IEI Technology IOWA-MARK, User Manual, Page: 216 / 232

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IOWA-MARK Half-size CPU Card
F.1 Introduction
The ALi M5283 SATA RAID chipset can control parallel ATA (PATA) and serial ATA
(SATA) disks. The ALi controller supports PATA UDMA transfer mode up to mode 6 and
SATA 1 disk drives. The ALi M5283 also has a cost-effective RAID functionality that can
increase the data read/write speed and provide protection to data by distributing mirrored
duplicates of data onto two disk drives (RAID 1).
CAUTION:
A configured RAID volume (which may consist of multiple hard drives)
appears to an operating system as a contingent storage space. The
operating system will not be able to distinguish the physical disk drives
contained in a RAID configuration.
F.1.1 Precautions
One key benefit a RAID configuration brings is that a single hard drive can fail within a
RAID array without damaging data. With RAID1 array, a failed drive can be replaced and
the RAID configuration restored.
WARNING:
Irrecoverable data loss occurs if a working drive is removed when
trying to remove a failed drive. It is strongly recommended to mark the
physical connections of all SATA disk drives. Drive locations can be
identified by attaching stickers to the drive bays. If a drive member of a
RAID array should fail, the failed drive can then be correctly identified.