Server 2008 RAID 0 needs to be have partitions larger than 2TB

[HMCTech]

We have decided to put 6 x 750gb disks in using RAID 0 on windows server 08. Now I did want to put them all into the RAID but as that would create one disk, and no partitions can be larger than 2TB I end up with one partition of 50gb another of 1999.17GB and 2143.64GB of unallocated space that I can do nothing with when I right click.

 

Idealy I would like one partition that is 50gb and the rest of the space in another partition. I have looked into GPT instead of MBT but I cant figure out how to make it GPT from the install, only on another seperate disk.

 

If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

 

Alex

[SYNACK]

Eeeeek , I hope that the data on that is disposable. RAID 0 accross 6 disks is begging for trouble as there is no fault tollerance ontop of 6 times the chance of drive failure. I would suggest raid 5 at a minimum which will only loose you one drive worth of space.

 

Looks like your server needs EFI instead of a BIOS to support booting off a GPT so you may need to setup two volumes on your Raid0 or prefferably 5 virtual drive so that it shows up as seporate drives in windows, this way your data one can use GPT

Edited March 12, 2009 by SYNACK

[HMCTech]

Data loss is not an issue performance is

[SYNACK]

possible solution in above edited post

[HMCTech]

Eeeeek , I hope that the data on that is disposable. RAID 0 accross 6 disks is begging for trouble as there is no fault tollerance ontop of 6 times the chance of drive failure. I would suggest raid 5 at a minimum which will only loose you one drive worth of space.

 

Looks like your server needs EFI instead of a BIOS to support booting off a GPT so you may need to setup two volumes on your Raid0 or prefferably 5 virtual drive so that it shows up as seporate drives in windows, this way your data one can use GPT

 

But wouldnt that waste a whole 750gb disk just for the system

[Ric_]

But wouldnt that waste a whole 750gb disk just for the system

 

Why not stick an additional small disk in just for that (100GB or so)?

 

I've got to ask too... what are you doing that needs this sort of performance?

[SYNACK]

But wouldnt that waste a whole 750gb disk just for the system

 

Not depending on your RAID adapter, with some you can set up the array which is the raid 0 across all drives and then internaly on the raid controller you can create multiple logical drives on this array which show up as different disks under windows. I did this once with an hp smartarray 641 adapter.

[PeterW]

Yeah agreed if your RAID adaptors supports carving up the array do that.

[HMCTech]

Not depending on your RAID adapter, with some you can set up the array which is the raid 0 across all drives and then internaly on the raid controller you can create multiple logical drives on this array which show up as different disks under windows. I did this once with an hp smartarray 641 adapter.

 

It is a ML350 G5 so I should be able to achive that in HP Smart Scan but not sure how so I will play.