Thread: RAID bigger than 2TB

I have recently introduced a RAID5 array with 6 750GB Seagate drives on a Rocketraid 2220 controller. The OS in windows 2000 server and is installed on a separate 80GB drive. The controller software also displays the array size as 3.75TB, but the disk manager only shows that it is only 2047.97GB.

I've also done a lot of searching but there is a lot of inconsistent information on the max size of a single volume. Is there any way I can get W2K to recognize the full size of this RAID?

Hi everybody!

The 2TB is the limit per disk and not per volume of the MBR-type partition table. The answer would also indeed be a GUID partition table (GPT). BUT Windows 2000 can't make use of it.

With Windows alone, you’ll also require at least XP 64 bits or Server 2k3 sp1.

Though, I have also read that a turnaround for some Raid adapters only, which can cut the capacity of the Raid array in portions and allow the Windows to believe these portions are manually different hard drives. Then, one may even W2k's software Raid to collective of the full capacity to a single dynamic volume, if this is any useful.

The latter information was most likely from the producer site of a Raid adapter.