GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

[mikewse]

The Q77 chipset supports adding disks to existing RAID arrays and will expand the array accordingly. It's called "capacity expansion" in the specs (check PCH column):


On my GA-Q77M-D2h the Add Disk command isn't available and, according to Intel Support, this is because the Gigabyte motherboard BIOS is not enabling the capacity expansion feature in its bundled RAID option ROM.

How can I have this solved?

Thanks
Mike

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

I never paid attention but see the ICH10R has that option as well, but in my RAID utility I have never seen that option.. (though I never looked for it).

What RAID configuration do you have setup? RAID 0, 5 or 10?

Vin

[mikewse]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

I have RAID5 on 3x WD RED 3TB disks.

Intel's RAID utility ("Intel RST") makes use of dynamic menus that completely hide stuff that isn't currently possible to do. F ex, running RAID initialization hides the cache settings menu and it reappears when initialization is done.
The Add Disk command only shows up in the Intel RST application when you select an array or volume of RAID type 0 or 5 and have a free disk of the same geometry as the ones in the array. So yes, normally you don't see this command :-)

Intel has verified that Add Disk should become available with my setup and the only thing stopping it could be the motherboard BIOS (due to what features it reports to RST).

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

Ah, OK. that would make sense then. I have an EVGA board now but it still has an ICH10R controller. I have a few SSD laying around, I'll plug one in and see if I see this option. Where specifically should I see it in the IRST software?

Vin

[mikewse]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

You can see the Add Disk command in the IRST screenshot towards the bottom of this page:

http://www.anushand.com/2011/02/vertex-2-isnt-lonely-anymore.html

Note that the volume is selected on the right and this shows the commands available on the left. Actually it seems to be enough there is a free disk of the same or larger size to enable the Add Disk command.

[mikewse]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

After some experimenting I found that Add Disk appeared when the RAID volume wasn't booted from. Intel Support wasn't aware of this limitation and it's not mentioned in the docs so it remains to be seen if expanding a volume you boot from should be supported or not. Either way it doesn't seem to be the motherboard BIOS that is at fault here.

[Vinster]

Re: GA-Q77M-D2H unable to expand RAID5 array

ok, good to know, I have a spare SSD to test this with, now I have something else to check with.

Vin