Raid Setup 8.04 HELP

[clownius]

No really a cruncher related but im having a massive time wasting issue with my new RAID setup and its stopping me building my i7.  I need to transfer stuff to my Raid so i can wipe HDD's for use in it.

First major issue
I stupidly believed it when it claimed to be Linux compatible. It being my stupid Highpoint RocketRaid 2320 raid card.  Aftert a few hours i got sick of the squishy sound and stopped bashing my head against the wall trying to get it to do raid and tried to use it as just extra SATA ports but the lead to more squishy sounds and hopelessly useless outdated drivers that dont work.  If anyone know a good workthrough i could try again though as its the better solution.

Second major issue
The fabled software raid that Linux should do well.  I pulled all the drives out and plugged them into the mobbo instead (can you say almost $600 down the drain on useless raid card).  I can read the drives now. Form an md0 dev (mdadm created drive) but for some reason i cant format an actual drive on it of more than 754Gb.

Im trying for a 4HDD RAID 5 setup on Kubuntu 8.04 (I know its outdated but its a server).  Id like to be able to expand it in the future.  This is a pure storage array (the OS is on another pysical drive) im not booting off it or anything like that i just want put lots of stuff on it.  I have 4 1Tb HDD's and i want to use them.

I will try any walkthrough you can point me too or has anyone done this sort of thing before?

Best outcome i get the RAID card doing raid, next best it at least lets my plug disks into it and use them, last option i get a working raid set and throw the RAID card at someone and buy another.