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Physical disk limitations in Windows Server 2003 SP2

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by naughtymonkey

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I have a server with Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2 with 6 SATA drives and 1 IDE connected on the board and 4 SATA in a RAID array on a card. It only sees 5 drives total. Is there a disk limit in Server 2003 Standard? I can't find anything online but would like to know before I try to upgrade it to Enterprise.

All the disks are good and if I disconnect some, the others show up. All display in the BIOS so the board sees them.

4 replies

by normh3

First of all, and I apologize if you already know this, the 4 SATA in RAID will not show as individual disks. My assumption is that they are configured as a RAID5 virtual disk.

Secondly, are you looking for the drives under MYCOMPUTER or are you browsing to 'Computer Management' under 'Administrative Tools'?

by naughtymonkey

in the BIOS. Only 5 show up in Disk Management. If I disconnect one, one of the missing ones will show up. I am aware that the RAID volume will display as one. The total Windows should see is 8 drives, but it only sees 5.

I know it limits memory for each edition, but never heard of it limiting physical drives. Was hoping someone could shed some light on it. I have already reinstalled once and I will be trying to upgrade to Enterprise to see if it makes a difference. I may have never tried to put more than 5 drives in a Standard install.

by normh3

It's almost as if several of the disks are assigned the same drive letter by the OS. When you remove one, the other shows up.

As far as I know there is no limitation of the number of spindles that 2003 server can identify and if there is, it's probably some ridiculously high number.

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