze a unit.  It's a good thing you asked.

I recommend downloading the pdf manual for your T5500 and double checking the max storage capacity.  Search terms can be used in the pdf.  T5500 Manual

In answering a similar question for someone's T3500, its max capacity is 8TB; as taken from the Dell brochure for it.

I tried Googling your max capacity as you probably did, but did not find a similar reference, and therefore suggested the manual.

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks a lot for your response! Good to know that this can affect my unit that severely. 

I also found no reference to the max size there.

But it is ok, I decided to stay with the current 2x 2TB configuration.

Never change a winning team I guess :) 

You're welcome.☺  Thanks for relaying there's no reference to max size HDD's in the manual.  I specified spec. sheet in Google and found it.  You're right, it specifies 6TB max total.  It looks like it's due to other capacities and flexibilities the T5500 has.

One time, I put a 32GB chip in a 2GB max phone, and it froze.  The 32GB chip wasn't loaded.  I wanted to see what it would do.  I also noticed how large flash drives can slow down lesser computers.  Seems to be a matter of what RAM can handle, besides it's own max.

If a computer is maxxed out within specs., it's hard to go wrong.

5400 and 5500 raid DOES NOT Support drives larger than 2TB

UEFI bios class 2.3.1 is required for a disk that is greater than 2TB and GPT is required for partitions larger than 2TB.

Your system doesn't support either.

Seagate does make a driver for non boot non raid drives.

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/precn/en/dell-precision-t5500-brochure-en.pdf

Chassis supports up to two internal drives plus 3rd/4th drives in flex/optical bays (mini-tower)
 (6.0TB4 maximum storage capacity).
Max 2 SAS HDD in desktop chassis.

4 HDD tower configuration for rack environments
available by special order.

Single RAID 0 data volumes greater than 2TB are available as factory-installed option with the integrated controller and optional PERC6 RAID adapter

Intel ICH10R I/O controller hub); Optional SAS 6/ir controller supports SAS drives with host-based

RAID 0 or 1

Optional PERC 6/i PCIe SAS/SATA/SSD hardware RAID card supports RAID 0, 1, 5

(RAID5 in mini-tower orientation only

"You're welcome.☺  Thanks for relaying there's no reference to max size HDD's in the manual.  I specified spec. sheet in Google and found it.  You're right, it specifies 6TB max total.  It looks like it's due to other capacities and flexibilities the T5500 has."

This does not mean you can put 3TB or 4TB drive. T5500 can max out to 72 GB RAM but it does not mean you can install 16GB RAM or higher in one slot.

However, you can put 1GB RAM, 2GB RAM, 4GB RAM, 8GB RAM on each memory slot. The same manner with the data connector. Dell T5500 has 4 or 5 SATA interface connectors on-board? This is a very old motherboard that does not support UEFI bios. If it does not recognize 4TB and will give you only 1.6TB, it means the SATA PORTS cannot read it. You cannot do anything about it.

There are two solutions, however. Either software and hardware components. A software component is installed to prepare the drive logically to recognize upon turning the computer or loading in Windows at startup. A hardware component is native to the drive. If a SATA card has the chipset to recognize 4TB or higher, just install it in one of the slots whether it is PCIe or PCI  which this old motherboard supports.

Good luck!

The Penultimate Solution to your problem is to have your DELL Motherboard BIOS updated with the A18 version

I have installed 3 x 4TB HDDs on 4 T5500. An extra one that is recently put together as a gaming machine with a full BIOS update. It was used as a test machine after failing on the first one of the 3. All systems were purchased at different times. The BIOS were only updated during their last purchase. 

The 3 x 4TB HDDs failed on two computers. Had no problems with the test machine and the last T5500 that was also worked on recently including BIOS latest updates.

The only difference between all the T5500 systems was the BIOS version.  Two systems that worked have the A18 BIOS version while the other two that failed to recognize them were A10 and A16.   

If the BIOS update was successful a window pops up with two choices, MBR with the legacy format and GPT with the large format greater than 2 TB. 
 

Good luck!

"There are two solutions, however. Either software and hardware components. A software component is installed to prepare the drive logically to recognize upon turning the computer or loading in Windows at startup. A hardware component is native to the drive. If a SATA card has the chipset to recognize 4TB or higher, just install it in one of the slots whether it is PCIe or PCI  which this old motherboard supports."

