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Yet another machine of mine to move to Vista shortly... and 64 bit finally has its use!!!
One of my file servers, where I keep my TV program archives has slowly grown... Last week it consisted of XP (32 bit) and a Rocketraid 2320 Raid controller with 4 * 750Gb HDD. It served me well for the last year - having a Raid 5 setup giving me 2Tb of file storage to share around the house.
So last week I noticed it had 200mb free - time to expand it out a little. Went off and bought another 750gb HDD (Nice and cheap - $370 at CPL). Plugged it in, went into the raid configuration software and added it to the existing array, expanding the current Raid 5 set.
30 hours later, after it had finished doing it stuff - the management console tells me everything was successful - I now had the extra drive in the set, now having 5 drives. The management console told me it now had 3tb - beauty!!! (4 * 750 = 3TB, the fifth for its correction stuff) - all looked good !
Reboot, and voilla - still only had the 2TB file store.... ARRGGGHHHHHHH - Then it dawned on me!!!! 32 bit OS has a limitation of 2TB...
So tonight, its off with the installation disks and moving this thing to 64 bit... XP or Vista ? Well I have a licence for 64 bit Vista, so will use that.... Why not WHS ? I still say its an immature product, not trusting beta anyway, and I like standards such as Raid 5 and not MS internal priority things...
So hopefully I can just install Vista 64bit on the machine, already checked that drivers are available for Vista 64bit Rocketraid 2320 - and hopefully with luck, I dont loose data, it boots up nicely and I get an extra Gb of storage !!!!
See there is a real use for 64 bit OS !!!!
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In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 264 clusters minus 1 cluster. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 232 clusters minus 1 cluster. For example, using 64-KB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is 256 terabytes minus 64 KB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 terabytes minus 4 KB.
Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks support only partition sizes up to 2 terabytes, you must use dynamic volumes to create NTFS volumes over 2 terabytes. Windows XP Professional manages dynamic volumes in a special database instead of in the partition table, so dynamic volumes are not subject to the 2-terabyte physical limit imposed by the partition table. Therefore, dynamic NTFS volumes can be as large as the maximum volume size supported by NTFS."
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 264 clusters minus 1 cluster. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 232 clusters minus 1 cluster. For example, using 64-KB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is 256 terabytes minus 64 KB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 terabytes minus 4 KB.
Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks support only partition sizes up to 2 terabytes, you must use dynamic volumes to create NTFS volumes over 2 terabytes. Windows XP Professional manages dynamic volumes in a special database instead of in the partition table, so dynamic volumes are not subject to the 2-terabyte physical limit imposed by the partition table. Therefore, dynamic NTFS volumes can be as large as the maximum volume size supported by NTFS."
Oz
Will have to check what type of partition it is tonight - but an interesting thought though!!!
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Impact: Not only by name, but the force I want to use with my Media Center
You do understand what Oz is saying? Even under 64bit if the disk type is set to basic (standard) then your biggest partition can only be 2tb. When you first booted the machine and created the partition on the RAID'ed drives you would have either set up as BASIC or DYNAMIC, seeing as how the volume set probably came up as a single disk then its most likely that you would have let windows descide in which case it would be a BASIC volume.
If you wanted to change to DYNAMIC you have to first change the disk type to DYNAMIC and the remove and recreate the partition, this will of course wipe all the data on the existing partition.
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That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.
Aristotle
RAID5 on dynamic volume has limit of 62 TB. I was running very large volumes at work for a while now. When you create first volume you have to convert to dynamic to be able to expand it.
So you are fine with XP Pro. Mine is 2.1TB which is 8x300GB HDD's. I was expanding several times. Soon I will have to upgrade disks as RAID controller has only 8 ports.
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Vlad - thanks nice article... saves me doing a full 64 bit install of something when I dont need to !
And now I am home, I checked it - damn its a basic disk... Mind you, I can right click on it and select convert to dynamic disk !?! Tempted to, but wanted to be sure that I wouldn't loose anything... Mind you it probably would be another 30 hour process as it scans the whole 3tb I presume!!! LOL The quick checks around via google at microsoft dont suggest I need to back up the data going from basic to dynamic, the only suggested time to back up is going from dynamic to basic ???
Shall search some more before I try anything !!!! (After all these disks contain valuable info and all those things like Last episodes that extremepc was talking about in another thread!!!! LOL)
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Impact: Not only by name, but the force I want to use with my Media Center
as RAID controller has only 8 ports.
