5-1
5.1 VIA RAID Configurations
The motherboard includes a high performance Serial ATA RAID controller
integrated in the VIA VT8237 Southbridge chipset. It supports RAID 0,
RAID 1 and JBOD with two independent Serial ATA channels.
RAID: (Redundant Array of Independent Disk Drives) use jointly several
hard drives to increase data transfer rates and data security. It depends on the
number of drives present and RAID function you select to fulfill the seurity
or performance purposes or both.
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.
JBOD: (Just a Bunch of Drives) Also known as “Spanning”. Two or more
hard drives are requried. Several hard disk types configured as a single hard
disk. The hard drives are simply hooked up in series. This expands the
capacity of your drive and results in a useable total capacity. However,
♦ If you are creating a RAID 0 (striping) array of performance, use two
new drives.
♦
5.1-1 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 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 maxi-
mum storage capacity for the RAID 1 set is 60GB. The SATA hard disks
only support data backup, not support boot device.
JBOD will not increase any performance or data security.
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
ii
Follow these steps to install the SATA hard disks for RAID configuration.
i
Before setting up your new RAID array, verify the status of your hard
disks. Make sure the Master/Slave jumpers are configured properly.
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