URGENT: Windows does not recognise MSA2000 volume

[Amol Garge]

Correction,GPT is not actually a file system...

GPT is based on GUID partion table which removes the restrictions of the MBR which restricts the addressing to 2TB...

[Jorge G]

Thanks for your time. Here are my answers:
- server has SP2. The difference between the old one and the new one is that the latter as Windows 2003 64bits installed, while the former had the 32 bits version.

- The drive was formatted with NTFS and had access to 4 TB without problem, so I don't think the 2TB limit applies.

- There's one fact I didn't mention: before moving the card I added and additional 750GB disk to the StorageWorks and expanded the vdisk. The original array was 8x750Gb, and now it's 9x750Tb.
But this technology is supposed to expand the volumes without disrupting the OS's data.

Thanks again!

[Amol Garge]

I never doubted the MSA... its definitely OS issue:

Can you try this:

Cluster Maximum NTFS
size Volume Size (bytes RAW)
512 (2TB)
1,024 (4TB)
2,048 (8TB)
4,096 (16TB)
8,192 (32TB)
16,384 (64TB)
32,768 (128TB)
65,536 (256TB)

To determine the cluster size of a volume, run the following command at a command prompt, and then note the "Bytes Per Cluster" value:
fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo

Note: The placeholder represents the volume letter.

[Jorge G]

As I don't have a letter assigned to it (Windows does not recognize any partition) I can't run the utility.

But, it was formatted with the default cluster size, so maybe if Windows chose cluster=1,024 then it was limited to 4TB. Is it possible that the addition of the 750Gb disk broke NTFS?

[Amol Garge]

Yes, I think that's a very likely possibility.

I know it shows as the unallocated space, but does the Windows recognize the disk size?

Unfortunately, you cant remove the added space in volume without deleting and losing data.

I hope you had a valid backup before doing extending the volume. :(

[Jorge G]

Yes, Windows recognizes the disk size. Is there any utility that can help me?

Thanks a lot!

[Amol Garge]

You can try this as last desperate effort:

I think you can contact Microsoft now, they have a utility called diskprobe.

Ask them to copy the last sector of the file system go back 1TB and paste it.

Idea is to shrink the NTFS partition by 1 TB.

There are a lot of disk Guru's in MS. Surely someone will help.

All the best!

[Jorge G]

Googling I found other people having the same issues. They are talking about "HP OpenView Virtual Replicator" to support volume expansion.

Any ideas?

[Amol Garge]

In OVSR, existing storage units with production data can be imported into a pool, the data partition being preserved as a virtual disk and unused capacity added to the pool.

Don't think you can shrink the volume.

What have the other guys done(from the Google search)? Maybe we can research and get there...