Mediasonic Forum

I have the MediaSonic enclosure model: HFR2-SU3S2. It was just purchased new. I am using 4 -- 6TB HGST hard drives and have the unit set for RAID 5 while it is plugged into my Windows 10 64 bit computer.

I also have a MediaSonic ProBox with the same hard drives, running a RAID 5 and has had no problems!

This is actually my second MediaSonic enclosure model: HFR2-SU3S2. I sent the first one back because I could not solve the problem, I thought it must be the controller card in the unit. But I am having the exact same problem with this second unit.

I set up the four drives into the unit and follow the MediaSonic manual to create a RAID 5. Then I go into the Windows 10 Disk Management program which immediately recognized the one RAID drive. However, it shows up as "Unknown" and when I try to initialize it I get this error message: "the specified disk is not convertible because the size is less than the minimum size required for GPT disks."

If I was to run a RAID 0 or 1 it would work. But it is the same problem for RAID 3 and 10.

Do you have a suggestion for how to fix this problem? One other thing I have done is -- I took each drive into my computer and used Diskpart to clean each drive. So each drive should have nothing on it when building the RAID 5.

what is the exact model of your 6TB drive
can you take a screenshot of disk management after you set to Raid 5
so that we can see the "unknown"

also what is the serial # on your unit?
are you using desktop or notebook?

recap of set up
1st make sure enclosure is connected to a Computer that is ON
and then do this

power on the Enclosure and press and hold MODE button on the front until LED flashes. Press it again to select the RAID mode you want then press and hold the Raid Confirmation button on the back panel until the device shuts down. Power on the device again and the RAID mode set-up is completed.
just need to partition and format the Raid after you turn enclosure back on

Raid confirmation button is hidden in the back so find that 1st, before you start

When you did Raid 0, was the total size 24TB?

The hard drives are:

HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 HUS726060ALE610 (0F23001) 6TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive (Certified Refurbished) w/3 Year Factory Warranty

I will have to provide the other information later.

Yes, I did all the steps you outlined.

Jim

SN: N18080290
I am using a desktop but it was attempted on a notebook with the same result.

MediaSonic-1.jpg (116.75 KiB) Viewed 32558 times

I am using a desktop but I have tried it with a notebook with the same results.

Yes, on RAID 0 it yields 24TB.

MediaSonic-2.jpg (128.93 KiB) Viewed 32559 times

MediaSonic-3.jpg (123.93 KiB) Viewed 32559 times

I noticed that if I set it up with MBR I got this error.

MediaSonic-4.jpg (198.62 KiB) Viewed 32556 times

please get Hard disk sentinel (there is a free trial)
check the SMART Info and health % on your drives (since they are refurb drives)

https://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php

check if all drives have the same firmware #

I installed Hard disk sentinel. I checked each drive independently. Each of them are show 100%. They each have the same Firmware Revision number: APGNTD05.

Sentinel Pic2.jpg (227.54 KiB) Viewed 32524 times

Try Raid 5 again, but with 3 drives only
4 drives, let's say we label it as A,B,C,D

put A,B,C and set to Raid 5, see if it works
then try A,B,D and see if it works