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MediaShield User’s Guide

– Version 4.0

HAPTER

About NVIDIA® MediaShield™

RAID Arrays

This section describes the following types of RAID arrays that MediaShield supports:

•

RAID 0

RAID 0 defines a disk striping scheme that improves the disk read and write times for
many applications.

•

RAID 1

RAID 1 defines techniques for mirroring data.

•

RAID 0+1

RAID 0+1 combines the techniques used in RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays.

•

RAID 5

RAID 5 provides fault tolerance and better utilization of disk capacity.

•

JBOD

JBOD provides a method for combining drives of different sizes into one large disk.

Note:

Not all nForce platforms provide support for all the RAID levels listed.

1. RAID 5 is supported on select boards only. Please check with your motherboard manufacturer to deter-
mine whether RAID 5 is supported for the type and model of your motherboard.

Summary of Contents for ForceWare

Page 1: ...ForceWare Software MediaShield User s Guide Version 4 0 NVIDIA Corporation March 24 2006...

Page 2: ...3dfx Logo STB STB Systems and Design the STB Logo the StarBox Logo NVIDIA nForce GeForce NVIDIA Quadro NVDVD NVIDIA Personal Cinema NVIDIA Soundstorm Vanta TNT2 TNT RIVA RIVA TNT VOODOO VOODOO GRAPHI...

Page 3: ...he NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility 33 About the MediaShield RAID Management Utility 33 Viewing RAID Array Configurations 34 Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk 37 Assigning a Free Disk 38 Assignin...

Page 4: ...d Questions 143 Basic RAID Questions 144 RAID ROM Setup Questions 145 Rebuilding Arrays Questions 145 Dedicated Disk Questions 146 Array Migrating Questions 146 Windows RAID Application 146 7 MediaShi...

Page 5: ...ded into different categories or levels Originally RAID levels focused on improving resiliency or data availability As additional RAID levels were defined one was introduced for improving performance...

Page 6: ...orce 550 NVIDIA nForce 430 NVIDIA nForce 410 NVIDIA nForce4 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Intel Edition NVIDIA nForce4 SLI NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 NVIDIA nF...

Page 7: ...CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA MediaShield Operating System Support NVIDIA MediaShield supports the following operating systems Windows XP Home Edition Windows XP Professional Edition Windows 2000 Professiona...

Page 8: ...or mirroring data RAID 0 1 RAID 0 1 combines the techniques used in RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays RAID 5 1 RAID 5 provides fault tolerance and better utilization of disk capacity JBOD JBOD provides a metho...

Page 9: ...operations Some amount of trial and error may be appropriate to find the optimum stripe size Figure 1 1 RAID 0 Array Diagram RAID 0 is ideal for applications that require high bandwidth but do not re...

Page 10: ...nual backups to more expensive and less reliable media Figure 1 2 RAID 1 Array Diagram RAID 1 provides complete data redundancy but at the cost of doubling the required data storage capacity resulting...

Page 11: ...the fault tolerance of disk mirroring RAID 1 Data is striped across multiple drives and duplicated on another set of drives Summary of Features and Benefits Benefits Optimizes for both fault toleranc...

Page 12: ...tion for any given block of data is placed on a different drive from those used to store the data itself Figure 1 4 RAID 5 Array Diagram Summary of Features and Benefits Benefits An ideal combination...

Page 13: ...n is needed but it offers no speed improvement or fault tolerance Figure 1 5 JBOD Array Diagram Summary of Features and Benefits Benefits JBOD provides the ability to combine odd size drives using all...

Page 14: ...ore importantly this is accomplished without Table 1 1 RAID Configuration Summary Array Uses Advantages Drawbacks Hard Disks Fault Tolerance RAID 0 Non critical data requiring high performance High da...

Page 15: ...Dedicated Drive Support Allows the user to dedicate a spare disk as a hot standby in the event of a array failure Offers additional protection in case of a failure in a mirrored array Bootable RAID S...

Page 16: ...12 MediaShield User s Guide Version 4 0 CHAPTER 1 About NVIDIA MediaShield...

