2TB Volume limit in Vista 32?

A

Amleth

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Jul 21, 2005
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I've just put together a new system running a dozen 500GB Seatgate 7200.10s in a single RAID 5 on an Adaptec 31605 controller, and I can't seem to format more than 2 terrabytes of the array. Ideally I'd like to present this single RAID 5 to the OS as a small boot partition, plus the rest of the space a single, massive volume; is this possible? Please don't tell me I'm going to have to break the array into smaller, sub-2TB arrays and span those as a single dynamic volume, 'cos that's gonna cost a crapload in space efficiency...

Any help would be appreciated.
 
First off, put the OS on another drive not as a partition on a RAID 5. Now saying that, you can use more then 2 TB in Vista, just you need to convert it from MBR to GPT, but it cannot be a boot disk!
To convert to GPT though means the array needs to be empty with no data or drive letter associated with it.
 
ya what ^ said, don't do boot partition on the raid 5, get a separate drive for that
 
I don't have physical room in the case to add any more disks, though, and ideally I'd really like to use all 12 I do have in a single array so I can break the 5TB mark. So, if I switch to x64 Vista I can boot an array larger than 2TB?

What will it cost me in terms of features/useability to run 64bit? A while back I remember reading something to the effect that MS's 64bit OSes are locked to only allow signed drivers to be installed, meaning you end up waiting longer for driver updates, and it's harder to run more obscure or older hardware. Is this still the case or is there a way around it now?
 
mikeblas said:
Just use a GPT format.
Click to expand...

Depending on what OS the OP is running, he may or may not be able to do this, since he is booting off this disk.

Linked Article. last updated in 2005 said:
On x86-based computers running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and on x64-based computers, the operating system must reside on an MBR disk.
Click to expand...
 
Amleth said:
Please don't tell me I'm going to have to break the array into smaller, sub-2TB arrays and span those as a single dynamic volume, 'cos that's gonna cost a crapload in space efficiency...
Click to expand...
How much space would it cost?
 
you won't be able to have it as 1 partition unless you use gpt and you can't use gpt on boot drive. So either divide it into 2tb partitions or use a separate hdd as your boot drive. Using separate drive is actually good idea, it's not recommended to boot from raid5
 
That was the first thing I said to him, don't use RAID in a boot drive, and get another hard drive so you can do GPT.
You cannot use more then 2TB regardless of the OS you use! 2 TB is the limit of MBR, GPT is how you get around this and using GPT it takes maybe .5 mb of hard drive space! Not much more and you would never notice it gone anyways. As for another drive, see if you can attach it to the roof of your case or somewhere else so that you at least have a boot drive installed elsewhere.
 
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