SUPER MICRO Computer H8DCT-HLN4F user manual Enabling Sata RAID, Serial ATA Sata

H8DCT-HLN4F/HIBQF SERVERBOARD USER'S MANUAL

2-11 Enabling SATA RAID

Now that the hardware is set up, you must install the operating system and the SATA RAID drivers, if you wish to use RAID with your SATA drives. The installation procedure differs depending on whether you wish to have the operating system installed on a RAID array or on a separate non-RAID drive. See the instructions below for details.

Serial ATA (SATA)

Serial ATA (SATA) is a physical storage interface that employs a single cable with a minimum of four wires to create a point-to-point connection between devices. This connection is a serial link that supports a SATA transfer rate from 150 MBps. The serial cables used in SATA are thinner than the traditional cables used in Parallel ATA (PATA) and can extend up to one meter in length, compared to only 40 cm for PATA cables. Overall, SATA provides better functionality than PATA.

Installing the OS/SATA Driver

Before installing the OS (operating system) and SATA RAID driver, you must decide if you wish to have the operating system installed as part of a bootable RAID array or installed to a separate non-RAID hard drive. If on a separate drive, you may install the driver either during or after the OS installation. If you wish to have the OS on a SATA RAID array, you must follow the procedure below and install the driver during the OS installation.

Building a Driver Diskette

You must first build a driver diskette from Supermicro drivers for your system. Drivers can be found at ftp://ftp.supermicro.com. (You will have to create this disk on a computer that is already running and with the OS installed.)

Building a Driver Diskette

1.Install your system drives from the FTP website. A display as shown in Figure 2-7 will appear.

2.Click on the icon labeled “Build Driver Diskettes and Manuals” and follow the instructions to create a floppy disk with the drivers on it.

3.Once it’s been created, remove the floppy and insert the installation CD for the Windows Operating System you wish to install into the CD-ROM drive of the new system you are about to configure.

Note: You need to have an external USB floppy when building the driver diskette. Window’s Vista, Windows 2008 or later Windows OS systems can use a USB stick instead of a floppy.

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