Lenovo ThinkServer TD230 RAID does not recognize 3TB Drives

**Pavy** · 07-04-2012

My ThinkServer TD230 works perfectly with 2 X 3TB drives connected to SATA and configured in Enhanced mode. But If I change it to SW and then create a RAID using SRT utility, the system only detects the drives as 780GB. The EFI is latest but Embedded Server RAID Technology II software might be out of date - A.09.08061549I. How can I fix this?

**Naq** · 07-04-2012

It seems to me that presently the Lenovo does not offer RAID support with 3TB drives but some users had success with it, I don’t know how. I tried by installing LENOVO RAID adapter (LSI MegaRAID 9240-8I SATA3/SAS) - with the 3TB drives whilst running VMWare ESXI but no use at all.

**Mayoor** · 07-04-2012

The Lenovo BIOS can only address up to 2TB of hard drive space. So far we never come to this question, but since we can create volumes larger than 2 TB with the addition of multiple disks (RAID), or use of the new 3 TB disks, many people are surprised that on their computers, they do not recognize the entire volume. You have to take certain measures to account this limitation so that it won’t surprise us again.

**Pinlunk** · 07-04-2012

You cannot format External USB, eSATA, Firewire and internal more than 2TB HDDss on Windows 32-bit by the use of partition scheme MBR. So depending on the interface, drives larger than 2 TB may not be detected, may be detected in part, or may be recognized, but you cannot access them. Other problems like system crash or the inability to boot the computer can be seen. This is not a problem of external or internal HDD. It is a limitation of 2 TB volume caused by the partition scheme MBR, long used by 32-bit operating systems.

**Yistor** · 07-04-2012

To use drives larger than 2 TB, you need a compatible OS that can partition and format the drive. RAID 1 does not get more than 2TB of available space as it is the RAID mirror and if you make a mirror between two disks of 2 TB, the available volume is 2TB alone. Here I pass any of the boxes that do RAID 0 or RAID 5 that connect directly to your computer. On-board RAID is not particularly recommended (configure / sell professional IPCs). Better (as internal control) would be a RAID box, for example, the ARAID 3500. Switch to RAID 0 or RAID 1.

**Radames** · 07-04-2012

What you can get inside the BIOS? Does your BIOS can detect 3TB HDDs individually? As far as I know that some controller cards will not able to recognize larger HDDs without a proper version of firmware and support. If the BIOS itself cannot see those disks, then you need to double check the settings and physical connections.

**Galbraith** · 11-04-2012

What manufacturer HDD you are using? Does your BIOS allow you to allow RAID?

Did you create hardware RAID VOLUME?

It seems to me like you are trying to setup Bunch of Disks and have them show up through Windows individually. You have 2 choices now. Either you have to show them as external drives to the OS or simply partition using the RAID BIOS. If the RAID controller is low level, then also you may not able to configure RAID properly.