User manual ABIT BE6R2-20

[. . . ] This motherboard uses the HighPoint 370 controller which allows for RAID. 1-1. What is RAID? RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks) technology was developed to offer a combination of outstanding data availability, excellent performance, and high capacity that one single disk drive can not meet up with. A RAID array is defined as two or more disks grouped together to appear as one single device to the host system, which can tolerate the failure of a drive without losing data, and which can operate independently from each other. To manage MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and prevent any single drive failure causing data loss within an array, UC Berkeley scientists proposed five types of redundant array architectures, defining them as RAID levels 1 through 5. [. . . ] And so the RAID 4 offers no significant advantages over RAID5. Disk 0 Disk1 Disk 2 Disk3 RAID Level 5 DATA ABCD Independent Data disks with distributed parity blocks RAID 5 also stripes data at a block level across several drives. But it distributes parity among the drives, this avoids the write bottleneck caused by the single dedicated parity drive. Each drive takes turns storing parity information for a different series of stripes. RAID 5 can execute read/write to disk drives either in parallel or independently. A Block A0 A1 A2 3 Parity B Block B0 B1 2 Parity B3 C Block C0 1 Parity C2 C3 D Block 0 Parity D1 D2 D3 Disk 0 Disk1 Disk 2 Disk3 1-4. Which RAID level should I use? Many different disk array configurations are possible, depending on end-user requirements and the goals of the manufacturer. Each controller design has a different functionality to accomplish specific performance and data availability goals. Therefore, no individual RAID level is inherently superior to any other. Each of the five array architectures is well suited for certain types of applications and computing environments. The follow table summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each RAID level. Level of Drives RAID 0 2 RAID 1 2 Description " Characteristics / Strengths " " " " " Weaknesses " " Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance Mirroring and Duplexing " Highest I/O Performance Very simple design Easy to implement 100% redundancy of data Twice the Read transaction rate of a single disk, same Write transaction rate as single a disk Simplest RAID storage subsystem design " No redundancy One drive fails, all data is lost High redundancy cost overhead 4 ABIT Computer Corporation RAID 2 Not used in LAN " Disk Striping with errorcorrection code (ECC) Parallel transfer with parity " RAID 3 3 " " " " " Previously used for RAM error environments correction (known as Hamming Code) and in disk drives before the use of embedded error correction Very high Read data transfer rate Very high Write data transfer rate Excellent performance for large, sequential data requests Low ratio of ECC (Parity) disks to data disks means high efficiency " No practical use " " RAID 4 3 " Independent Data disks with shared parity disk Independent Data disks with distributed parity blocks " " " Very high Read data transaction rate High aggregate Read transfer rate Low ratio of ECC (Parity) disks to data disks means high efficiency Highest Read data transaction rate Medium Write data transaction rate Best cost/performance for transactionoriented networks Supports multiple, simultaneous Read and Write Low ratio of ECC (Parity) disks to data disks means high efficiency " Doesn't support multiple, simultaneous Read and Write requests Transaction rate equal to that of a single disk drive at best (if spindles are synchronized) Worst Write transaction rate and Write aggregate transfer rate Write performance is slower than RAID 0 or RAID1 " RAID 5 3 " " " " " " " 2. The features of RAID on this motherboard This motherboard supports Striping (RAID 0), Mirroring (RAID 1), or Striping/Mirroring (RAID 0+1) operation. For the striping operation, the identical drives can read and write data in parallel to increase performance. The Mirroring operation creates a complete backup of your files. Striping with Mirroring operation offers both high read/write performance and fault tolerance although requiring 4 hard disks in order to do so. 2-1. Setting up RAID on this motherboard Enter Advanced BIOS Features in the BIOS setup. Change the settings of First Boot Device, Second Boot Device and Third Boot Device to read ATA ­ 100. See the figure below: HPT370 RAID Controller Guide 5 2-2. The BIOS setting menu Reboot your system. Press <CTRL> and <H> key while booting up the system to enter the BIOS setting menu. The main menu of BIOS Setting Utility appears as shown below: To select the option in the menu, you may: # Press F1 to view array status. 6 ABIT Computer Corporation # Press (up, down arrow) to choose the option you want to confirm or to modify. Create RAID This item allows you to create a RAID array. After you had selected the function you want in the main menus, you may press the <Enter> key to enter the sub menu as shown below: Array Mode: This item allows you to select the appropriate RAID mode for the desired array. [. . . ] Step 3: Click "Have Disk. . . " to go on. Step 7: Click "Yes" to restart your computer. Step 4: Insert this HPT 370 IDE RAID controller driver disk into drive A, and then click "OK. " 3-4. Windows 2000 If you want to install the Windows 2000 operating system on the hard drive utilizing the HPT 370 controller, please refer to the NT4. 0 installation procedure. The following procedure is used only when you don't want to install the Windows 2000 operating system onto the hard drive utilizing the HPT 370 controller. 14 ABIT Computer Corporation Step 1: Reboot the system. Windows will detect the new hardware automatically. [. . . ]