H
Hagop
I bought a Syba SATA II NCQ Host Controller Card with RAID support and four
Western Digital 1 TB (actually 931 GB - liars!) hard drives. I created a
RAID array according to the controller's instructions. I am unable to get
Windows XP Pro x64 to initialize the RAID array.
My hardware:
Tyan Thunder K8WE 2895 system board
Two AMD Opteron 248 2.2 GHz processors
ATI Radeon x600 graphics card
Syba SATA II NCQ Host Controller Card
Dual IDE controller card (slated for retirement)
Multiple hard drives, two optical drives
The system recognized the Syba card when inserted in any of the four PCI
slots (three PCI-X and one PCI 32 bit.) However, the card's POST utility
found the attached hard drives only when the card was installed in slot 2
(the PCI 32 bit slot) and didn't find the drives when the card was inserted
in any of the three PCI-X slots. I didn't try to troubleshoot this further
when the card appeared to work as desired in slot 2. The card's installation
instructions do not specify what type of PCI slot is required for
compatibility.
I followed the controller's instructions to create the RAID array using its
POST utility. The POST utility recognizes the four drives and creates a
2,794 GB RAID array. Windows boots and sees the array. Because Windows can't
initialize an MFS volume greater than 2 TB, my only option to initialize
this drive is to use the GUID partition table (GPT) partition style. The
FAQs I found at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx
and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302873/en-us don't give installation or
troubleshooting instructions. As far as I can tell, I'm doing what I should,
but Windows isn't cooperating.
In Windows' Disk Management console, I see the drive array. It reads:
Disk 5
Unknown
2794.53 GB
Not initialized
When I right-click it and select "Initialize Disk," I randomly get one of
the following two outcomes:
1) Sometimes the partition is split into two, the first being 2048.00 GB
(Unallocated) and the second 746.53 GB (Unallocated.) I can then create a
new volume in the first (2048.00 GB) partition, but it never finishes
initializing (the hourglass never ends.) I quit and restart the Disk
Management console. I go to format the partition and get an error message
that reads, "The operation was canceled due to an internal error."
2) Sometimes I get an error that reads, "The operation did not complete.
Check the System Event Log for more information on the error." When I look
in the System Event Log, I see that no error has been logged.
Regardless, I am unable to initialize my GPT volume. I am not using this
volume as my system disk. I have a dedicated single drive for that function.
I am successfully booting to that disk. This is a data drive. I have tried
Google. Searching for "GPT RAID Windows XP Pro x64" didn't provide me the
answers I sought.
Questions:
1) Does Windows XP Pro x64 support GPT volumes with Opteron processors?
2) Are there instructions for how to get my RAID array to work in Windows XP
Pro x64?
3) Could the PCI slot I'm using have something to do with the problem I'm
experiencing?
4) Do I have to change something in my system's BIOS?
5) Am I missing something else that's relevant?
Western Digital 1 TB (actually 931 GB - liars!) hard drives. I created a
RAID array according to the controller's instructions. I am unable to get
Windows XP Pro x64 to initialize the RAID array.
My hardware:
Tyan Thunder K8WE 2895 system board
Two AMD Opteron 248 2.2 GHz processors
ATI Radeon x600 graphics card
Syba SATA II NCQ Host Controller Card
Dual IDE controller card (slated for retirement)
Multiple hard drives, two optical drives
The system recognized the Syba card when inserted in any of the four PCI
slots (three PCI-X and one PCI 32 bit.) However, the card's POST utility
found the attached hard drives only when the card was installed in slot 2
(the PCI 32 bit slot) and didn't find the drives when the card was inserted
in any of the three PCI-X slots. I didn't try to troubleshoot this further
when the card appeared to work as desired in slot 2. The card's installation
instructions do not specify what type of PCI slot is required for
compatibility.
I followed the controller's instructions to create the RAID array using its
POST utility. The POST utility recognizes the four drives and creates a
2,794 GB RAID array. Windows boots and sees the array. Because Windows can't
initialize an MFS volume greater than 2 TB, my only option to initialize
this drive is to use the GUID partition table (GPT) partition style. The
FAQs I found at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx
and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302873/en-us don't give installation or
troubleshooting instructions. As far as I can tell, I'm doing what I should,
but Windows isn't cooperating.
In Windows' Disk Management console, I see the drive array. It reads:
Disk 5
Unknown
2794.53 GB
Not initialized
When I right-click it and select "Initialize Disk," I randomly get one of
the following two outcomes:
1) Sometimes the partition is split into two, the first being 2048.00 GB
(Unallocated) and the second 746.53 GB (Unallocated.) I can then create a
new volume in the first (2048.00 GB) partition, but it never finishes
initializing (the hourglass never ends.) I quit and restart the Disk
Management console. I go to format the partition and get an error message
that reads, "The operation was canceled due to an internal error."
2) Sometimes I get an error that reads, "The operation did not complete.
Check the System Event Log for more information on the error." When I look
in the System Event Log, I see that no error has been logged.
Regardless, I am unable to initialize my GPT volume. I am not using this
volume as my system disk. I have a dedicated single drive for that function.
I am successfully booting to that disk. This is a data drive. I have tried
Google. Searching for "GPT RAID Windows XP Pro x64" didn't provide me the
answers I sought.
Questions:
1) Does Windows XP Pro x64 support GPT volumes with Opteron processors?
2) Are there instructions for how to get my RAID array to work in Windows XP
Pro x64?
3) Could the PCI slot I'm using have something to do with the problem I'm
experiencing?
4) Do I have to change something in my system's BIOS?
5) Am I missing something else that's relevant?