3

I only see 2 TB of my 8 TB raid device.

I just installed and setup this device with 5x2TB harddrives in a raid5, so this should give me an 8TB Device. My Disk Management in Windows XP 32-bit only sees a 2047.97 GB device, which after some googling may be the max that windows XP supports?

I found some references that changing the blocksize might do something, or also that this was fixed in SP1 (I have SP3). Is this something that I can work around?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

Short Answer: You don't need a 64-bit OS to use the entire RAID array unless you want to stay with Windows XP. You'd probably be better off upgrading to Windows 7, be it 32 or 64 bit.

What you really need to do is read the Windows and GPT FAQ. Windows XP x86 only supports MBR-style partitioned drives, and MBR-style partitioning is limited to 2 TB. No matter what you do, you're not going to be able to see any capacity beyond 2 TB for a single storage container.

To use the entire capacity of that RAID array at once, you'd need to use GPT-style partitioning. Of the "modern" Windows OS family (XP, 2003, and newer), XP x86 and Server 2003 x86 RTM cannot use GPT disks at all. XP x64, Server 2003 RTM x64, Server 2003 SP1 (x86 & x64), and all editions of Vista, Server 2008, 7, and 2008 R2 can use GPT disks for data discs.

To boot from a GPT disc, you need an EFI-based system and Vista/7/2008/2008 R2. Server 2003 for Itanium can also boot GPT discs, but that's pretty uncommon. :-)

Theoretically, it's possible do install a driver into Windows XP to allow it to see all the space on your array, but I'm not aware of any that are available. I think Western Digital provides one for their 3 TB external drive (along with a controller), but I doubt it will work with all drives.

Another alternative is to see if your RAID controller will allow you to carve that array up into multiple logical drives and present those to the OS instead of a single 8 TB container. It'd be similar in concept to partitioning the array before presenting it to the OS, so XP could see 4 x 2 TB drives.

Improve this answer
3

WinXP 32 is not capable of seeing beyond 2 TB on a partition. You will have to upgrade to a 64 bit version of windows to see a larger partition. Or you will have to break up your raid into multiple 2TB partitions

EDIT: Just to clarify, NTFS supports up to 16 EB. 32 bit Windows does not.

Improve this answer
6
  • But can't you only use 64-bit if you have a 64-bit CPU? I assume this isn't a free upgrade?
    – Jarvin
    Dec 15, 2010 at 20:16
  • Correct, you must have a 64 bit CPU and the upgrade is not free. Though if you upgraded to Win 7, the key you get works with either 32 bit or 64 bit versions. As I understand it this was not the case with XP. If upgrade is not an option, you will need to break up your RAID into multiple 2 TB partitions.
    – BBlake
    Dec 15, 2010 at 20:19
  • The following information was found at avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-965098.html. The 2TB volume size is a limit of the MBR partition - not Vista, XP, NTFS, Linux, 32bit, 64bit, etc, etc. The MBR structure only supports 4 primary partitions (more if you use extended volumes), the GPT partitioning scheme can support up to 128 partitions in Windows.
    – David
    Dec 15, 2010 at 21:34
  • @Dan - odds are you already have a 64bit cpu. Anything post-pentium 4 (including pentium D) will do 64bit.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Dec 15, 2010 at 21:49
  • @BBlake - this has little to do with 64bit system or not. 32bit vista and 7 can use larger volumes just fine.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Dec 15, 2010 at 21:49

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .