Problem with ICH10R RAID 0 array...can't get over 2TB

[vetteguy]

Hello,
I just purchased some new hardware, including an X58 SLI motherboard, a Core i7 920, 3x2GB Corsair XMS DDR3, a 300GB Velociraptor, and 3 1.5TB Seagate SATA hard drives. I am currently running the Velociraptor on the JMicron 363 port (along with a WD Green 750GB), a DVD drive on the 362 port, and I have the 3 1.5s on the Intel ICH10R ports (0,1, and 2). I am running Vista x64 with all proper and current drivers installed.

I have enabled RAID on the Intel ports, and the RAID BIOS correctly comes up when booting. However, whenever I attempt to create a RAID-0 array with the 3 Seagates, the maximum volume it's letting me create is 2TB (2047GB). This happens whether I select 2 or 3 of the drives. I have also tried this from the Intel Storage Matrix application in Windows and get the same result. Can someone please direct me to what I am doing wrong? If I have read correctly, the ICH10R supports volumes up to 256TB (non-boot), so this is not making sense. I am NOT booting off this volume (all 3 drives are blank and unallocated).

Any help is appreciated. I was able to do this with a 3 year old nVidia RAID chipset, so I am certainly hoping a brand new Intel chipset will not fail me. Thanks!

 

[NesuD]

Dynamic or GPT volumes must be used to create NTFS volumes over 2 TB. At least thats how I had to do it on the 4 TB array in my server room. I don't think it has anything to do with the ICH10R. Sounds like it is creating the array just fine. You just cant create a partition over 2 TB. Try and create the volume as a dynamic disk from the beginning and see if that works for you.

 

[vetteguy]

Actually it ended up being a driver issue for the ICH10R chipset. The problem wasn't that I couldn't create a >2TB volume in Windows (I was well aware of the need for a GPT), the problem was the Intel Matrix Storage admin tool would not allow it until I updated the driver. Seems it doesn't like drives >1TB. Even in the RAID BIOS it shows my drives as "incompatible", but it's working now.