Page 17: ...rom Windows This section only covers basic BIOS setup required for non bootable array See the section Setting Up a Bootable RAID Array for instructions on configuring the RAID array in BIOS See Creati...

Page 18: ...er Password Save Exit Setup Exit Without Saving Esc Quit F10 Save Exit Setup Select Item Onboard IO IRQ DMA Assignment Phoenix Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Phoenix Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Move...

Page 19: ...are enabled so the non bootable RAID array can include up to four SATA disks If there is a disk connected to SATA 3 Primary or SATA 3 Secondary it can not be used for RAID 5 Press F10 to save the conf...

Page 20: ...want to install Make sure that the NVIDIA IDE Driver is selected You must install the NVIDIA IDE driver in order to enable NVIDIA MediaShield If you do not install the NVIDIA IDE driver NVIDIA MediaSh...

Page 21: ...wly created array under Windows as follows 1 Launch Computer Management by clicking Start Settings Control Panel then open the Administrative Tools folder and double click on Computer Management 2 Cli...

Page 22: ...nfiguration 3 Click Next The Select Disks to Initialize window appears Figure 2 6 Select Disks to Initialize Page The disks listed depend on how many arrays you have configured 4 Click Next The Select...

Page 23: ...r RAID Configuration 5 Check the disk in the list if you want to make the array a dynamic disk then click Next The Completing the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard window appears Figure 2 8 Completin...

Page 24: ...a 111 GB unallocated partition which is the total combined storage of two 60 GB HD You must format the unallocated disk space in order to use it 7 Format the unallocated disk space Right click Unallo...

Page 25: ...BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Main Screen 2 Use the arrow keys to select Integrated Peripherals see Figure 2 10 then press Enter Phoenix Award BIOS CMOS Setup Utility Standard CMOS Features Advanced BIOS F...

Page 26: ...rated Peripherals Item Help RAID Config OnChip IDE Channel0 Primary Master PIO Primary Slave PIO Primary Master UDMA Primary Slave UDMA OnChip IDE Channel1 Secondary Master PIO Secondary Slave PIO Sec...

Page 27: ...our SATA disks If there is a disk Connected to SATA 3 Primary or SATA 3 Secondary it cannot be used for RAID 6 Press F10 to save the configuration and exit The PC reboots 7 Enter the RAID BIOS Setup b...

Page 28: ...system POST and boot process prior to loading of the OS You have a few seconds to press F10 before the screen disappears 2 Press F10 The NVIDIA MediaShield Utility Define a New Array screen appears F...

Page 29: ...useful to try attaching a SATA hard drive to the ports provided with your platform and determine which location IDs are associated with SATA ports on your motherboard Using the Define a New Array Scr...

Page 30: ...ressing the right arrow key The first disk in the list is moved and the next disk in the list is selected and ready to be moved 3 Continue pressing the right arrow key until all the disks that you wan...

Page 31: ...eview the RAID arrays that you have set up Figure 2 17 Array List Window MediaShield Utility Define a New Array RAID Mode Striping Block Free Disks Loc Disk Model Name Array Disks Loc Disk Model Name...

Page 32: ...such as Striping Block used RAID Mode Striping Width Disk Model Name and disk capacity 5 If you want to mark this disk as empty and wipe out all its contents press C 6 At the prompt press Y to wipe ou...

Page 33: ...Windows CD The Windows Setup program starts 3 Press F6 and wait a few moments for the Windows Setup screen to appear Figure 2 19 Windows Setup Specify Devices 4 Specify the NVIDIA drivers a Insert the...

Page 34: ...a device support disk provided by an adapter manufacturer Enter Select F3 Exit Select the SCSI Adapter you want from the following list or press ESC to resutrn to the previous screen NVIDIA NForce St...

Page 35: ...t the floppy 6 Follow the instructions on how to install Windows XP After Windows XP is completely installed it is recommended that you install the ForceWare software in order to access the MediaShiel...

Page 36: ...32 MediaShield User s Guide Version 4 0 CHAPTER 2 Setting Up Your RAID Configuration...

