8 replies to this topic

[PR.]

I'm getting a lot of conflicting info here, I keep reading that it's possible to install WHS2011 on a disk greater than 2TB (or in my case a 6TB RAID5 array).

However I cannot get it to work. If I create a single 6TB array install gets to "Copying Windows Files" then fails with error Win7 setup exited with 31. I removed one of the 1.8TB drives and ran through the install again, this time it finished however the RAID array was listed as Primary and on reboot it wouldn't boot as if the boot partition was missing...

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?!

EDIT/ Perhaps I should add that I have an Asus P8H67M EVO with a UEFI bios.

[Garry]

I'm getting a lot of conflicting info here, I keep reading that it's possible to install WHS2011 on a disk greater than 2TB (or in my case a 6TB RAID5 array).

However I cannot get it to work. If I create a single 6TB array install gets to "Copying Windows Files" then fails with error Win7 setup exited with 31. I removed one of the 1.8TB drives and ran through the install again, this time it finished however the RAID array was listed as Primary and on reboot it wouldn't boot as if the boot partition was missing...

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?!

EDIT/ Perhaps I should add that I have an Asus P8H67M EVO with a UEFI bios.

**************
Yes Whs 2011 is capable of up to 16tb arrays (supported). Most
folks don't put the OS drive on the same array as the data array.

[PR.]

Very odd, if I take a drive out of the RAID5 array and install, the install does go through and won't boot but when I check it's actually installed to the RAID5 array (that it supposedly failed on earlier.)

Now I've yanked all the RAID5 drives, and let it install to the removed drive, that seems to have worked and hopefully I can add the RAID5 disks back on later...

[petev]

I'm getting a lot of conflicting info here, I keep reading that it's possible to install WHS2011 on a disk greater than 2TB (or in my case a 6TB RAID5 array).

However I cannot get it to work. If I create a single 6TB array install gets to "Copying Windows Files" then fails with error Win7 setup exited with 31. I removed one of the 1.8TB drives and ran through the install again, this time it finished however the RAID array was listed as Primary and on reboot it wouldn't boot as if the boot partition was missing...

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?!

EDIT/ Perhaps I should add that I have an Asus P8H67M EVO with a UEFI bios.

I have mine installed on a 1.8TB array. To my understanding if you want the array to be bootable must be a Legacy array which is limited by BIOS to 2gb. So to your question can I install on a 6TB array as the boot device my understanding is no

[CiZiN]

I have mine installed on a 1.8TB array. To my understanding if you want the array to be bootable must be a Legacy array which is limited by BIOS to 2gb. So to your question can I install on a 6TB array as the boot device my understanding is no

How I see it, you have 3 options:

1. Do what I did and if your raid controller allows it. Split the array into two separate volumes/luns. My areca card allows for this so I created a 120G slice (min whs 2011 will install to) and installed. I removed the D: drive and then added the rest of the space as D: (warning will mess with backups built into WHS)

2. Install the OS on a separate drive under 2G and then add the raid 5 in after the install.

3. Buy a really expensive motherboard that the bios supports EFI. This will be the future and I feel the proper way but not a lot of support for this yet.

This problem is going to be huge once those whs disks start shipping. Without experiencing this before most people won't know what to search for. I can smell a blog post coming soon on this one. <Hint Hint>

EDIT: So I missed that you have a UEFI motherboard. I am jealous. Make sure the option is turned on in the bios before installing. That is my only suggestion at that point.

[PR.]

Yup, I had a UEFI motherboard but WHS2011 didn't seem interested.

Well after a lot of messing about (much more than WHSv1) it's installed and seems to be running ok, there was a period after doing Windows Updates that nothing in the dashboard would load but that now seems fine.

I've started initializing the array using the Intel Rapid Storage program, after around 12hours it's 13% complete. Writing to the array atm though is absolutely awful, I've seen rights occasionally hit 15mb/s but mostly it's around 600k!! Hoping it sorts itself out once the array is fully initialized.

[CiZiN]

Yup, I had a UEFI motherboard but WHS2011 didn't seem interested.

Well after a lot of messing about (much more than WHSv1) it's installed and seems to be running ok, there was a period after doing Windows Updates that nothing in the dashboard would load but that now seems fine.

I've started initializing the array using the Intel Rapid Storage program, after around 12hours it's 13% complete. Writing to the array atm though is absolutely awful, I've seen rights occasionally hit 15mb/s but mostly it's around 600k!! Hoping it sorts itself out once the array is fully initialized.

Ohh you are building this array on the onboard controller? I don't have any experience with ICH10R and EFI but you may still be held to the 2tb. Go get yourself a hardware controller and you will be much happier.

[-=Hulk=-]

The problem is not WHS 2011 or motherboard. WHS 2011 works with UEFI and GPT partitions

The EFI bootloader is present on the WHS 2011 DVD [bootmgr.efi file], we only have to take care that the motherboard really does load it and not the standard mbr bootloader (bootmgr file). Some motherboard, for example my Intel DG45FC, only boots the efi bootmanager if booted from a DVD, from an USB Stick he can't.

But anyway it's not the problem.

The problem comes from the Intel chipset drivers. Currently they don't accept to install a bootable partition that is bigger than 2TB in RAID mode even with UEFI.
Currently UEFI + bootable partition bigger than 2TB only works in IDE or AHCI mode with Intel driver, it may work in raid mode in the future with new drivers but currently it is not possible.
I think in Raid mode but OS HDD in single member may works.

[Shidoshi]

My Intel DG43GT supports "UEFI boot" from the BIOS options, but I was never able to run the EFI bootloader from the DVD, I presume because I didn't actually have an EFI shell to run from the mainboard to actually choose the EFI bootloader rather than the standard one. Even when I brought up a command prmopt in Win7 and preformatted the HDD as GPT rather than MBR, the WHS 2011 install process just reinitialized the disk as MBR anyway.

ICH10-based southbridge I think supports > 2.2TB volumes if you're using the RST driver version 10.1 and above...maybe only 10.5.