New HDD not showing

We have a dell power edge 2900 with 3 x HDDs in a raid5

We want to add another hdd as a non raid drive.

We've added the drive and booted the server but the lights on the drive aren't even showing

Is there anything else we need to do?

carrgater31Asked: 2012-12-28

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PowerEdgeTechIT ConsultantCommented: 2012-12-28

It is not enough that you can "see" it in OpenManage or the PERC BIOS ... to translate what dlethe said in his first post: the PERC does NOT support non-RAID, so you MUST configure it in a RAID array before it can be "exposed" to the OS. If you want to use this disk by itself, you need to create a single-disk RAID 0 with it. You can do this in the CTRL-R utility for the PERC during POST, or you can do this from OMSA by going to Storage, PERC, Information/Configuration (link at top of page), Create/New from the dropdown menu of Available Tasks for the controller.

Then you should see it in Windows Disk Management (right-click [My] Computer, Manage, Storage), initialize it if necessary, then format it.

LVL 47

DavidPresidentCommented: 2012-12-28

You need to tell the controller to expose that disk to the BIOS. (Which can be done from the BIOS or using the PERC utility). The controller "owns" all HDDs by default and has to be told what to do with all of them.

carrgater31Author Commented: 2012-12-28

Thanks. The disk in the bay is now flashing. I can also see the disk in dell server manager. How do I get to see it in Windows?

LVL 47

DavidPresidentCommented: 2012-12-28

If windows is still booted, then you can run DISKPART, then from the DISKPART> prompt, enter RESCAN.

Or you can reboot; or run disk administrator and rescan for new devices, but just be aware that rescanning does not always work so you may have to reboot no matter what.