6TB RAID 5 w/ nVidia mobo - possible?

[S]Zilla

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have the KFN5-D SLI board, which has the nVidia MCP55 controller.

I have 6 1TB drives hooked up, but when I build the RAID-5 array with nVidia's MediaShield utility, it comes up as a paltry 561GB.

I've heard something akin to arrays larger than 2TB aren't possible due to 32-bit addressing, but I'm not sure if there's a workaround or not without having to spend money on a RAID controller.

Desperate here and any help would be a lifesaver.
 
Try a software raid and boot off different disks (which I hope you are doing anyways). Last I checked a lot of BIOS's can't handle GPT booting, so you should have separate O/S disks.
 
Try a software raid and boot off different disks (which I hope you are doing anyways). Last I checked a lot of BIOS's can't handle GPT booting, so you should have separate O/S disks.

I do have separate OS disks. They're set up fine and dandy.

What software RAID should I try?
 
[S]Zilla;1032441110 said:
I do have separate OS disks. They're set up fine and dandy.

What software RAID should I try?

I would not trust any amount of data to a built in nvidia raid controller. Also, it should have come out around 672GB, but that's not important. What is important is that unless you have a variable-sector-size supporting raid controller, XP32 will not be able to utilize more than 2TB. You need XP64, Windows 2003/2008, or Vista64(Don't know if Vista32 supports GPT).
 
I would not trust any amount of data to a built in nvidia raid controller. Also, it should have come out around 672GB, but that's not important. What is important is that unless you have a variable-sector-size supporting raid controller, XP32 will not be able to utilize more than 2TB. You need XP64, Windows 2003/2008, or Vista64(Don't know if Vista32 supports GPT).

my areca card supports +2TB in xp32.. GPT.. partitions are still 2TB but added together to make one volume, it's a bit weird but it works. (but yes.. not bootable.. but i wouldnt boot off a raid5 volume regardless)

cant comment on whether an onboard nvidia solution would do the same.
 
Gaspah,

Explain this some more in detail ."but i wouldnt boot off a raid5 volume regardless".
Do you mean that you use a seperate drive besides you RAID array to boot off of?

Thanks!
 
You should just drop the dough and get a good controller.
 
So I upgraded some drivers and now when I build the array in RAID BIOS, it shows up as 4.54TB. I get to Windows, the nVidia software still recognizes it as such. I go to disk management to format, and it's as if it isn't there. Nothing regarding that array is denoted. How do I get Windows to recognize it?
 
There is no way I would try to run RAID 5 /w an on board nVidia chip. I had 3 750GB drives setup that way for about 10 minutes before I decided it was the worst idea ever.

This was on a pretty big box, (AMD 2.1GHz Dual Core) and the write performance was terrible, in fact for large files 1GB+ it was almost un-usable.

I picked up a PERC 5i on ebay for $125 and have never looked back. Its not the most robust RAID Controller in the world, but its light years ahead of on board "software" RAID.
 
I definitely appreciate the concerns regarding nVidia, but I have no choice at this moment.
 
[S]Zilla;1032442101 said:
I definitely appreciate the concerns regarding nVidia, but I have no choice at this moment.

You bought 6 1tb drives and you say a controller is out of the question?

Just run JBOD then.
 
my areca card supports +2TB in xp32.. GPT.. partitions are still 2TB but added together to make one volume, it's a bit weird but it works. (but yes.. not bootable.. but i wouldnt boot off a raid5 volume regardless)

Yeah, that is variable sector size at work. Didn't realize XP32 had any support for GPT tho!
 
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