Page 37: ...chapter describes the MediaShield tasks in the following sections Viewing RAID Array Configurations View an array configuration mirrored striped mirrored striped JBOD RAID 5 or any supported combinat...

Page 38: ...ty Window The following are examples of the information displayed for the various RAID levels While the details of your own configuration will likely vary from what is shown the examples serve to illu...

Page 39: ...Striped Array Information Mirrored Stripe RAID Array Figure 3 4 shows an example of a four hard drive mirrored stripe array The total disk space used is 68 95 GB The total storage space is 68 95 GB be...

Page 40: ...NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility Mirrored RAID Array and Striped RAID Array Figure 3 6 shows an example of a two hard drive mirrored array as well as a two hard drive striped array Figure 3...

Page 41: ...four hard disks where one disk is used to boot the OS two hard drives are set up in a mirrored array and a fourth hard disk is set up as a free disk then if one of the mirrored array drives fails the...

Page 42: ...setup and make sure that the drive that you want to mark as free is RAID enabled 2 Enter the RAID BIOS and make sure that the drive is not part of any array if one exists 3 Boot into Windows and run...

Page 43: ...and two free disks Step 1 Mark the Disk as a Free Disk 1 Enter the system BIOS setup and make sure that the drive that you want to mark as free is RAID enabled 2 Boot into Windows and run the MediaSh...

Page 44: ...the NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility 2 Select Designate Spare from the menu to launch the Spare Disk Allocation Wizard Figure 3 9 Spare Disk Allocation Wizard 3 Click Next The Free Disk Sele...

Page 45: ...on page select one of the two free disks available This would be the disk that will be designated to the mirror array Note In Figure 3 10 there are two disks available 5 Click Next The Completing the...

Page 46: ...wo WD360GD drives to fail the ST380011A hard drive will take over and be used in the newly formed mirrored array Removing a Dedicated Disk Once a dedicated disk has been assigned to a particular array...

Page 47: ...vered free disks in your system available for configuration If you click on the bubble the MediaShield Create Wizard will be launched Note This balloon will only pop up if you have up to three availab...

Page 48: ...le storage resources Figure 3 14 MediaShield Wizard Welcome Screen The welcome screen lists the disks that are available for configuration 1 Click Next to go to the following screen Figure 3 15 MediaS...

Page 49: ...r data The total capacity of the volume that will be created is displayed You can click on more information to see a detailed description of the volume that will be created 1 Click Next The following...

Page 50: ...escription of the volume that will be created 1 Click Next The following screen appears The checkbox titled Launch Windows Disk Manager when finished will automatically bring up Windows Disk Manager t...

Page 51: ...y from one disk up to the maximum supported number of disks in the system To create a two disk Striped Array do the following 1 Make sure the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled in the system...

Page 52: ...gement Utility 4 Click the RAID Mode list arrow and select Striping and leave the Stripe Size with its default value as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 17 RAID Array Selection Striping 5 C...

Page 53: ...n the stripe set In this example the upper two disks were selected as shown in Figure 3 19 Figure 3 19 Free Disk Selection Page Selecting Disks To create a striped array with more disks select additio...

Page 54: ...ing screen shot will appear Figure 3 22 Stripe RAID Array Created As you can see from the above screen shot a striped array with two SATA disks has been created while the other two disks are allocated...

Page 55: ...is written to both drives and if one drive fails then data can be recovered from the other drive To create a Mirrored Array do the following 1 Make sure the drives that you want to use are RAID enabl...

Page 56: ...iaShield RAID Management Utility In this example the upper two disks were selected as shown in Figure 3 24 Figure 3 24 Free Disk Selection Page Selecting Disks 5 Click Next and click Next again then t...

Page 57: ...ity 6 To clear all system data from the drives click on Next and the following will appear Figure 3 26 Completing the NVIDIA Create Array Wizard 7 Click Finish Figure 3 27 Mirrored RAID Array Created...

