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I would like to install 12 4TB hard drives in a RAID array using an old Areca ARC-1231 controller. Are 4TB disks supported by this controller? I could not find the specs for this controller at their support site http://www.areca.us/support/main.htm. This is the information of the PCI device provided by lspci.

41:00.0 RAID bus controller: Areca Technology Corp. ARC-1231 12-Port PCI-Express to SATA RAID Controller

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    Had to hack the editor to make the entire text visible. Apr 11, 2014 at 15:29
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    Looks like it... Why don't you check their product page? areca.us/products/pcie341.htm I'm not sure if that's the same product line or not, and am on mobile, but seems like something you could look into yourself easily enough. Apr 11, 2014 at 15:40
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    @HopelessN00b I'm not sure if it is the same product line but it definitely has a different model number.
    – gypaetus
    Apr 11, 2014 at 15:47

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The 1230/1231 looks like an older product, with the most recent firmware going back to 2009.

The Support Site actually points to the FTP site for older manuals. One specification there suggests that these controllers are limited to SATA II (300MB/s).

Areca also publishes a HDD compatibility matrix - as this controller does not appear to be actively supported, they won't have tested any newer disks with it.

So ask your self this:

Suppose you would use this and the controller would fail at some point, how would you be able to reconstruct the RAID? Do you have spares for that controller?

Hardware RAID controllers have a bad reputation with forward compatibility. A newer model may not store data in the same way as older models.

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  • I have spare ARC-1231 controllers so it should be fine in case the controller would fail.
    – gypaetus
    Apr 14, 2014 at 21:38
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    A failing controller can corrupt your data. Do you have spare data? Keep in mind that the rebuild time for 4TB drives can take days. Apr 15, 2014 at 0:54
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    @StefanLasiewski: A new RAID controller is as likely to fail as an older one. If really new, even more likely.
    – Zan Lynx
    Apr 15, 2014 at 1:15
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I had a areca-1680, I upgraded to 4Tb disks, the raidcontroller recognized them after a firmware upgrade.

However, after a few reboots the controller died on me (3/8 disks where not correctly recognized) perhaps chance, but we ended up with a new raidcontroller anyway. So safe yourself the horror of upgrading firmware and buy a newer model.

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