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motherboard se7230nh1-r and hard disk over 2TB

MDani7
Beginner
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Hi everybody!

Anybody know is se7230nh1-e mb support hard disk over 2Tb? I want to use 4Tb drives, but not sure that mb detect its.

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David_A_Intel
Moderator
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I reviewed the information for the board and there is no validation for drives larger than 2TB. Intel offers a list of possible server boards, and RAID controllers that would support drives larger than 2TB.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-032920.htm Greater than 2 TB Drive Support for RAID Adapters and Onboard Server Board RAID

AChan85
New Contributor I
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I figure this means most of the older RAID chip/module, etc., can only see the first 2 TB of each drive. So if it is 6x3TB, then it sees 6x2TB.... But the actual RAID would be still much larger than 2TB....

Hope this is correct.

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David_A_Intel
Moderator
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It is always possible that the RAID controller would be limited to a maximum size of 2TB. In this case, the onboard RAID solution for this board does not support volume sizes over 2TB.

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AChan85
New Contributor I
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I'm not sure if this is correct. On my desktop, I have an old ICH8. The Rapid Storage/Maxtrix still supports RAID volume greater than 2 TB. So if I have a 6 drive RAID, then it would limit each drive to be 400GB?

I believe the link you sent refers to the 2TB disk limit, not the volume limit. The RAID is at the BIOS level. Regular BIOS can only see 2 TB disk. So most of the BIOS level RAID controller can only see 2 TB diskS.

But at the operating system level, OS can see GPT partition. So product like Windows Storage Space should be able to use all large HDs. So we should be able to build a 3x5TB software array.

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David_A_Intel
Moderator
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The RAID controller on the board in question is different. The RAID solution is the Intel® Embedded Server RAID Technology (CTRL+E). This controller does have the limit for 2TB drives, and the maximum volume size is 2TB as well.

The Intel® Rapid Storage/ Matrix controllers on ICH8 chipsets do support volumes over 2TB (up to 256TB) for data volumes. Then, you should be able to use GPT partitions with this controller.

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-022304.htm Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID Features by Chipset/Controller Hub

Be aware of these are RAID controller limitations. You may create volumes larger than 2TB using Operating System software RAID.

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AChan85
New Contributor I
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This MB does not even have RAID capability. It is Pen 4 based. Not sure what RAID control this MB can drive. Very limited....

The RAID I have is the SAS SROMBSASMR module. From the link you posted:

Gb/s Intel® RAID Controllers

SRCSASBB8I, SRCSASLS4I, SRCSASJV, SRCSASRB, SRCSATAWB, SROMBSASMR, SRCSASPH16I, SASWT4I, SASUC8I, SASMF8I, SROMBSASMR, AXX4SASMOD

No

Only first 2 TB will be seen and configured

RAID on chip (ROC) controllers:

 

LSI1064e

 

LSI1068

 

LSI1078

It appears to me the RAID controller can only see the first 2 TB of each DISK, but can still build an array greater than 2 TB.

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David_A_Intel
Moderator
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It is correct the Intel® Integrated RAID Module SROMBSASMR does offer support for volumes larger than 2TB; however, for the physical drives it can only see a maximum of 2TB.

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