Page 58: ...create a Stripe Mirroring array which requires at least four disks to start such an array To create a Stripe Mirror Array do the following 1 Make sure the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled...

Page 59: ...ty 4 Click on RAID Mode and select Stripe Mirroring while leaving the Stripe Size set to its default value as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 29 RAID Array Selection Stripe Mirroring 5 Cli...

Page 60: ...he four drives that you want to use in the Stripe Mirroring array In this example all of the drives are selected as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 31 Free Disk Selection Page Selecting Di...

Page 61: ...ity 8 To clear all system data from the drives click on Next and the following will appear Figure 3 33 Completing the NVIDIA Create Array Wizard 9 Click Finish and the following screen shot will appea...

Page 62: ...o create a Spanning Array which requires at least one disk to start such an array To create a Spanning Array do the following 1 Make sure the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled in the system...

Page 63: ...4 Click the RAID Mode list arrow and select Spanning while leaving the Stripe Size set to its default value as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 36 RAID Array Selection Page Spanning 5 Click...

Page 64: ...Select the two drives that you want to use in the Spanned array In this example the upper two disks were selected as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 38 Free Disk Selection Page Selecting...

Page 65: ...Utility 8 To clear all system data from the drives click on Next and the following will appear Figure 3 40 Completing the NVIDIA Create Array Wizard 9 Click Finish and the following screen shot will a...

Page 66: ...rray using at least 3 disks and up to the maximum supported number of disks in the system To create a 3 disk RAID 5 Array do the following 1 Make sure the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled...

Page 67: ...Utility 4 Click the RAID Mode list arrow and select RAID 5 and leave the Stripe Size with its default value as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 43 RAID Array Selection RAID 5 5 Click Next a...

Page 68: ...t to include in the RAID 5 array In this example the upper three disks were selected as shown in Figure 3 19 Figure 3 45 Free Disk Selection Page Selecting Disks To create a RAID 5 array with more dis...

Page 69: ...from the above screen shot a RAID 5 array with 3 SATA disks has been created while the other one disk is allocated as a Free Disk Similarly to create an array with four or more disks simply make sure...

Page 70: ...Array To delete an Array do the following 1 Launch the MediaShield application and right click on the RAID array that you want to delete assuming that you have a RAID array already created as shown in...

Page 71: ...d RAID Management Utility After the Delete Array has been selected the following screen shot appear Figure 3 50 Delete Array Wizard Welcome Page 2 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear...

Page 72: ...IA MediaShield RAID Management Utility 3 Click Finish and the array will be deleted and the following screen shot will appear showing all the free disks Figure 3 52 RAID Array Deleted A similar proces...

Page 73: ...ing This section describes the NVIDIA Migrating process and explains how to use Migrating to convert from one RAID array type to another General Migrating Principles MediaShield RAID includes extensiv...

Page 74: ...o disks converted from a one disk RAID 0 array RAID 0 1 m 2 x n Number of RAID 0 1 disks must be equal to or greater than twice the number of RAID 0 disks RAID 5 m n 1 RAID 1 RAID 0 No additional rest...

Page 75: ...with Two Disks on page 77 Migrating from RAID 0 to RAID 0 1 on page 81 Migrating from RAID 1 to RAID 0 on page 86 Migrating from RAID 1 to RAID 0 1 on page 90 Migrating from RAID 0 1 to RAID 0 on page...

Page 76: ...nd make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Striped Array on page 47 to create...

Page 77: ...the newly created striped array or existing striped array and a select Convert Array as shown from the following screen shot Figure 3 54 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After selecting...

Page 78: ...PTER 3 Using the NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility 5 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 56 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 Click Next and the following screen shot will...

Page 79: ...ple we are adding one disk which is the upper disk to the existing two disk striped array So select the first disk and click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 58 Completing the N...

Page 80: ...e time before the entire process is completed The time it takes to convert an array is dependent on several factors such as the speed of the CPU the size and type of hard drive being used the operatin...

Page 81: ...t the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Striped Array on page 47 with the exception that yo...

Page 82: ...the NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 62 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next and the following scree...

