So I built my server a while ago and just found out about this HPA disaster. But it think I found a work around.  I don't want to buy new hardware as I would need a new cpu, mb and ram, and the stuff I have still functions fine.

 

Apparently the MB puts the HPA on the first HD that initializes.  I read how that becomes a problem if you have a failure then try to put in a parity drive and it is too small.

 

So a crude work around is the following:

 

1) Remove the unraid flash, disconnect all HDs.

 

2) Connect one HD at a time and power on.

 

3) Repeat for all drives.

 

4) Reinsert unraid flash, install all HDs.

 

5) When adding new HD or replacing failed ones rinse and repeat the above for the new drive.

 

Basically this is sacrificing the HPA space and forcing HPA to be on all drives, thereby equalizing them.  No parity drive is small problem should occur.

 

Any problems with this logic?

So I built my server a while ago and just found out about this HPA disaster. But it think I found a work around.  I don't want to buy new hardware as I would need a new cpu, mb and ram, and the stuff I have still functions fine.

 

Apparently the MB puts the HPA on the first HD that initializes.  I read how that becomes a problem if you have a failure then try to put in a parity drive and it is too small.

 

So a crude work around is the following:

 

1) Remove the unraid flash, disconnect all HDs.

 

2) Connect one HD at a time and power on.

 

3) Repeat for all drives.

 

4) Reinsert unraid flash, install all HDs.

 

5) When adding new HD or replacing failed ones rinse and repeat the above for the new drive.

 

Basically this is sacrificing the HPA space and forcing HPA to be on all drives, thereby equalizing them.  No parity drive is small problem should occur.

 

Any problems with this logic?

It will work unless you are on 4.7 and attempting to upgrade to 5.0-beta/rc.  It then might mess with the calculation of the partition size.

 

If you already have data on those drives, you'll not be able to re-construct onto them from their logical image, since they'll then be too small.

 

I'd see if there is a BIOS upgrade for your existing MB, or if it can be disabled in your BIOS.

 

Just search for all the threads where a person upgrading from 4.7 has to remove the HPA to get the upgrade to succeed.

 

Joe L.