Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Cannot Raid > 750 GB Hard Drive

[joshhazel]

I purchased a couple of 3 TB hard drives but when I Ctrl-I at bootup after setting mode to RAID for the Intel chipset it shows my 3TB Hitatchi drives as only being750GB each.  I cannot get the RAID to recognize them as 3TB.  I am up-to-date with BIOS FG1.

Any help is appreciated.

[Dark Mantis]

Have you enabled large drive support under EFI ?

[joshhazel]

Have you enabled large drive support under EFI ?

How can I go about doing this?  Ive not heard of EFI?

[Aussie Allan]

   Instructions to enable the EFI in the BIOS.

1. Go to Advanced BIOS Features.

2. Go down to CD/DVD Boot Option.

3. Set/change the to “EFI” option.

4. Save and exit BIOS.

  Now , ... what do you get for all this tecko stuff we just did?

  I hope runn3R doesn't mind  , ... but I pinched this to save me typing.........

   
"1. It supports booting from 2.2TB+ HDDs. GIGABYTE mentions 3TB+ because the next size up from a 2TB HDD is actually 3TB, not 2.2TB. GIGABYTE Hybrid EFI Technology provides headroom for a maximum disk and partition size of 9.4ZB (9.4 x 1021 bytes; kB, MB, GB, TB, PB, EB, ZB, YB, etc...)

2. It uses a reliable, tried and tested GIGABYTE Award BIOS that has been updated and improved over many years. Our BIOS is compatible with thousands of ICs, components and 3rd party products – a new BIOS needs a lot of compatibility testing before it is as mature as our Award BIOS. So basically we have the Best of Both Worlds with our Hybrid EFI Technology: stability of a mature BIOS and the 2.2TB+ support of an EFI BIOS.

3. Because of its design, it is easier to be backwards compatible with older motherboard models –X58 chipset down to new G41 chipset models will be able to enjoy Hybrid EFI Technology. So we are protecting our customers buying decision and helping to future proof their purchase. No other EFI solution can offer this!

4. GIGABYTE Hybrid EFI Technology is fully compliant with both EFI aware and non EFI aware operating systems. "

http://gigabytedaily.blogspot.com/2011/01/gigabyte-hybrid-efi-technology.html

  Aussie Allan


 

 

[joshhazel]

I enabled EFT (was set to Auto) as well as Integrated Peripherals> ICH SATA Control Mode [RAID(XHD)] and GSATA 8_9/IDE Ctrl Mode [RAID/IDE].
but still only read as 750GB Drives.  I should note the drives are on the Intel Controller with 6xSata ports.

Just before the Ctrl-I option for RAID I see it says:  
Intel (R) Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM v8.9.1.1002 ICH10R/DO wRAID5

Someone mentioned to me that I should have v 10.xx and this might be why its only showing 750GB and not 3TB drives.

However - I was reading this post, similar in nature but different board and from the 4 pages it sounds like even with updated ROM you still cannot RAID 3tb drives.   http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6219.30.html

[Dark Mantis]

Dont forget to be able to use 2TB+ drives you have to format them as GPT rather than FAT or NTFS.

[joshhazel]

GPT is enabled, Windows recognizes them as 3TB but when booting up into RAID or in windows under hdd RAID mode it shows them as 750GB only...  seems this is a GIGABYTE limitation

[Aussie Allan]

 QUOTE:GPT is enabled, Windows recognizes them as 3TB but when booting up into RAID or in windows under hdd RAID mode it shows them as 750GB only...  seems this is a GIGABYTE limitation

  If there actually is 3TB of usable space......who cares what Bios states......have you tried to initialize them and extend the partition ......and did this work.........if not..........


  I have found (RAID/XHD) to be a little bit......hit and miss depending on what's connected......could you please try disabling XHD and enable just plain old Raid instead..........your in the home straight.......just need a bit of tweaking I'm sure.....what say you DM ?

  Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

I would agree Allan. I didn't notice the bit about XHD to be honest and so yes I would certainly say disable that as I am not a fan of it at any time. The old "keep it simple" solution works best in my book where possible and that is one reason I am not in favour of all these free bundled programs and utilities. They are not necessary and often cause problems.

[joshhazel]

I should clarify, there s one selection available for XHD enabled/disabled (I have set to disabled)
But in the drive mode it has 3 option:  IDE/AHCI/RAID(XHD) doesnt give a plain jane RAID mode

Last I tested was these on 6x500GB and it did  turn out to give me RAID 5 with 2tb drive.  However, same method with 3tb proves fruitless with 3tb showing up as 750gb each.

[Dark Mantis]

How have you got the drives formatted ?

[Aussie Allan]

 When given the option to format while loading the OS.........you are given two choices......NTFS or GDP....you have to use GDP for drives or Partitions larger then 2.2TB

  It sounds like you formated when using 6x500 drives in NTFS.......Raid 5 total with 6x500gb=3TB total..... yields approximately 2.5TB under GDP.....not the 2 TB you ended up with.....if fact you probably had as little as 1.85TB usable working with NTFS

  RAID/XHD is the one you want....and disable the one above "XHD"......your getting there.......it's a lot to get the noodle around first time.

  Aussie Allan