Page 83: ...ld RAID Management Utility 5 For the New RAID Mode entry select Mirror as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 64 RAID Mode Selection Page Selecting Mirroring 6 Click Next and the following scr...

Page 84: ...ting Process As soon as the new two disk mirror array has been created a pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will take some time before the en...

Page 85: ...drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Striped Array on page 47 to create a two disk striped ar...

Page 86: ...t click on the newly created striped array or existing striped array and a select Convert Array as shown from the following screen shot Figure 3 68 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu After s...

Page 87: ...ID Management Utility 4 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 70 RAID Mode Selection Page 5 Change the New RAID Mode to Stripe Mirroring as shown in the following screen shot F...

Page 88: ...ar Figure 3 72 Free Disk Selection Page 7 Select the two disks that you want to add to the new stripe mirror array In this example we are adding two disks which are both of the upper disks to the exis...

Page 89: ...ID Array The Migrating Process As soon as the new four disk stripe mirror array has been created a pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will ta...

Page 90: ...that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows and launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Mirrored Array on page 51 to create a two di...

Page 91: ...t Utility 3 Right click on Mirroring and select Convert Array as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 76 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After selecting Convert Array the followi...

Page 92: ...diaShield RAID Management Utility 5 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 78 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 Click on Stripe Mirroring and select Striping then click Next and the fo...

Page 93: ...ct any additional disks since we are simply converting the existing two disk mirrored array into a two disk striped array 8 Click on Striping and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 80 New...

Page 94: ...e that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Mirrored Array on page 51 to create a two disk...

Page 95: ...t Utility 3 Right click on Mirroring and select Convert Array as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 82 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After selecting Convert Array the followi...

Page 96: ...ld RAID Management Utility 5 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 84 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 From the New RAID Mode entry select Stripe Mirroring as shown in the following...

Page 97: ...Management Utility 7 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 86 Free Disk Selection Page 8 Select both of the disks and click Next then click Finish 9 Click on Strip Mirror and...

Page 98: ...ripe mirror array has been created a pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will take some time before the entire process is completed The time i...

Page 99: ...t you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Stripe Mirroring Array on page 54 to create a four disk mirrored st...

Page 100: ...agement Utility 3 Right click on Stripe Mirroring and select Convert Array as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 89 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After selecting Convert Arra...

Page 101: ...d RAID Management Utility 5 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 91 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 From the New RAID Mode entry select Striping as shown in the following screen sh...

Page 102: ...AID Array The Migrating Process As soon as the new four disk striped array has been created a pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will take so...

Page 103: ...le the system has six free RAID enabled disks 1 Goto the system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follo...

Page 104: ...agement Utility 3 Right click on Stripe Mirroring and select Convert Array as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 95 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After selecting Convert Arra...

Page 105: ...gement Utility 5 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 97 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 From the New RAID Mode make sure that Stripe Mirroring is selected then click Next and the...

Page 106: ...RAID 0 1 array be sure to have a total of at least six available disks in the system otherwise you will not be able to complete the operation The Migrating Process As soon as the new six disk stripe...

Page 107: ...the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Striped Array on page 47 to create a two disk stripe...

Page 108: ...click on the newly created striped array or existing striped array and a select Convert Array as shown from the following screen shot Figure 3 101 Selecting Convert Array from the Pop Up Menu 4 After...

Page 109: ...t and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 103 RAID Mode Selection Page 6 Click on Striping and select RAID 5 then click on Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 104 Free D...

Page 110: ...d click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 105 Completing the NVIDIA Convert Array Wizard Screen 8 Click Finish then click on the newly created three disk striped array and the fo...

Page 111: ...has been created and the migrating process has begun A pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will take some time before the entire process is c...

Page 112: ...e system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Mirrored Array on pa...

Page 113: ...A MediaShield RAID Management Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 109 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next and the following screen shot wi...

Page 114: ...MediaShield RAID Management Utility 5 For the New RAID Mode entry select RAID 5 as shown in the following screen shot Figure 3 111 RAID Mode Selection Page Selecting RAID 5 6 Click Next and the follo...

