Can't Partition my 500GB SATA II Seagate Barracuda

[Germonicus]

Not 100% sure if this should be in this section of software,but this seemed best ......if it's in wrong area I apologise.

Ok,just bought and installed a 500GB SATA II 32MB cache Seagate Barracuda and formatted it with my Vista 64 disk.This is my first time trying to partition under Vista and it doesn't seem to give me the options I had under XP Pro and I can't add a partition at all.

I've tried formatting it and leaving it empty and entering disk management but no partition option,tried formatting and installing Vista 64,entering disk management but still no partition options,booting from this or other HDD makes no difference either.

I'm planning on having 100GB partition on this drive and 100GB on my older 250GB SATA II Maxtor and going with a RAID setup.

Any help or advice would be great,thanks.

 

[sutahz]

If it is a retail HDD then it came w/ a CD, and if you boot w/ that cd im pretty sure you can partition your hdd. I think vista can partition drives too, but I always do it from a boot cd. You can try hiran's boot cd or ultimate boot cd for disk management (partitioning, formatting) tools.
With vista, you may need to make one big partition, resize it, make another big partition, resize it, etc etc.

 

[jdkick]

Is Vista installed on the 250GB Maxtor or 500GB Seagate? Can you paint a better picture as to how the drives are currently configured/partitioned/formatted, which is the boot/OS drive, etc? Since you're messing with partitions/formatting, make sure any critical data is backed up!

That said, if you formatted the 500GB then it's already been partitioned, and i'm going to assume it's a single partition occupying the entire disk. If that is the case, you will not be able to create additional partitions until there is some unallocated space available on the drive. If my assumption is correct, after backing up any data, you would need to either remove or shrink the existing single partition. You will then have unallocated space on the drive in which you can create additional partitions. If you're installing Vista on the 500GB drive just create a single 100GB partition during the installation... you can create/format additional partitions afterwards via Disk Management.

I don't quite understand what you're after re: a 500GB+250GB drives, 100GB partitions on each and RAID.

 

[Germonicus]

Thanks for the replies,I've figured out how to partition (needed to shrink the drives by 100GB each to partition).

I always assumed that you must have 2 HDD's same size and preferrably same make/model in order to setup RAID 1 but my friend is certain that you can set it up using same size partitions on 2 drives,even if the drives are different sizes/makes.

Tried to set it up last night on my Asus P5KC mobo but it refuses to detect any of my SATA HDD's ,however it did offer to set up RAID for my Samsung 120GB IDE HDD and my Asus SATA DL DVD RW.

Any idea's what I did wrong? Can it actually be done?

 

[Nothinman]

I always assumed that you must have 2 HDD's same size and preferrably same make/model in order to setup RAID 1 but my friend is certain that you can set it up using same size partitions on 2 drives,even if the drives are different sizes/makes.

For hardware RAID, and probably even that onboard fakeRAID that a lot of boards come with, you should use the same model drive but with software RAID you can do whatever you want.

 

[jdkick]

I understand that you can used mixed drives with software-based RAID controllers. My preference is to still use matched drives tho. Generally, there's no point in partitioning the drives before creating the array as adding member disks is usually a destructive operation. You will have to recreate the partition scheme after the array has been created/initialized.

As for your P5KC, it doesn't support RAID - ICH9 vs ICH9R.

 

[Nothinman]

Generally, there's no point in partitioning the drives before creating the array as adding member disks is usually a destructive operation.

That's not true at all. All of the decent hardware RAID controllers let you expand an array onto new drives and I can hot-add drives to Linux software RAID arrays and it'll grow and restripe the data. I'm not sure about Windows software RAID though since I haven't used it lately.

 

[Germonicus]

Originally posted by: jdkick

As for your P5KC, it doesn't support RAID - ICH9 vs ICH9R.

Are you sure about this? The manual claims the mobo supports RAID,there's an option to setup a RAID system in the Bios (JMicron) and it also creates a RAID DOS disk.

