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RAID 10 , replacement disk failed to rebuild from intel RST despite adding the new drive as RAID memeber

idata
Employee
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A little bit of history. - I have a sever with 4 HDD and RAID10. Some years back these 4 HDDs were all 1 TB each but over time i have changed some with one of them now a 2TB WD drive. Just recently, Intel RST reported that the Array is broken with one of the disk showing failed on the intel RST console and gave the option to reset disk. I clicked on reset disk and the Array began to Rebuild and after that everything seemed fine

 

.

The next day it displayed degraded volume with port 2 failed

Next day i got another HDD a 4TB WD HDD and replaced the failed drive. The moment i boot the system, the Intel matrix storage manager discovered the non RAID member disk and suggested i add this disk to the RAID member which i did. And the RAID volume status says Rebuild

However when i boot into windows (svr2008 r2) the Intel RST refuses to give me option to rebuild or even start the rebuild automatically.

After some research online I later installed newer version (15.2.0.1020) but still this did not solve the problem.

I did appreciate any help to solve this

Qs. is this problem as a result of 4TB non- support? is the ROM to old for 4TB ? is the intel RST misbehaving, is there a bug somewhere?

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KL2
Valued Contributor I
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I'm pretty sure that Option ROM is where the trouble lies, since that version does not contain support for 4Ke HDD's (aka Advanced Format - AF). I think both the Option ROM as well as the driver need to be above 9.6.x.x to be fully compatible with 2TB+ 4Ke HDD's, it can't just be one or the other: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005646.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005646.html

Also, check out the WD40EFRX drive size on the Option ROM screenshot you took.

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KL2
Valued Contributor I
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I'm pretty sure that Option ROM is where the trouble lies, since that version does not contain support for 4Ke HDD's (aka Advanced Format - AF). I think both the Option ROM as well as the driver need to be above 9.6.x.x to be fully compatible with 2TB+ 4Ke HDD's, it can't just be one or the other: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005646.html http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005646.html

Also, check out the WD40EFRX drive size on the Option ROM screenshot you took.

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idata
Employee
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Thank you Gize2 for you swift response.

Please note i was able to access this disk (4TB) on windows after booting and initialized the disk. The Intel RST also picked it up as a 4TB disk (look at the 3rd picture) (3,726 GB).

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KL2
Valued Contributor I
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itismd wrote:

Thank you Gize2 for you swift response.

Please note i was able to access this disk (4TB) on windows after booting and initialized the disk. The Intel RST also picked it up as a 4TB disk (look at the 3rd picture) (3,726 GB).

In Windows, yes, since driver 15.x.x.x is installed. But, afaik, the Option ROM and driver talk to each other so they both need to be above version 9.6 for 2TB+ / 4Ke HDD's to work properly. I'm thinking that's why the drive is flagged in Windows even though the driver is new enough to support 4Ke.

I don't have anything with an Option ROM old enough to test this, though.

Alberto wrote:

As an option to can try a BIOS update to the latest version of the board

What he said ^

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idata
Employee
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Hello:

 

 

Thank you very much to Gize2 for the comments posted above.

 

 

To itismd:

 

 

The problem also seems to be related to the 4TB HDD not being supported by the OS, especially if it was installed on legacy mode.

 

 

As an option to can try a BIOS update to the latest version of the board, or also if you have the option of course, just for testing purposes to the RAID with a 2TB hard drive.

 

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Alberto

 

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idata
Employee
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Thank you guys for yous replies. Tomorrow, when i have the chance to turn off this server, i will test these recommendation. i will first test another disk. upgrading ROM is not what i like doing because i fear things might go wrong. but in this case it seems like a good thing to do.

Will post update

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idata
Employee
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Hello itismd:

 

 

Perfect, no problem, once you get the chance try those suggestions and please let us know the results.

 

 

Any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Alberto

 

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idata
Employee
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I just popped in a 2TB HDD I pulled from a desktop, added it to the RAID member from preboot Ctrl+ I menu, started the system and voila, Rebuild started automatically upon boot to windows.

Thank you all for your contribution

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idata
Employee
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Hello itismd:

 

 

Perfect, excellent, it is great to hear that the rebuild option worked and the RAID is working fine now.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Alberto

 

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