Page 115: ...sed for to store parity information The Migrating Process As you can see from the screen shot above a three disk RAID 5 array has been created and the migrating process has begun A pop up window simil...

Page 116: ...tem BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a Stripe Mirroring Array on...

Page 117: ...AID Management Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 116 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figur...

Page 118: ...5 since 1 4 of the disk space is used for to store parity information The Migrating Process As you can see from the screen shot above a four disk RAID 5 array has been created and the migrating proces...

Page 119: ...system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a RAID 5 Array on page 6...

Page 120: ...ld RAID Management Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 121 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next then select Striping and click on Next then...

Page 121: ...n see from the screen shot above a three disk RAID 0 array has been created and the migrating process has begun A pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up wi...

Page 122: ...to the system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a RAID 5 Array o...

Page 123: ...ement Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 126 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next then select Stripe Mirroring and click on Next then the...

Page 124: ...the screen shot above a four disk RAID 0 1 array has been created and the migrating process has begun A pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It wi...

Page 125: ...ystem BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled 2 Boot to Windows launch the MediaShield application then follow the steps outlined in Creating a RAID 5 Array on page 62...

Page 126: ...eld RAID Management Utility After selecting Convert Array the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 131 Convert Array Wizard Welcome Screen 4 Click Next then select RAID 5 and click on Next then...

Page 127: ...en shot above a four disk RAID 5 array has been created and the migrating process has begun A pop up window similar to the following will appear followed by the following pop up window It will take so...

Page 128: ...can simply add or remove the array modify the BIOS RAID settings accordingly and then power the system back up Hot Plug Array with System Running If required you can also add or remove a MediaShield...

Page 129: ...Shield and click on Hot Plug Array and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 134 NVIDIA Hot Plug Array Wizard Welcome Screen 2 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 13...

Page 130: ...er s Guide Version 4 0 CHAPTER 3 Using the NVIDIA MediaShield RAID Management Utility 4 Click Next and the following screen shot will appear Figure 3 136 Completing the NVIDIA Hot Plug Array Wizard Pa...

Page 131: ...array by writing all zeros to the sectors of each hard disk Rebuilding a RAID Array Rebuild a broken mirrored array Watch the progress of rebuilding of an array Only applies to RAID 1 RAID 0 1 and RAI...

Page 132: ...fault tolerant array can only be done when the array is being created To initialize an array perform the following steps Note In this example a mirror array is initialized 1 From the MediaShield windo...

Page 133: ...ollowing screen shot will appear Figure 4 2 Clearing System Data Screen 7 Check Intialize Array and then click Next The Initialization Warning dialog appears Figure 4 3 Initialization Warning 8 Click...

Page 134: ...chronizing RAID Arrays Figure 4 4 Clearing System Data and Initialize Array 9 Click Next then click Finish at the Completing the NVIDIA Create Array Wizard screen The MediaShield window shows the crea...

Page 135: ...nitialization Process As you can see from the screen shot above the initialization process has started and it will be completed in a short period of time As soon as the Initialization process starts a...

Page 136: ...5 For example assuming you have a three disk RAID 5 array and one of the drives fail then you need to replace the failed drive with a new one and rebuild the array to re generate the lost data on the...

Page 137: ...ng Rebuilding and Synchronizing RAID Arrays 2 Right click on Mirroring The popup menu appears Figure 4 7 Array Pop up Menu 3 From the popup menu click Rebuild Array The NVIDIA Rebuild Array Wizard app...

Page 138: ...g RAID Arrays 4 Click Next The Disk Selection page appears Figure 4 9 Disk Selection Page 5 Select the drive that you want to rebuild by clicking it from the list then click Next The Completing the NV...

Page 139: ...ight corner of the screen as shown in Figure 4 11 Figure 4 11 Rebuild Bubble Message When the rebuilding process is finished you will see the pop up box shown inFigure 4 12 Figure 4 12 Rebuild Finishe...

