3TB Drives - Windows and Motherboard... what do you think?

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ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#108938 9-Sep-2012 17:58

Hi,

I have just brought two 3TB drives.

I have found that my motherboard states that they are 800GB while in the RAID config of the Motherboard.
Motherboard = M4A88T-M (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TM/#specifications)

However if I turn RAID off, run them as standard drives, boot into windows, Create a GPT partition of 3TB in Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, I can see the whole 3TB and create a mirrored partition.

Can someone tell me...

1) Does it matter that my motherboard cannot see/support the 3TB in bios/raid setup?
i.e. Will my data be safe, windows is controlling the drives not bios etc right?

2) If a drive fails can I just recover the data from ANY windows 7 64bit PC?

3) Do you think I need to upgrade my motherboard? (limited $$)

Any info, comments, or help much appreciated....

Thanks,

Zeon

3918 posts

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#683498 9-Sep-2012 18:08

Yea the RAID controller probably can't handle them. Have you tried flashing the BIOS which may also flash the RAID controller? Windows disk mirroring is OK. The other option from upgrading your motherboard is to get a 2nd hand RAID controller from Trademe/Ebay?

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ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#683508 9-Sep-2012 18:43

I was going to try an keep away from Hardware RAID,

I have been told I cannot recover that on ANY other PC other than Identical board?

Windows Mirrors are standard? Can recover them on any windows pc?

Or is that not right, could I take a mirrored drive from hardware raid and use it as a single standard drive on another PC?

Bios is up to date, I am guessing RAID is built into that, as ASUS update page doe not show any updates.

Thanks again....

richms

28192 posts

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#683509 9-Sep-2012 18:46

mirrorred hardware raid has always shown as a recoverable partition or just as a working drive for me when stuck into another computer.

If its showing as empty, testdisk had no problem finding the partition and writing a new table.

And no, the bios not knowing about it doesnt matter unless you want to boot off it, you will be fine if windows sees the correct size to make partitions.

Richard rich.ms

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#683515 9-Sep-2012 19:01

Thanks Richms

I found a site that says "A true RAID controller (a separate expansion card; normally expensive) will offer superior performance for any RAID array, but considering the options available to you now, both the mobo's chipset and Windows offload the array functions to the CPU, and any speed difference is negligible."
http://buildegg.com/bewp/?p=44

True or False?

cyril7

9058 posts

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#683525 9-Sep-2012 19:09

Hi, in the old days software RAIDs were a no no, but in these days of more CPU MIPS, and multiple CPU's to throw those MIPs about then software RAIDs as provided by most MOBO's is not such a bad thing.

Cyril

grant_k

3539 posts

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#683555 9-Sep-2012 20:03

I'm just about to try something similar, but without RAID. I've upgraded the BIOS in my Intel mobo so it supports UEFI booting, and am about to install Win 7 64-bit on a system that has been running XP until now. There is conflicting info. on the web about whether I will be able to boot off my brand-new 3TB drive or not. If not, I may need to partition it using Seagate Disc Manager. Obviously I would like to have one large partition if possible, and use GPT rather than MBR.

Any comments or suggestions as to the likelihood of success would be appreciated.