Can Reserved Space in a RAID Array Be Utilized in Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC)?

• The Intel® VROC Graphical User Interface (GUI) shows that more space can be utilized.
• Inquiry about utilizing reserved space in an Intel® VROC RAID array.

Drives of different models, especially from different manufacturers, may have slight variations in capacity even if marketed as the same size (e.g., 1TB). The reserved space is intended to compensate for these differences in case a faulty drive needs to be replaced with one that has a slightly smaller capacity. Fully utilizing the reserved space will eliminate the flexibility to replace a drive with one that has a slightly smaller capacity than the existing drive.

It is recommended to maintain the reserved space to ensure compatibility and flexibility when replacing drives in the RAID array.

Intel® VROC supports Disk Coercion. When a RAID volume is created, this feature analyzes the physical disks and automatically adjusts (rounds down) the capacity of the disks to 95% of the smallest physical disk. This allows for variances in the physical disk capacities from different vendors.

Learn more about Disk Coercion in the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Technical Product Specification for Windows*.