MSI K8T800 User Guide - Page 95

Introduction - sata drivers

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MS-6702 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. For users wishing to install their VIA 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. The table below briefly introduced these RAID levels. RAID Level No. of Drives Capacity Benefits RAID 0 2 Number drives * 2 Highest performance without data (Striping) protection RAID 1 2 Smallest size Data protection (Mirroring) B-2

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MS-6702 ATX Mainboard
B-2
Introduction
This section gives a brief introduction on the RAID-related background
knowledge and a brief introduction on VIA SATA RAID Host Controller.
For
users wishing to install their VIA 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. The table below
briefly introduced these RAID levels.
RAID Level
No. of Drives
Capacity
Benefits
RAID 0
(Striping)
2
Number drives * 2
Highest performance without data
protection
RAID 1
(Mirroring)
2
Smallest size
Data protection