Full capacity of drive not available

[Guest]

Windows 2000 Server SP4
Capacity shows 136.72 GB
Volume shows 205.09 GB NTFS Healthy
IBM ServeRAID SCSI controller on RAID 5 (not the ATA 48-bit LBA issue)

History: Inherited this issue from another consultant who added a drive to
the SCSI array. Volume shows the full amount but the capacity only shows
136.72 GB. Free space is extremely low (~ 2.5 GB) and frequently going down
to less than 1 when large files are printed.

Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.
--

Thanks,

Jason W. Martin
Consultant
TRIa Technology Solutions Inc.

 

[Glen]

Windows 2000 Server SP4
Capacity shows 136.72 GB
Volume shows 205.09 GB NTFS Healthy
IBM ServeRAID SCSI controller on RAID 5 (not the ATA 48-bit LBA issue)

History: Inherited this issue from another consultant who added a drive to
the SCSI array. Volume shows the full amount but the capacity only shows
136.72 GB. Free space is extremely low (~ 2.5 GB) and frequently going down
to less than 1 when large files are printed.

Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

The rest is parity.
http://www.excelmeridian.com/learning/?key=RAID5&setall=getterm

How on Earth did you become a consultant and not learn
RAID basics?

 

[Guest]

Glen,

Thanks for the reply, not so much for the insult.

I should've supplied more info. RAID 5 with 4 disks @ 70 GB each = 280 GB.
Usuable space should be 210 GB.

--

Thanks,

Jason W. Martin
Consultant
TRIa Technology Solutions Inc.

 

[Glen]

I should've supplied more info. RAID 5 with 4 disks @ 70 GB each = 280 GB.
Usuable space should be 210 GB.

Did the newly added drive have any existing partitions? Does
the ServeRAID controller bios show all four drives? What
capacity is it showing?

 

[Jason W Martin]

No partitions on new drive - brand new out of the box from IBM. Yes, the
ServeRAID shows all 4 drives and all 4 added to the array. Properties of
Array:

Logical drive 1
Array letter A
RAID level 5
Data space 210018 MB
Parity space 70006 MB
Strip-unit size 8K
Date created 12/09/2004

Disk managment snap-in shows Disk 0 Basic 205.09 GB Online -- (C 205.09
GB NTFS (Healthy System) but the top shows Capacity 136.72 GB and Free Space
2.53 GB.

 

[Glen]

Is this a system and/or boot volume?

No partitions on new drive - brand new out of the box from IBM. Yes, the
ServeRAID shows all 4 drives and all 4 added to the array. Properties of
Array:

Logical drive 1
Array letter A
RAID level 5
Data space 210018 MB
Parity space 70006 MB
Strip-unit size 8K
Date created 12/09/2004

Disk managment snap-in shows Disk 0 Basic 205.09 GB Online -- (C 205.09
GB NTFS (Healthy System) but the top shows Capacity 136.72 GB and Free Space
2.53 GB.

 

[Glen]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/Windows2000Pro/reskit/part7/proch32.mspx

 

[Jason W Martin]

It's the system and boot volume.

Is this a system and/or boot volume?

 

[Jason W Martin]

Is there something specific on this page you were referencing?

 

[Glen]

"You cannot extend either the system volume or the boot volume
in dynamic disk. Neither can be part of a spanned volume, since
Windows 2000 considers extended volumes to be the same as
spanned volumes.

....

"Windows 2000 cannot extend any dynamic volume that existed
as a basic volume before the dynamic disk upgrade, and the
system and boot volumes (which might be one and the same) are
likely the same volumes that existed under basic disk."

 

[Jason W Martin]

Glen,

Although it didn't say specifically (that I could find) on the page you sent
a link to I've found other info that says you can't extend the system/boot
volume. It's odd that Disk Management shows it in the volume but not in the
capacity. Looks like the volume wouldn't show it either but I guess this is
the answer. Looks like our option is to backup - re-parition and re-create
the volume then a complete restore.

Thanks for your input. Some advice from a "consultant" though: Don't be so
quick to criticize next time. None of us are as smart as all of us.

Jason

 

[Glen]

Glen,

Although it didn't say specifically (that I could find) on the page you sent
a link to I've found other info that says you can't extend the system/boot
volume. It's odd that Disk Management shows it in the volume but not in the
capacity. Looks like the volume wouldn't show it either but I guess this is
the answer. Looks like our option is to backup - re-parition and re-create
the volume then a complete restore.

Yes. In the meantime you might be able to clean up the volume
to regain some space, e.g. search for/delete any *.dmp files, old
temporary files etc.