MSI K8T NEO2-FIR User Guide - Page 85

MS-6702E ATX Mainboard Introduction This section gives a brief introduction on the RAID-related background knowledge and a brief introduction on VIA SATA RAID Host Controller and the onboard Promise FastTrak 579 controller. For users wishing to install their SATA RAID driver and RAID software, proceed to Driver and RAID Software Installation section. RAID Basics RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining two or more hard disk drives into one logical unit. The advantage of an Array is to provide better performance or data fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is achieved through data redundant operation, where if one drives fails, a mirrored copy of the data can be found on another drive. This can prevent data loss if the operating system fails or hangs. The individual disk drives in an array are called "members". The configuration information of each member is recorded in the "reserved sector" that identifies the drive as a member. All disk members in a formed disk array are recognized as a single physical drive to the operating system. Hard disk drives can be combined together through a few different methods. The different methods are referred to as different RAID levels. Different RAID levels represent different performance levels, security levels and implementation costs. The RAID levels which the VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Host Controller supports are RAID 0 and RAID 1; and Promise FastTrak 579 SATA RAID Host Controller supports are RAID 0 , RAID 1 and RAID 0+1. The table below briefly introduced these RAID levels. R A ID L e v e l N o . o f D rive s C a p a c ity B e n e fits P ro vid e d b y B e n e fits R A ID 0 (Stripin g ) 2 N u m b e r d rive s H ighest V T 8 2 3 7 / H ig h e s t p e rfo rm a n c e * S m a lle st size p e rfo rm a n ce 20579 w ith o u t d a ta w ith o u t d a ta p ro te c tio n p ro te c tio n R A ID 1 (M irrorin g ) 2 S m a lle s t siz e D a ta p ro te c tio n V T 8 2 3 7 / D a ta p ro te c tio n 20579 R A ID 0+1 4 2*sm allest size H ighest F a s tTra k H ig h e s t p e rfo rm a n c e (Stripin g /M irrorin g ) p e rfo rm a n ce 20579 w ith d a ta p ro te c tio n * O nly for P rom ise w ith d a ta F a s tTra k 5 7 9 S erial p ro te c tio n MSI Reminds You... If you wish to include your current bootable Serial ATA drive using the Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Server 2003 operating system as part of a bootable disk array on your RAID controller. You MUST install the Windows NT4, 2000, XP or Server 2003 driver software first onto this drive while it is still attached to your existing disk drive controller. 5-2