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Can't finish formating a volume set.

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8 replies

by sir_tuc

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Please forgive my ignorance, I am not familiar with setting up RAIDs. I have an external RAID that has 5 SCSI hard drives all are the same manufacturer and even the same model number (36 Gigs each). It is connected to an Adaptec AHA-29160 SCSI controller which has the latest drivers from Adaptec. I am getting a Windows NT 4.0 error message "Windows NT was unable to complete the format." According to Microsoft, any service pack above 4 will fix this problem. We have SP6a installed. What the hey!

8 replies

by sir_tuc

Thanks for your time in responding to this. What I did to actually get Win NT to complete the format . . . Guick Format! Win NT would never (in 6 attempts), and as far as I know, NEVER will complete a Non-Quick Format of a RAID-5 "drive." I stilldo not know why.

by gigelul

Hi,
Check the IDs asigned to the drives (you must assign an unic ID to each HDD).
Check if your SCSI bus are properly terminated (only at the ends of the bus you must have activated the terminators).
Try to enter in SCSI BIOS and run diagnostics from here.

by sir_tuc

Thanks for your time in responding to this. What I did to actually get Win NT to complete the format . . . Guick Format! Win NT would never (in 6 attempts), and as far as I know, NEVER will complete a Non-Quick Format of a RAID-5 "drive." I stilldo not know why.

by cavedweller

Reboot the server, watch for the Adaptec message and hit CTRL-A to enter the Adaptec BIOS setup utility. Make sure you can see the drive. The controller in the external RAID controls how many drives your server sees. You should see one drive for each RAID container. 5 36 GB drives in a RAID-5 configuration gets you 144 GB of storage (N-1) * 36.

Check your RAID documentation for how to configure the containers. The RAID controller must initialize each drive, then create containers
on the initialized drives. You should have gotten some management software from the RAID manufacturer.

Once the RAID is initialized you can use NT's disk manager to format the containers (they show up as drive letters). Again, if your RAID controlleruses all 5 drives to create a single container, NT will only see one drive.

Ignore NT's tools to create RAID volumes, they are for "software" RAID where the individual drives are connected to a regular SCSI controller. You have a hardware RAIDand its internal controller takes care of operating the RAID.

by sir_tuc

Thanks for your time in responding to this. What I did to actually get Win NT to complete the format . . . Guick Format! Win NT would never (in 6 attempts), and as far as I know, NEVER will complete a Non-Quick Format of a RAID-5 "drive." I stilldo not know why.

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