Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-HD3 User Manual - Page 30

Chapter 3 Appendix 3-1 Configuring SATA Hard Drive(s) Before you begin •• At least two SATA hard drives (to ensure optimal performance, it is recommended that you use two hard drives with identical model and capacity). If you do not want to create RAID, you may prepare only one hard drive. •• Windows 8/7/XP( 32-bit) setup disk. •• Motherboard driver disk. •• A USB flash drive. •• A USB floppy disk drive (needed during Windows XP installation). •• An empty formatted floppy disk (needed during Windows XP installation). Configuring SATA Controllers A. Installing SATA hard drive(s) in your computer Attach one end of the SATA signal cable to the rear of the SATA hard drive and the other end to available SATA port on the motherboard. Then connect the power connector from your power supply to the hard drive. B. Configuring SATA controller mode in BIOS Setup Make sure to configure the SATA controller mode correctly in system BIOS Setup. For the BIOS Setup menus, refer to Chapter 2, "BIOS Setup," "Integrated Peripherals." Steps: 1. Turn on your computer and press to enter BIOS Setup during the POST (Power-On Self-Test). Ensure OnChip SATA Channel is enabled under Peripherals. Set OnChip SATA Type to RAID. 2. If you want to configure UEFI RAID, follow the steps in "C-1." To enter the legacy RAID ROM, save the settings and exit BIOS Setup. Refer to "C-2" for more information. The BIOS Setup menus described in this section may differ from the exact settings for your motherboard. The actual BIOS Setup menu options you will see shall depend on the motherboard you have and the BIOS version. C-1. UEFI RAID Configuration This mode supports Windows 8 64-bit installation only. To configure UEFI RAID, you need to prepare a USB flash drive using FAT 32 file format and copy all files (including the UEFI RAID utility rcadm.efi) in the \BootDrv\UEFI RAID Utility folder in your motherboard driver disk to the flash drive. Then follow the steps below. Step: In BIOS Setup, go to BIOS Features and set OS Type to Windows 8 and CSM Support to Never. Save the changes and exit BIOS Setup. Running the UEFI RAID Utility Restart your computer and press to enter the boot device configuration menu. Use the up or down arrow key to select your USB flash drive which is prefixed with "UEFI:" string. Then press to access the screen. To run the UEFI RAID utility, enter the following commands. You can enter the commands at Shell or fsx: level (x represents the disk number for your USB flash drive). Checking Disk Information To see the hard drive information, enter the following commands and press . You will see CONTROLLER LIST and DISK LIST displayed on the screen. rcadm -M -qa Creating a RAID Array To create a RAID array, refer to the following examples to enter the commands and press . When succeeded, the message which says "created sucessfully" will appear. - 30 -