Rapid Storage Technology
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RAID0 Array Only Half of Expected Size

idata
Employee
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Hello - I have two identical 1 TB disk drives in my system. The Windows 7 OS was on one of the drives, so I used RST to create a RAID0 array. Note that it is an old system - the version of RST is 9.6.0.1014. The creation of the RAID0 array was apparently successful since RST now shows a 1.9 TB volume:

However, when I look at the capacity of my C: drive, it is only half of the 1.9 TB. When I use the Disk Manager in Win 7, it shows one volume but the other drive as "unallocated:

Also, when I boot the computer, the Intel boot manager shows that the disk is a "member disk":

Size Type/Status (VOL ID)

-------- --------------------

931.5 GB Member Disk (0)

931.5 GB Member Disk (0)

Is this is supposed to say that it's a RAID disk instead of just 'member disk'? Any help you can give about what I'm doing wrong and what I can do to get my other drive recognized by Win 7 is very appreciated.

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idata
Employee
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Hello SrqDan,

 

 

Thank you for contacting the Intel community.

 

 

In this case, what you need to do is to create a volume of the unallocated disk, try the following:
  1. Open the Disk Management console. ...
  2. Right-click the unallocated volume.
  3. Choose New Simple Volume from the shortcut menu. ...
  4. Click the Next button.
  5. Click next and next every time it appears and you will have the volume created.

 

The disk says that is a member disk because is part of a raid volume.

 

 

 

Please let me know how it goes.

 

 

 

Regards,

 

 

 

 

Ivan.

 

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idata
Employee
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Ivan,

Thanks for the advice. I clicked through the wizard but did not assign a letter to the drive or format the drive for NTFS (these were the defaults). I thought when the RAID0 array was created, it was copying all (or at least half) of the data from the primary drive to this one. Is that not the case? Should I have entered a drive letter and formatted the disk to NTFS?

Thanks,

Dan

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idata
Employee
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Ivan,

So maybe I'm supposed to format it now and the striping occurs later?

Thanks,

Dan

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idata
Employee
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Well, you don't need to format anything, this raid volume is fine, if you take a look at the left side on the disk management you can see that your entire raid volume is 1863.02 GB which is fine, the unallocated drive that you see is part of the raid and it was unallocated because you needed to create a volume and once the volume is created you will be able to use that unallocated partition.

 

 

Now, you will not see the unallocated partition and the other partition where the operating system is installed because there is a HP_Recovery partition in between that you computer manufacturer automatically added and that recovery partition cannot be remove from that position, at least not from Windows or from the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology, therefore, you will not be able to see both as one but they are part of the same raid volume and there is no problem with it.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

Ivan.

 

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idata
Employee
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Ivan,

I still think that there's something not right here. When I look at my C: drive properties, it still only shows 918 GB, just like the Disk Management screen shows. I believe it used to be 1.8 TB before since it was two drives striped together. The other drive doesn't seem to be added to C: although I agree that it seems to be added to the volume. Here's what my Disk Management screen shows now:

The second drive is 'raw' but I hesitate formatting it to NTFS for fear of wiping out whatever data was put on it during the creation of the RAID0 array. I'm guessing that if I format it to NTFS and make it a primary partition, it might show up as space on C:????

I don't really want to do that since I think I'll kill the striping. Is that true? I did a 'properties' on that 'raw' drive and it has zero bytes on it (maybe because Windows sees it as unformatted?):

Do you still think that the system is correct the way it is? If not, what should I try next?

Thanks,

Dan

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idata
Employee
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If you want to format the HDD there is a possibility that your system will crash and you will need to create the raid again and reinstall the operating system since this is a RAID0.

 

 

However, I don't see anything wrong with this raid, please see the red circle from the Disk Management picture you posted, the red circle shows that your raid volume has 1863.02 GB which is fine.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

Ivan.
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idata
Employee
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Ivan,

I see that the volume is the right size, but in Windows, I only have half of the volume space. I think that it's because Windows doesn't see a file system on the other drive so it thinks it's unusable. I am resurrecting this system from some crashed hard drives and I seem to remember Windows reporting to me that C: was 1.8 TB. Here's what it shows now:

I agree that formatting that hard drive may kill the system, so I don't think that I'll do that just yet. I don't have time now, but I will experiment with this over the weekend and see if there's any way I can get my 1.8 TB back. I'll let you know.

Thanks,

Dan

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idata
Employee
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In this case, you will need to add a letter to the partition that is was unallocated, right click on it again and assign a letter to it, when you assign a letter you will see that partition on Windows explorer.

 

 

At this point, your RAID is working and showing as it should, on the OS(C:) properties you see only the C drive because that is the partition at this moment with that letter assigned and this is completely normal, you will not see this two partitions assigned with the same letter so that's why you only see the 918 GB capacity on that OS properties and when you assign a letter to the other partition you will see it as separate HDD on Windows explorer but is it a partition from the RAID0.

 

 

Believe me your RAID is working and showing as it should, there is nothing wrong with it.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

Ivan.

 

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idata
Employee
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Ivan,

Assigning a letter to the unallocated space did not change anything. Windows doesn't see any disk space unless it's formatted. With the tests that I did over the weekend, I agree with you that the striping does seem to be working - it's just working with one formatted drive and one unformatted drive. I think what I did wrong was to start the striping with RST before I formatted that second drive. If I had formatted it first, I think that the volume would show the entire 1.8 TB of space. If I format it now, I think I'll kill the system just like you mention in a previous post. I've decided to leave the system as is for now and I'll deal with trying to recover the space in the second drive whenever I start running out of space.

Thanks for all of the time you spent helping me understand what's going on with my computer system.

Appreciate it,

Dan

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idata
Employee
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You are more than welcome!

 

 

If you need anything else related with this matter I will be more than glad to assist you.

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

Ivan.

 

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