One commonly overlooked feature of HP Smart Array RAID controllers is the ability to create multiple logical drives on the same group of physical disks (array)...
This is mainly because the BIOS-based Option ROM Configuration of Arrays (ORCA) utility doesn't have this functionality, so many people miss out on the enhanced feature set.
The example below shows 4 x 900GB disks in an array, carved into a 72GB RAID 1+0 OS drive and a 500GB RAID 1+0 data drive. (You can also mix RAID levels on the same group of disks!)
Smart Array P420i in Slot 0 (Embedded) (sn: 00143802113BC70)
array A (SAS, Unused Space: 2262353 MB)
logicaldrive 1 (72.0 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)
logicaldrive 2 (500.0 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:2:1 (port 1I:box 2:bay 1, SAS, 900.1 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:2:2 (port 1I:box 2:bay 2, SAS, 900.1 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:2:3 (port 1I:box 2:bay 3, SAS, 900.1 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:2:4 (port 1I:box 2:bay 4, SAS, 900.1 GB, OK)
SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model SRCv8x6G) 380 (WWID: 500143802113BC7F)
What I would do in your case is load the HP SSA offline bootable DVD and create a logical drive for your operating system. Load it.
You can then choose to create another logical drive (or more) for your data. Each HP Smart Array Logical Drive presents a new block device to the operating system.
We tried lots of different things, from reseating all the HD, to making sure all connections were solid on the board, to power cycling, to configuration changes, etc....
As the last option, we pulled the two data drives and booted just with the OS drive. I allowed the RAID controller to think the two data drives had failed. The server booted up and applied Windows updates. I logged in/shut-down and reinserted the two data drives. Booted up no problem. Everything is now working fine.
So, maybe its a configuration problem on my end with the SATA HD. Maybe it was a Windows Update issue. Whatever it is, I'm posting what worked for my situation.
Maybe someone will edit this post for better readability.
Best Answer
Based on your comment I'd start with looking at your Raid controller. If you have 300GB times 4 then it should be 1.2 TB if it's a RAID 0, Raid 1 would be 600GB, etc. So it sounds like your raid controller is only set up to pass one drive through. The other drives may not be initialized.