5.4RAID 0/RAID 1 configurations

The motherboard includes the Promise® PDC20376 controller chipset, two Serial ATA interfaces, and a Parallel ATA133 interface to support Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) configuration. This feature supports Ultra ATA/133 drives, and is backward compatible with Ultra ATA/ 100/66/33 drives. Use the MBFastTrak376™ BIOS and the FastBuild™ utility to configure a disk array.

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.

5.4.1 Install the hard disks

The PDC20376 chipset supports Ultra ATA/133/100/66 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 perfomance, 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).

The chipset supports RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring) for master drives only.

The Promise PDC20376 chipset only supports one Master HDD on the PRI_RAID1 connector. HDDs set to Slave mode and ATAPI devices such as CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, etc. are not supported.

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Chapter 5: Software support