3.4VIA RAID configurations

The motherboard includes a high performance IDE RAID controller integrated in the VIA VT8237 southbridge chipset. It supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 with two independent Serial ATA channels.

RAID 0 (called data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage.

RAID 1 (called data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software directs all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive. This RAID configuration provides data protection and increases fault tolerance to the entire system.

If you use either Windows® XP or Windows® 2000 operating system (OS), copy first the RAID driver from the support CD to a floppy disk before creating RAID configurations. Refer to section “3.5 Creating a RAID driver disk” for details.

3.4.1 Installing hard disks

The motherboard supports UltraDMA 133/100/66 and Serial ATA hard disk drives. For optimal performance, install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a disk array.

•If you are creating a RAID 0 (striping) array for performance, use two new

drives.

•If you are creating a RAID 1 (mirroring) array for protection, you can use

two new drives or use an existing drive and a new drive (the new drive must be of the same size or larger than the existing drive).

Installing Parallel ATA hard disksTo install the hard disks for RAID configuration:1.Set the jumpers of each hard disk as Master/Slave.2.Install the hard disks into the drive bays.3.Connect the HDD signal cable.4.Connect the power cable to the power connector on each drive.Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard disksTo install the SATA hard disks for RAID configuration:1.Install the Serial ATA hard disks into the drive bays.2.Connect the Serial ATA signal cables.3.Connect the SATA power cable to the power connector on each drive.

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Chapter 3: Software support