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Chapter 6 RAID
Chapter 6
Chapter 6 - RAID
The system board allows configuring RAID on Serial ATA drives. It supports RAID 0, RAID 1,
RAID 5 and RAID 10.
RAID Levels
RAID 0 (Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance)
RAID 0 uses two new identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved
stacks. Data is divided into stripes and each stripe is written alternately between two disk
drives. This improves the I/O performance of the drives at different channel; however it is not
fault tolerant. A failed disk will result in data loss in the disk array.
RAID 1 (Mirroring Disk Array with Fault Tolerance)
RAID 1 copies and maintains an identical image of the data from one drive to the other drive.
If a drive fails to function, the disk array management software directs all applications to the
other drive since it contains a complete copy of the drive’s data. This enhances data protection
and increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or an existing drive and
a new drive but the size of the new drive must be the same or larger than the existing drive.
RAID 5
RAID 5 stripes data and parity information across hard drives. It is fault tolerant and provides
better hard drive performance and more storage capacity.
Settings
To enable the RAID function, the following settings are required.
1. Connect the Serial ATA drives.
2. Configure Serial ATA in the AMI BIOS.
3. Configure RAID in the RAID BIOS.
4. Install the RAID driver during OS installation.
5. Install the Intel Rapid Storage Drivers.
Step 1: Connect the Serial ATA Drives
Refer to chapter 2 for details on connecting the Serial ATA drives.
Important:
1. Make sure you have installed the Serial ATA drives and connected the data cables
otherwise you won’t be able to enter the RAID BIOS utility.
2. Treat the cables with extreme caution especially while creating RAID. A damaged
cable will ruin the entire installation process and operating system. The system will
not boot and you will lost all data in the hard drives. Please give special attention
to this warning because there is no way of recovering back the data.
Step 2: Configure Serial ATA in the AMI BIOS
1. Power-on the system then press <Del> to enter the main menu of the AMI BIOS.
2. Configure Serial ATA in the appropriate fields.
3. Save the changes in the Save & Exit menu.
4. Reboot the system.
Step 3: Configure RAID in the RAID BIOS
When the system powers-up and all drives have been detected, the Intel RAID BIOS status
message screen will appear. Press the <Ctrl> and <I> keys simultaneously to enter the utility.
The utility allows you to build a RAID system on Serial ATA drives.
