3.3RAID 0 / RAID 1 configurations

The motherboard includes a high performance IDE RAID controller integrated in the VIA® VT8237 southbridge chipset. It supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD 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.

When using Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems, make sure to copy the RAID driver from the motherboard support CD to a floppy disk before creating RAID configurations.

3.3.1 Install the Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks

The VIA® VT8237 southbridge chipset supports Serial ATA hard disk drives. For optimal performance, install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a RAID set.

•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). If you use two drives of different sizes, the smaller capacity hard disk will be the base storage size. For example, one hard disk has an 80GB storage capacity and the other hard disk has 60GB storage capacity, the maximum storage capacity for the RAID 1 set is 60GB.

Follow these steps to install the SATA hard disks for RAID configuration.

•Before setting up your new RAID array, verify the status of your hard disks. Make sure the Master/Slave jumpers are configured properly.

•Both the data and power SATA cables are new cables. You cannot use older 40-pin 80-conductor IDE or regular IDE power cables with Serial ATA drives. Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks require the use of new Serial ATA cable (4-conductor) which supports the Serial ATA protocol and a Serial ATA power cable.

•Either end of the Serial ATA data cable can be connected to the SATA hard disk or the SATA connector on the motherboard.

ASUS P4V8X-X motherboard

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