Windows – Proliant DL320G5P, Embedded RAID controller: Windows installation shows phisycal disks, not logical drive

hpraidsatawindowswindows-server-2012-r2

I am installing Windows 2012R2 on Proliant DL320G5P, with the Embedded SATA RAID controller.

I have 4 disks, with two different RAID 1 (mirror) arrays.

I have a "strange" situation: Windows installation shows all the four phisycal disks, not the two logical drives (as it should).

I tried installing the OS and I have the four drives.
I also tried using HP drivers in windows installation, but I see no changes.

How can I solve this and properly use the RAID controller?

Best Answer

From the HP site:Storage Controllers: Integrated Intel® 82801IR Serial ATA Host Controller with RAID 0/1 support. (Better known as ICH9R).

This one seems to use Intel® Matrix RAID which is Fake RAID. In other words, you need to configure the RAID in the BIOS, but the actual implementation is done by drivers rather than via hardware. This means that you will need to load these additional drivers in order to use the disks in RAID.

Relevant links with background information and drivers:

How can I solve this and properly use the RAID controller?

You do not have a RAID controller. Not a real one anyway. Real hardware RAID was offered as an option on these proliants, but unless you have that additonal SAS RAID cards (which can be used to connect SATA disks) you have to fall back to one of these three:

  1. No RAID. :(
  2. Software RAID.
  3. Fake RAID with drivers which you might not find for server 2012.
Related Topic