New Drive Installed

Where you did you add the drive? In a RAID configuration? You need to configure the drive if you plugged into the RAID controller

First check if it is visible in the BIOS; if it isn't, the drive or cable are bad.  Next, check in Disk Management - if it isn't there, you may be missing the chipset driver for the port it is connected to.  If it is visible, you may need to change the letter it is assigned.

I believe I'm running a Raid config. I haven't checked the bios, but it isn't in Disk Manager.

Check in the BIOS of the RAID controller to see if it has been added as either a separate drive or as an addition to an existing array.  Check if the RAID array is in a degraded state also, because if it is, not all drives are visible.

Can you also describe what is currently on your RAID controller, how they are configured, and what you are trying to do with this new drive?

Please bear with me, and thanks for you help. I need very basic instructions on how to check my Raid array and BIOS settings.

Hi,

Ok first of all if your using RAID your new drive will not be visable in your MyComputer > Manage > Disk Management

So you will need to go and check your raid controller. This is normally an application that is installed on your server so you will find it in My Programs > (Depending on the make of your computer) Dell or Fugitsu etc > Raid Manager. In here you will normally need to logon to the Raid Manager using your administrator logons. So if you have Raid configured you will see the the new disk in here within your Raid Manager.

Also depending on the type of raid that is setup on your server you may not see increased disk space on your computer.

If you have RAID 0 configured you will see an increase in your disk capacity. RAID 0 uses stripped data chunks across multiple disks.

But if you have RAID 1 you may not see an increase in your disk capacity because if you only have one existing disk your new disk will be used as a complete backup of your existing disk. With RAID 1 The disks will have a complete mirror of each other.

Hope this helps

When you boot up, you should get a screen before you get into Windows that says something about the RAID setup and controller.  You will see instructions on a key to press to get into the RAID BIOS.  Please provide information on what RAID controller you have, how many disks you have and how they are configured.  Tell us also what you want to do with this new drive.  Up to now, you haven't given us any information to work with.

When I boot up i see Perc 5/i. I have 4 drives all SATAu 250 gb. The 4th drive failed and I am trying to replace it. Don't have alot of experience with RAID so looking for help. Server is Dell 2900 running
windows 2003 server sr2. Dell Open Manager Server Admin has listings for Virtual Disk on Control Perc 5?/i intergrated. Let me know if I'm if I'm on the right track.

I found virtual disk 0 and I can see the 3 existing drives. I still don't see the new drive yet.

When you installed the new hard drive, did you add it to the existing array as a spare?  Once you do that, it should start rebuilding, which will take a while with 4 250GB hard disks.

When I look at physical drives in Raid 0 I see 4 drives. Three are online and the newest is ready. I can choose 4 tasks to execute. Blink, unblink, assign global spare, or clear. There isn't any RAID disk space being used on the new drive, and the proper amount of disk space available. It's been in the server for 2 days.

I will do just that when I leave and let it rebuild over the weekend. I'll let you know if I was successful on Monday.

Back at work on Sunday and I checked my raid 5 config utility. I see 3 physical drive and 1 hot spare.
I think I am back in good shape.

Thanks Leoneire, Dariusg, and Callandor. Very clear and helpful information. I appreciate the help.