Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI user manual Serial ATA Bios Setting Utility Introduction, RAID Levels

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English

4-1-4 Serial ATA BIOS Setting Utility Introduction

RAID Levels

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining two hard disk drives into one logical unit. The advantage of an Array is to provide better performance or data fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is achieved through data redundant operation, where if one drives fails, a mirrored copy of the data can be found on another drive. This can prevent data loss if the operating system fails or hangs. The individual disk drives in an array are called members. The configuration information of each member is recorded in the reserved sector that identifies the drive as a member. All disk members in a formed disk array are recognized as a single physical drive to the operating system.

Hard disk drives can be combined together through a few different methods. The different methods are referred to as different RAID levels. Different RAID levels represent different performance levels, security levels and implementation costs. The RAID levels which the nVIDIA® nForce4 SLI chipset supports are RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+RAID 1 and JBOD.

RAID 0 (Striping)

RAID 0 reads and writes sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives. If any disk member fails, it affects the entire array. The disk array data capacity is equal to the number of drive members times the capacity of the smallest member. The striping block size can be set from 4KB to 128KB. RAID 0 does not support fault tolerance.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

RAID 1 writes duplicate data onto a pair of drives and reads both sets of data in parallel. If one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical failure or does not respond, the remaining drive will continue to function. Due to redundancy, the drive capacity of the array is the capacity of the smallest drive. Under a RAID 1 setup, an extra drive called the spare drive can be attached. Such a drive will be activated to replace a failed drive that is part of a mirrored array. Due to the fault tolerance, if any RAID 1 drive fails, data access will not be affected as long as there are other working drives in the array.

RAID 0+1 (Striping + Mirroring)

RAID 0+1 combines the performance of data striping (RAID 0) and the fault tolerance of disk mirroring (RAID 1). Data is striped across multiple drives and duplicated on another set of drives.

JBOD (Spanning)

A spanning disk array is equal to the sum of the all drives when the drives used are having different capacities. Spanning stores data onto a drive until it is full, then proceeds to store files onto the next drive in the array. When any disk member fails, the failure affects the entire array. JBOD is not really a RAID and does not support fault tolerance.

GA-K8NXP-SLI Motherboard

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Contents GA-K8NXP-SLI Motherboard Copyright Product Manual ClassificationTable of Contents Drivers Installation GA-K8NXP-SLI Motherboard Layout Block Diagram Page Instances of Non-Warranty Considerations Prior to InstallationInstallation Notices Preparing Your ComputerFeature Summary SATA3SIIBios Installation of the CPU and Fan Heat Sink Installation of the CPUInstallation of the Fan Heat Sink Installation of Memory Dual Channel Memory Configuration Installation of Expansion Cards Installation of K8DPS Dual Power System What is K8DPS?Setup of SLI Scalable Link Interface Configuration Before You BeginEnabling SLI Mode Graphics card I/O Back Panel Introduction Rear Speaker Out Connectors IntroductionSide Speaker Out ATX12V/ATX Power Connector 5 Cpufan / SYSFAN/ Pwrfan Cooler Fan Power Connector Nbfan Chip Fan Power ConnectorFDD FDD Connector IDE1 / IDE2 IDE ConnectorFaudio Front Audio Panel Connector Fpanel Front Panel Jumper Cdin CD In Connector PwrledUSB1 / FUSB2/FUSB3 Front USB Connector Ircir17 F11394/F21394 Ieee 1394 Connectors Clrcmos Clear CmosBattery English Status Page Setup Menu / Option Page Setup Menu Main MenuMain Menu For example Bios Ver. F2g „ Save & Exit Setup „ Set User Password„ Exit Without Saving Time IDE Channel 0 Master/Slave IDE Channel 1 Master/SlaveFloppy 3 Mode Support for Japan Area First / Second / Third Boot Device Hard Disk Boot PriorityBoot Up Floppy Seek Password Check Init Display FirstOn-Chip IDE Channel0 IDE DMA transfer accessIntegrated Peripherals On-Chip IDE Channel1On-Chip MAC Lan LAN On-Chip LAN Boot ROMIDE Prefetch Mode IDE/SATA RAID functionUSB Memory Type Onboard LAN Boot ROMOn-Chip USB USB Keyboard SupportOnboard Parallel Port Parallel Port ModeECP Mode Use DMA CIR Port AddressModem Ring On Power-On by AlarmPME Event Wake Up USB Resume from SuspendPower On By Keyboard Power On By MouseAC Back Function PnP/PCI Configurations CPU Warning Temperature Current CPU TemperatureCurrent CPU/POWER/SYSTEM FAN Speed RPM Current VoltageV Vcore / DDR25V / +3.3V / +12VCPU Spread Spectrum Core Power voltage controlCPU Frequency Pcie ClockHT-Link voltage control DDR voltage controlSave & Exit Setup Exit Without SavingDrivers Installation Install Chipset DriversSoftware Application Software InformationHardware Information Contact UsEnglish EasyTune 5 Introduction Unique Software UtilitiesUser Interface Overview What is Xpress Recovery ? Xpress Recovery IntroductionHow to use the Xpress Recovery F9 For Xpress Recovery Press F9 during powering on the computer. Text ModeRemove Backup Image  Remove backup image. Are you sure? Y/N Exit and RestartWhat is Dual Bios Technology? Flash Bios Method IntroductionHow to use Dual Bios and Q-Flash Utility? Auto Recovery EnableDefault, Disable Wide Range Protection DisableDefault, EnableBoot From Main BIOSDefault, Backup Bios Halt On Error DisableDefault, EnableMethod 1 Q-FlashTMUtility Before You BeginEntering the Q-FlashTMutility Exploring the Q-FlashTM / Dual Bios utility screenTask menu for Dual Bios utility Task menu for Q-Flash utilityUsing the Q-FlashTMutility StepsYou can repeat to Part Two Exploring the Q-FlashTMutility screen Task menu for Q-FlashTMutility FlashTMutility barCongratulation!! You have updated Bios successfully Bios file becomes F4 after updatingMethod 2 @BIOSTM Utility Methods and stepsEnglish Serial ATA Bios Setting Utility Introduction RAID LevelsConfiguring the Nvidia RAID Bios Entering the RAID Bios SetupSelecting the Striping Block Size Using the Define a New Array WindowSelecting the RAID Mode Assigning the DisksCompleting the RAID Bios Setup Array 2 Nvidia Mirror 111.79G Installing the RAID drivers Cd bootdrv MenuStereo Speakers Connection and Settings Introduction of audio connectors5 2- / 4- / 6- / 8- Channel Audio Function Introduction Channel Audio Setup English English Jack-Sensing Introduction Auto-detectingManual setting Troubleshooting English English English English Contact Us Taiwan HeadquartersChina Shanghai