Guide to SATA Hard Disks Installation and RAID Configuration 1. Guide to SATA Hard Disks Installation ............................ 2 1.1 2. Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Disks Installation ............... 2 Guide to RAID Configurations ......................................... 3 2.1 Introduction of RAID ............................................... 3 2.2 RAID Configuration Precautions ............................ 5 2.
1. Guide to SATA Hard Disks Installation 1.1 Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Disks Installation Intel ICH6R southbridge chipset supports Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks with RAID functions, including RAID 0, RAID 1, and Intel Matrix Storage. Intel ICH7R southbridge chipset supports Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks with RAID functions, including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, and Intel Matrix Storage.
2. Guide to RAID Configurations 2.1 Introduction of RAID This motherboard adopts Intel southbridge chipset that integrates RAID controller supporting RAID 0 / RAID 1/ Intel Matrix Storage / RAID 10 / RAID 5 function with four independent Serial ATA (SATA) channels. This section will introduce the basic knowledge of RAID, and the guide to configure RAID 0 / RAID 1/ Intel Matrix Storage / RAID 10 / RAID 5 settings.
Intel Matrix Storage The Intel Matrix Storage technology supported allows you to create a RAID 0 and RAID 1 set using only two identical hard disk drives. The Intel Matrix Storage technology creates two partitions on each hard disk drive to create a virtual RAID 0 and RAID 1 sets. This technology also allows you to change the hard disk drive partition size without losing any data. RAID 10 RAID 10 is a striped configuration with RAID 1 segments whose segments are RAID 1 arrays.
2.2 RAID Configurations Precautions 1. 2. 3. Please use two new drives if you are creating a RAID 0 (striping) array for performance. It is recommended to use two SATA drives of the same size. If you use two drives of different sizes, the smaller capacity hard disk will be the base storage size for each drive.
2.3 Installing Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit With RAID Functions If you want to install Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below procedures according to the OS you install. 2.3.1 Installing Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions If you want to install Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below steps. STEP 1: Set up BIOS. A.
STEP 4: Install Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit OS on your system. After making a SATA / SATAII driver diskette and using “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration, you can start to install Windows® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit on your system. At the beginning of Windows setup, press F6 to install a third-party RAID driver. When prompted, insert the SATA / SATAII driver diskette containing the Intel® RAID driver. After reading the floppy disk, the driver will be presented.
Select the driver to install according to the mode you choose and the OS you install. You may select: “Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R-Windows XP/2000)” for Windows® XP/2000 or “Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R-Windows XP64)” for Windows® XP 64-bit. 5. Finish the Windows® installation and install all necessary drivers. 6. Install the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager software via the CD-ROM included with your motherboard or after downloading it from the Internet.
2.3.4 Installing Windows® VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit With RAID Functions If you want to install Windows® VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below steps. STEP 1: Set up BIOS. A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen IDE Configuration. B. Set “ATA/IDE Configuration” to [Enhanced], and then in the option “Configure SATA as”, please set the option to [RAID]. STEP 2: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.
1. If you want to use “Intel Matrix Storage Manager” in Windows® environment, please install SATA / SATAII drivers from the Support CD again so that “Intel Matrix Storage Manager” will be installed to your system as well. 2. If you install Windows® VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS, please do not create RAID 0 and RAID 5 or RAID 1 and RAID 5 at the same time under BIOS environment. It is recommended to create RAID array one by one.
2.4 Setting the BIOS RAID Items After installing the hard disk drives, please set the necessary RAID items in the BIOS before setting your RAID configuration. Boot your system, and press key to enter BIOS setup utility. Highlight Advanced and press , then the main interface of BIOS setup utility will appear. Please set the option Configure SATA as to [RAID]. Save your change before you exit BIOS setup. 2.5 Configuring the Intel RAID BIOS Reboot your computer.
Volume0 In the Create Volume Menu, under Name item, please key-in a unique name with 1-16 letters for your RAID volume then press . Volume0 Use the up or down arrow keys to select your desired RAID Level. You may select RAID0 (Stripe), RAID1 (Mirror), RAID 5, RAID 10, or Matrix Storage for your RAID level. Press , and then you can select Strip Size.
Volume0 If you selected RAID 0 (Stripe), use the up or down arrow keys to select the stripe size for your RAID 0 array then press .The available values range from 8 KB to 128 KB. The default selection is 128 KB. The strip value should be chosen based on the planned drive usage. • 8 /16 KB - low disk usage • 64 KB - typical disk usage • 128 KB - performance disk usage After you set disk block size, press to set disk Capacity. Volume0 After setting up Capacity, please press .
Volume0 Press under the Create Volume item. The utility prompts a confirmation message as below. Volume0 Press to complete the setup of RAID. After the completion, you will see the detailed information about the RAID that you set up.
Please note that you are only allowed to create one RAID partition at a time under BIOS RAID environment. If you want to create extra RAID partition, please use the RAID utility under Windows environment to configure RAID functions after you install OS. 2.6 Deleting RAID Volume If you want to delete a RAID volume, please select the option Delete RAID Volume, press , and then follow the instructions on the screen.
