The drive cannot be extended because the number of clusters will exceed the maximum

[lifespeed]

I guess I finally crossed the 16TB barrier with Win 7 x64 and 8X 3TB Hitachi 5K3000 drives. I currently have 64K stripes in the RAID card, 4096 bytes per cluster, and 512 byte sectors.

I expanded the array from 7 to 8 3TB drives in RAID6 using an old Highpoint 3520 IOP341 card, but cannot extend the volume in windows. How can I convert the cluster size without losing data, or buying a multi-thousand $$ array to transfer the data to while I rebuild?

 

[badatSAS]

Heres one idea -
1. shrink the current volume down to the size of the existing data
2. create a new volume with new sector size in the free space on the array
3. move as much data from old volume into new volume as possible
4. rinse and repeat until complete

could always have two volumes unless one contiguous mass of data is critical for your usecase as well

 

[BigXor]

Heres one idea -
1. shrink the current volume down to the size of the existing data
2. create a new volume with new sector size in the free space on the array
3. move as much data from old volume into new volume as possible
4. rinse and repeat until complete

could always have two volumes unless one contiguous mass of data is critical for your usecase as well

Nice! I've been thinking about this for awhile and could not think of a solution. I have filed this away in my memory for later use - if need arises.

Defrag and consolidating free space beforehand may be helpful for this solution.

 

[badatSAS]

Classic "Crossing the river with a wolf, a pig, and a cabbage" logic problem brought into 21st century technology =)

 

[lifespeed]

That sounds like the most painful way to accomplish this, without using any tools other than Windows. I think Partition Magic can rewrite the cluster size in-place without days or weeks of shuffling and re-sizing. And re-sizing a partition to a smaller size is not necessarily that straightforward.

 

[badatSAS]

Two of the three times I've lost data on a harddrive not due to mechanical failure were because partition magic messed something up. I still haven't had the built in microsoft tools eat my data. Best of luck.

 

[mrkrad]

i paid $25 for a p400/256 with saap, and $66 for a m5014 no battery, and $120 for a p410/512 (no battery but SAAP).

Sometimes online capacity expansion/restriping, mirror splitting/joining, and simple (raid-1+0) is easier to work with.

for everything else check out storage spaces in 2012

 

[Biren78]

Classic "Crossing the river with a wolf, a pig, and a cabbage" logic problem brought into 21st century technology =)

Never heard that one.

 

[lifespeed]

Two of the three times I've lost data on a harddrive not due to mechanical failure were because partition magic messed something up. I still haven't had the built in microsoft tools eat my data. Best of luck.

Agreed it is good to be wary of tools. Still, I can't help but think there is an easier way to re-write to a larger cluster size than repeatedly shrinking, copying, and expanding two volumes on the same RAID array. This would put my array out of commision for a week or two due to files being moved places Windows Media Center wasn't expecting to find them, and would interfere with TV recordings. Surely not mission critical, but try explaining that to the wife and kids.

I was hoping somebody who had faced this challenge would respond with a suggestion for a reliable software tool. It could be that Partition Magic could safely do it, but would prefer to hear from somebody who has proven this capability.

 

[nitrobass24]

I have used Gparted in the past to do this.

 

[lifespeed]

I have used Gparted in the past to do this.

That looks like a linux tool run off a boot CD. Don't see how that would work with a RAID array needing drivers . . .

 

[lifespeed]

bit the bullet

OK, so I bit the bullet and am shrinking, expanding, combining partitions and moving data. Before I expand the partition I format the unallocated space to 8192 bytes cluster size. Not sure if this is necessary.

The snag is that storage management tool insisted I convert to Dynamic Disk to do this. In the long run, I don't want this extra layer of virtualization between windows and my RAID6 hardware. I really see no value in this, only potential obstacles in the future. What will happen if I boot from a Windows 7 CD to recover an image from the RAID6 to my boot SSD, for example? I know this worked fine with a basic volume on the RAID6 once I loaded the drivers.

Anyway, it now appears I will have one more step remaining in order to end up back where I want - single large BASIC volume on the array. Acronis Disk Director claims to be able to do this safely, while preserving data. Anybody use this tool on a RAID array?

 

[nitrobass24]

That looks like a linux tool run off a boot CD. Don't see how that would work with a RAID array needing drivers . . .

Boot live CD, load linux drivers from USB.

OK, so I bit the bullet and am shrinking, expanding, combining partitions and moving data. Before I expand the partition I format the unallocated space to 8192 bytes cluster size. Not sure if this is necessary.

The snag is that storage management tool insisted I convert to Dynamic Disk to do this. In the long run, I don't want this extra layer of virtualization between windows and my RAID6 hardware. I really see no value in this, only potential obstacles in the future. What will happen if I boot from a Windows 7 CD to recover an image from the RAID6 to my boot SSD, for example? I know this worked fine with a basic volume on the RAID6 once I loaded the drivers.

