1.6TB limit on 4TB drive Server 2003

ochadd

ochadd

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 9, 2008
Messages
1,330
Old Dell server I'm trying to get a 4 TB drive working on as a data drive. As I understand it as long as it's GPT the full 4TB should appear even though it's not a UEFI bios? Can't seem to make it work in Windows Server 2003 to show anything over 1.6 TB. Am I missing something? Tried dynamic, basic, MBR, GPT options on and off with no change.
1_6.jpg

Thanks
 
DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk (id)
DISKPART> online disk (if the disk is not online)
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly
DISKPART> clean
DISKPART> convert gpt
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select part 1
DISKPART> active (if this is the boot partition)
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label=(name) quick
DISKPART> assign letter (letter)
DISKPART> list volume

try that, if that doesn't work its a limitations of your controller, a new bios or driver maybe might help.

on other hand, server 2003 is NT 5.2 (same as Windows xp 64bit), haven't used XP/2003 in long long time, there might be a software limit.
 
nekrosoft13 said:
try that, if that doesn't work its a limitations of your controller, a new bios or driver maybe might help.
Click to expand...

If that does work make sure you can actually cross the 2TB mark by writing that much data. I have seen a few reports that after crossing the 2TB mark the drive becomes unformatted because the controller did not handle 2TB correctly and the writes after 2TB actually wrote to the beginning of the disk instead killing the partition table and destroying the filesystem.
 
Last edited:
It is defently a controller issue. Instead of maxing it out at 2tb, it wrapped and you have 1.6tb.

A 4tb disk is around 3.7tb, subtract 2tb for the limit, and your controller will see a 2tb disk or 1.6tb disk, depending on how it errors.
 
It's an Adaptec 1225SA. Says in documentation: Greater than 2 TB support—You can create and manage HostRAID arrays which are bigger than 2TB size. Running the latest drivers (circa 2010) 12082.

The DISKPART commands didn't seem work. The disk randomly dissapears between commands (stops showing in list disk or disk manager). It then comes back after doing a disk scan.

Still shows up as 1.6TB though.
1_6_2.jpg



Edit1: turns out when I try to format it, the format fails and drive disappears. Apparently the FORMAT command didn't exist until Vista from within DISKPART so I'm trying to format from disk management.
 
Last edited:
Adapter wise that'd read to me you can have an array greater than 2tb not necessarily drives greater than 2tb.
 
Just FYI I gave up and moved the disk to a Windows 7 machine and it worked fine. That server needs to die anyway. Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top