Plus it also see's some of my SATA devices as RAID devices.

 

[jdkick]

According to the specifications ASUS lists (http://www.asus.com/products.a...1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0) the P5KC uses the ICH9 controller (ICH9R features RAID), tho on second look the JMicron controller supposedly supports RAID as well. You would need to identify which SATA ports are service by the JMicron controller and connect both of your drives to those ports. Provided the ports are configured for RAID mode in the BIOS you should be able to access the setup utility (either from the BIOS or a key sequence during startup).

Nothin: Note that I did say "generally". I understand that adding/swapping drives in an existing array can be done without (re)initializing existing member disks, but do your comments hold for creating new arrays using existing drives that already contain data or partition info? In my experience, creating a fresh array will initialize member disks, which means the data is gone afterwards. Feel free to educate me tho... i'm always open to new info.

 

[Nothinman]

Nothin: Note that I did say "generally".

Which is untrue because most real controllers and software RAID support volume expansion and online resize.

but do your comments hold for creating new arrays using existing drives that already contain data or partition info?

If you mean recreating an array after moving the drives to another machine or shuffling the drives around, then yes for software RAID and probably for real RAID cards too.

In my experience, creating a fresh array will initialize member disks, which means the data is gone afterwards.

Duh, it's called a new array for a reason. If you want to reuse an existing array after moving it you need to figure out how to import those drives and that varies from software to software.

 

[jdkick]

I just looked at the P5KC manual and it looks like RAID can be configured using the JMicron controller, but it's accomplished using the eSATA connector on the back panel of the motherboard and the SATA_E2 on the interior of the motherboard. So, you'd have an array between an external and internal drive.

 

[jdkick]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Nothin: Note that I did say "generally".

Which is untrue because most real controllers and software RAID support volume expansion and online resize.

but do your comments hold for creating new arrays using existing drives that already contain data or partition info?

If you mean recreating an array after moving the drives to another machine or shuffling the drives around, then yes for software RAID and probably for real RAID cards too.

In my experience, creating a fresh array will initialize member disks, which means the data is gone afterwards.

Duh, it's called a new array for a reason. If you want to reuse an existing array after moving it you need to figure out how to import those drives and that varies from software to software.

That's my point. The OP hasn't created an array yet! He has two mixed capacity stand-alone drives that are partitioned and contain who knows what data. Slapping them on the integrated controller and creating a new array will initialize the disks. This will require him to repartition the drives afterwards, which is exactly what I said. I didn't say anything about hot-swapping or adding to/expanding an existing array. Sheesh.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Germonicus
however it did offer to set up RAID for my Samsung 120GB IDE HDD and my Asus SATA DL DVD RW.

:laugh:

 

[lopri]

I'm laughing at Vista, BTW.

:laugh:

 

[Germonicus]

This is starting to look a little irrelevant (for now) as I'm gonna have to RMA the Seagate Barracuda 500Gb HDD now ,yesterday it started making a noise like a jet engine and almost as loud,decided to reformat just to make sure and it froze at 40% format .

Think I'm gonna call it a bad idea on the RAID front if it means I need to setup RAID between and internal and external HDD (who's idea was this?Did they really think setting up like this was a GOOD idea?) and just settle for a happy and stable system once I get my replacement Barracuda.

Thanks for all the input guys.

@Lopri: Don't spose you have a copy of Windows XP Pro 64 bit I could have?

 

[Nothinman]

That's my point. The OP hasn't created an array yet! He has two mixed capacity stand-alone drives that are partitioned and contain who knows what data. Slapping them on the integrated controller and creating a new array will initialize the disks. This will require him to repartition the drives afterwards, which is exactly what I said. I didn't say anything about hot-swapping or adding to/expanding an existing array. Sheesh.

He'll only have to repartition the drives if he uses the crap onboard RAID, software RAID is a lot more flexible and can be made to do some strange things that aren't possible with hardware products.