5.3.1Installing hard disks

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

Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks

To install the SATA hard disks for a RAID configuration:

1.Install the SATA hard disks into the drive bays.

2.Connect the SATA signal cables.

3.Connect a SATA power cable to the power connector on each drive.

Refer to the RAID controllers user manual in the motherboard support CD for detailed information on RAID configurations. See section “5.2.4 Manuals menu.”

5.3.2NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID configurations

The motherboard includes a high performance SATA RAID controller integrated in the NVIDIA® nForce™ 430 MCP southbridge chipset. It supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 and JBOD for four independent Serial ATA channels.

Setting the BIOS RAID items

After installing the hard disk drives, make sure to set the necessary RAID items in the BIOS before setting your RAID configuration.

To set the BIOS RAID items:

1.Boot the system and press <Del> during the Power-On Self-Test (POST) to enter the BIOS Setup Utility.

2.From the Main > IDE Configuration menu item in the BIOS set the nVidia

RAID Function item to Enabled.

3.Select and enable the SATA drive(s) that you want to configure as RAID. See section “4.3.4 IDE Configuration” for details.

4.Save your changes and Exit Setup.

Make sure to re-enter your NVRAID settings after the CMOS is cleared; otherwise, the system will not recognize your RAID setup.

•For detailed descriptions on the NVIDIA® RAID configuration, refer to the “NVIDIA® SATA RAID User’s Manual” found in your motherboard support CD.

• When using Windows 2000 operating system, make sure to install the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or later versions.

ASUS M2N / M2N DH

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