Page 140: ...D 1 RAID 0 1 or RAID 5 Rebuilding does not apply to RAID 0 and JBOD arrays Rebuilding applies to a degraded fault tolerant array You can rebuild a degraded mirrored array using any available Free Disk...

Page 141: ...such as RAID 1 0 1 and RAID 5 For RAID1 and RAID 0 1 sync results in copying the data to the redundancy disk For RAID 5 sync results in rebuilding the parity To sync an array do the following This exa...

Page 142: ...come Screen 2 Click on Next and then click Finish at the Wizard Completion screen The MediaShield window indicates that the array is synchronizing as shown in Figure 4 17 Figure 4 17 Mirrored Array Sy...

Page 143: ...image of the system motherboard The image shows the hard drive connector ports and provides a visual indication of the location and status of the drives as follows Red rectangle A red rectangle will...

Page 144: ...rate how the Disk Alert feature is implemented on an NVIDIA reference board The actual picture in your system will depend on the motherboard Example of All Good Drives Figure 5 1 shows four green conn...

Page 145: ...icating that an array has been degraded as well as a single black SATA port indicating that there is no longer a SATA hard drive connected to that port Figure 5 2 Disk Alert Example Degraded and Missi...

Page 146: ...0 CHAPTER 5 Using Disk Alert Example of a Failed Drive Figure 5 3 shows a red SATA port indicating that a drive failure or a RAID error has occured Figure 5 3 Disk Alert Example Failed SATA Drive Fai...

Page 147: ...FAQ in this chapter are organized by the following categories Basic RAID Questions on page 144 RAID ROM Setup Questions on page 145 Rebuilding Arrays Questions on page 145 Dedicated Disk Questions on...

Page 148: ...d disk that contains the OS and is not part of the RAID array See Setting Up a Non Bootable RAID Array on page 13 for more information In a bootable RAID array the OS is installed on the RAID array di...

Page 149: ...on page 13 for more information What is the Optimal Striping Block Size in the RAID ROM Setup The default optimal striping block size is 64KB NVIDIA recommends using the optimal block size What does B...

Page 150: ...a multi disk bootable RAID array Therefore if you want to retain the capability to migrate a single SATA boot drive into a multi disk RAID array at a future time you must perform the OS install onto a...

Page 151: ...o RAID 1 RAID 0 1 and RAID 5 Remove a dedicated disk from a RAID 1 RAID 0 1 or RAID 5 array View Free Disks Rebuild a RAID 1 RAID 0 1 or RAID 5 array View the status of the rebuilding process Create a...

Page 152: ...148 MediaShield User s Guide Version 4 0 CHAPTER 6 MediaShield RAID Frequently Asked Questions...

Page 153: ...es how to create a bootable RAID volume with Windows 2000 via the migrating method Installing the NVIDIA IDE Driver in Windows 2000 on page 150 describes how to install Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 whi...

Page 154: ...s not to install Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or 4 RAID is still supported on Windows 2000 However the end user will not be able to create a bootable RAID volume Installing the NVIDIA IDE Driver in Win...

Page 155: ...n Extended INT13 to access the disk To set GHOST to use Extended Interrupt 13h INT13 access a Start GHOST from the DOS prompt Not the Windows Command Prompt session b Select the Options ALT O menu c S...

Page 156: ...stream XP BootImage You can use any directory names and structure you wish to create the slipstream The names and structure used in this app note are for example only 2 Copy XP Gold CD contents into X...

Page 157: ...0 1 4 nvraid sys 100 4 0 0 1 4 This tells installer to copy all driver files to systemroot nvidia nvraid and then the two sys files to systemroot system32 drivers c Now add the device IDs for your SA...

Page 158: ...location info into the DevicePath registry key This tells the GUI mode setup where to find the driver files Since this example places them in systemroot nvidia nvraid that is what we use here HKLM SOF...

Page 159: ...NVIDIA Corporation 155 CHAPTER 7 MediaShield Application Notes XP Professional OEM enter WXPOEM_EN XP Home OEM enter WXHOEM_EN Select everything from c slipstreap XP for burning onto CD...

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