Anyway, it now appears I will have one more step remaining in order to end up back where I want - single large BASIC volume on the array. Acronis Disk Director claims to be able to do this safely, while preserving data. Anybody use this tool on a RAID array?

You cannot convert back to basic without deleting your volumes (data)

 

[lifespeed]

Boot live CD, load linux drivers from USB.

OK. Too late for this approach.

You cannot convert back to basic without deleting your volumes (data)

You certainly can't with Windows 7 storage manager, but third-party tools claim to be able to do so. As always, the question is how reliable are they?

 

[nitrobass24]

Any update on this?

 

[lifespeed]

still shuffling data

Any update on this?

Still moving data, defragmenting and resizing. If you look at the disk storage management screenshot below you will see Windows Dynamic Disks is still viewing chunks of my RAID6 array is different physical "drives" when I expand temp_expand (M: ). This is a single RAID 6 array with 8 each Hitachi 5K3000 drives, two of which are the newer 3-platter variants.

10TB are used out of a total 16TB available. Some shuffling is required to convert to 8092 byte cluster size. I have confirmed the volume temp_expand (M: ) is composed of 8092-byte clusters. The plan is to move the remaining data from Secondary (D: ) after the next volume shrink/defrag/expand cycle using Auslogics to defrag. I will then rename temp_expand (M: ) to Secondary (D: ), at which I will have a single large volume for my data, albeit dynamic composed of three "disks" in Windows perspective.

At this point I would really like to return to Basic disks as I suspect there are any number of gotcha's associated with Windows imposing an (unnecessary) layer of virtualization between the OS and my array. Acronics Disk Director claims to be able to do this, and it should be a reasonable enough request, given I have a simple volume on one physical disk.

But who knows, I could lose all my un-backed-up data . . .

 

[odditory]

What a mess, I feel your pain. In-place cluster size conversion I usually recommend against, especially using third party tools that advertise the feature, because I've seen the process bomb out halfway through more often than I've seen it finish successfully, and if you dont have a backup then data recovery from a botched cluster conversion is nigh impossible. Ideal is having spare disks to back everything up first. I realize you already know all that but for the benefit of others that find themselves in a similar situation.

If it was me in the situation? I'd stop what you're doing, scrounge up some spare 3TB disks since they're so cheap at around $100 right now and copy all the data off, then format & restore from there.

 

[lifespeed]

What a mess, I feel your pain. In-place cluster size conversion I usually recommend against, especially using third party tools that advertise the feature, because I've seen the process bomb out halfway through more often than I've seen it finish successfully, and if you dont have a backup then data recovery from a botched cluster conversion is nigh impossible. Ideal is having spare disks to back everything up first. I realize you already know all that but for the benefit of others that find themselves in a similar situation.

If it was me in the situation? I'd stop what you're doing, scrounge up some spare 3TB disks since they're so cheap at around $100 right now and copy all the data off, then format & restore from there.

Not bad advice at all. However, I am already done with the cluster conversion via shrinking/extending. All that remains is to convert from dynamic disk back to basic, on a single, physical "drive". In theory, this is more straightforward the in-place cluster conversion. We'll see. I have the truly important data backed up, but would lose a lot of movies were something to get Borked. 3 TB drives have no more future for me as my card is out of ports.

5 years ago when I first started with my cheesy Highpoint 3520 card and 3 each 1TB Seagate ES.2 drives I had no idea I would end up with a 16 TB RAID6 and all 8 ports full. Yet here I am, same card still working well (it's no Areca) and the Hitachi drives are troopers. I could easily run another 4 - 5 years on this array before space once again becomes an issue. After 8 - 10 years of use I would feel justified in buying the latest Areca 16 port wonder and plugging in 6 each of the new Hitachi 6TB drives for a cool $2500.

I'll check the full space. I could free up 2 - 3 drives possible by converting from RAID6 to 5 and that might be enough to reformat the remainder the traditional way. I wonder if the Highpoint 3520 will let me drop a drive or two out of the array if the space is not needed.

 

[lifespeed]

finally done!

Finally finished this re-size project with 8KB clusters to break the 16 TB barrier. Adding that last 3TB 5K3000 drive was painful. Despite the fact the data at risk was not critical, I took Odditory's advice and bought 3 more 3 TB drives so I could completely wipe the RAID6 and start over with a proper Windows Basic partition, instead of that Dynamic Disk layer of virtualization silliness. That just seemed like a good way to allow Windows to do something stupid.

Now I can replace my two 1 TB drives that I have been using to backup the critical data on the array with the extra 3 TB drives purchased for the shuffle, a win-win.