sabregen
02-28-2008, 12:23 PM
Guys,
I have a Sager NP9262 (laptop) with a 3 port Intel ICH8R controller. I had (when ordered) two Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM drives that my boss said he wanted me to set up in a RAID-1, just in case something happened. I have a work partition, and a personal partition on the RAID-1. Everything is fine. I'd rather be doing RAID-0, but the laptop was bought for me by my work, so what the boss wants, he gets.
Yesterday, I received the additional drive that I ordered, which is the same model as the two previous drives. After about 10 minutes, I figured out how to migrate the array from RAID-1 to RAID-5, and the Intel Matrix Storage manager took off, and started moving the data. I left the laptop overnight, and when I woke up this morning, the array was a RAID-5. Wonderful!
Except...windows vista does not see the additional space that I have from adding the third drive, and moving to RAID-5. I can't go into disk manager and expand the volumes (partitions) already on the RAID array. Windows Disk Manager will not see it. As a test, I added a RAID-0 to the existing config in Intel Matrix manager, and all of a sudden, Windows wanted to initialize the remaining disk space. Great. I would attempt to use the disk tools that I have available to me to grow the partition, but having tried to resize RAID volumes before, I know this to be a recipe for disaster.
So...If you've thought about adding your third drive (or second if you have a single drive) to your existing configuration, beware. The only way that I can get Windows to see the other available disk space is to create a new partition. I cannot find a way to grow the partitions that are already in place. I believe that this will be the case if you are:
Going from single drive to RAID-0 (can't see the additional drive space without creating new partition)
Going from RAID-1 to RAID-5 (can't see the additional space from the extra drive)
Going from RAID-0 2 drive array to RAID-0 3 drive array.
The only way for me (not necessarily for you) to accomplish what I had set out to do, is nuke my current partitions, and re-install Windows. This sucks, because, as I said, I have a personal and a work partition. I think what I will end up doing is this:
RAID-0 & RAID-5
RAID-0 to be 2/3 of available disk space (personal)
RAID-5 to be 1/3 of available disk space (for work)
Intel Matrix RAID can handle two RAID volumes per disk set, so I'll just have to set them up accordingly, in the Intel Matrix BIOS, then load the RAID driver in Vista setup, and point it at the right partition. Rinse, repeat for the RAID-5 volume for work. Two installs, twice the updates, joining a domain....ugh...this sucks.
You have been warned.
I have a Sager NP9262 (laptop) with a 3 port Intel ICH8R controller. I had (when ordered) two Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM drives that my boss said he wanted me to set up in a RAID-1, just in case something happened. I have a work partition, and a personal partition on the RAID-1. Everything is fine. I'd rather be doing RAID-0, but the laptop was bought for me by my work, so what the boss wants, he gets.
Yesterday, I received the additional drive that I ordered, which is the same model as the two previous drives. After about 10 minutes, I figured out how to migrate the array from RAID-1 to RAID-5, and the Intel Matrix Storage manager took off, and started moving the data. I left the laptop overnight, and when I woke up this morning, the array was a RAID-5. Wonderful!
Except...windows vista does not see the additional space that I have from adding the third drive, and moving to RAID-5. I can't go into disk manager and expand the volumes (partitions) already on the RAID array. Windows Disk Manager will not see it. As a test, I added a RAID-0 to the existing config in Intel Matrix manager, and all of a sudden, Windows wanted to initialize the remaining disk space. Great. I would attempt to use the disk tools that I have available to me to grow the partition, but having tried to resize RAID volumes before, I know this to be a recipe for disaster.
So...If you've thought about adding your third drive (or second if you have a single drive) to your existing configuration, beware. The only way that I can get Windows to see the other available disk space is to create a new partition. I cannot find a way to grow the partitions that are already in place. I believe that this will be the case if you are:
Going from single drive to RAID-0 (can't see the additional drive space without creating new partition)
Going from RAID-1 to RAID-5 (can't see the additional space from the extra drive)
Going from RAID-0 2 drive array to RAID-0 3 drive array.
The only way for me (not necessarily for you) to accomplish what I had set out to do, is nuke my current partitions, and re-install Windows. This sucks, because, as I said, I have a personal and a work partition. I think what I will end up doing is this:
RAID-0 & RAID-5
RAID-0 to be 2/3 of available disk space (personal)
RAID-5 to be 1/3 of available disk space (for work)
Intel Matrix RAID can handle two RAID volumes per disk set, so I'll just have to set them up accordingly, in the Intel Matrix BIOS, then load the RAID driver in Vista setup, and point it at the right partition. Rinse, repeat for the RAID-5 volume for work. Two installs, twice the updates, joining a domain....ugh...this sucks.
You have been warned.