That is nonsense. " A software component is installed to prepare the drive logically to recognize upon turning the computer or loading in Windows at startup. "  Which has nothing whatsoever to do with CLASS 2.3.1 UEFI and GPT.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/device-experiences/oem-uefi

  "A hardware component is native to the drive. If a SATA card has the chipset to recognize 4TB or higher, just install it in one of the slots whether it is PCIe or PCI  which this old motherboard supports."  This too is nonsense.

Your solution does not identify in ANY way what software or hardware provides greater than 2tb booting UEFI which this system does not have.

Onboard Intel Raid does not support single disks larger than 2TB.  This model is over 11 years old and has Class 0 legacy bios.

bios A18 Updated CPU microcode to address security advisory Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00115 (CVE-2018-3639 & CVE-2018-3640)

Why you need UEFI and Why MBR is limited to 2TB

What is a GPT disk?The GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) Partition Table was introduced as a part of the Extensible Firmware Interface(EFI) initiative. GPT provides a more flexible mechanism for partitioning disks than the olderMaster Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme that has been common to PCs.

Why do we need GPT?MBR Extended Boot Records, the commonly used alternative to GPT, are constrained bysupporting only four primary partitions, by temporary schemes such as container partitions, andby allowing volume size less than 2TB only.  This inhibits their use in solutions that need moreprimary partitions or larger volume size.

Booting from GPT Using Class 2.3.1 UEFI requires 64 bit os.

newer intel VIOS

CLASS 0 and CLASS 1 bios do not support GPT UEFI BOOT

I can confirm that 4TB drives are completely usable and bootable on a T5500 with the A18 BIOS.  Thank you @Analisa Gomes . @speedstep please confirm this for yourself before dismissing the possibility. 

I have also found that 16GB ECC DDR3 registered DIMMs work in this model as well and currently have 3x16GB DIMMs installed, and plan on installing more.

I did not try it in RAID. But I know that Intel's ich5R for Core2 runs perfectly with 2TB drives in AHCI under Windwos 7.

There is no limitation in PHY, but may be a limit in the RAID firmware.

For me, Dell's config limits seems like based on DELL's stock of hard drives at the moment of release. So if there were only 250Gb drives max, it will be like 250*6 for 6 bays (i.e. 1.5Tb from the whitepaper).

If more, you should try adding them gradually.

I.e. If RAID does not run with 4Tb drives, which is very possible since the BIOS is very old, you should switch to AHCI, and use Windows software RAID. Or do not use RAID at all - there are a plenty of back-upping and data-replicating software around.

>Exceeding max storage capacity can severly slow down or freeze a unit

Absolutely baseless guess. It either works or not. SATA PHY allows for almost unlimited disk size.

Indeed I am not running with RAID, and am also in AHCI mode. In general I don't trust software RAID, whether it has BIOS support or not. Regardless the old Intel chipset seems to handle the 4TB drive just fine, possibly due to the new-ish A18 BIOS.

This tower also came with an SAS 6/iR which I do doubt would be able to handle 4TB drives, and may be the basis of the claimed 2TB limit.

@Andy812 

">Exceeding max storage capacity can severly slow down or freeze a unit

Absolutely baseless guess. It either works or not. SATA PHY allows for almost unlimited disk size."

The above quote is in reply to my post from June 2018.  Since then, much was learned.  It seems that max capacities for HDD's and SSD's can almost always be exceeded as compared to Dell specs.  I'm not speaking about M.2 though.

As the quote was judged an "absolutely baseless guess," you said it either works or not.  So then my question is, if it doesn't work, happens, simply no boot?

>then my question is, if it doesn't work, happens, simply no boot

The limit is (may be) in the firmware (RAID BIOS), and the driver. Who knows.

I never tried large RAID on pre-SandyBridge machines (I think I had something like 320Gb x6 in RAID5, but not sure after so many years. that should have been ICH8R with Core2). AHCI should not have such limitations with late drivers. 3Tb drives work with ICH8R in AHCI mode. There is no limit in the whitepaper for AHCI, except mentioning of basic 48bit LBA support (which may be not a limit)