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5. SOFTWARE SETUP
5.4 Using the Promise Chip for RAID 0 or 1
The optional Promise
chip, PDC20265R, onboard the A7V133, offers a high
®
performance Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) configuration that
supports only UltraATA-100/66/33, EIDE or FastATA-2 hard disks. After connecting
two hard disks to the motherboard, activating either RAID 0 or 1 function is easily
configured through the FastTrak100™ "Lite" firmware BIOS during boot up. In
addition, the support CD allows you to install system drivers according to the
Operating System (OS) on your computer. Read through this section in its entirety
before setting up your RAID system.
RAID 0 is also known as "data striping." Striping optimizes two identical hard disk
drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform
the same work as a single drive, and at a sustained data transfer rate double that of a
single disk alone. The main advantage of a RAID 0 array is to improve the Speed
Performance of data access and storage. With FAT32 and NTFS partitioning, the
array will be addressed as one large volume.
RAID 1 is also known as "data mirroring." Mirroring optimizes two identical hard
disk drives to copy all data from one hard disk drive to the other and vice versa. As
new data is written, it is duplicated onto both disks using a parallel write process.
The main advantage of RAID 1 is that it greatly increases Fault Tolerance of the
entire system, especially if each hard disk is connected separately to both ATA-100
IDE channels available on the A7V133. Should one hard disk suffer mechanical
trouble, all system data will be successfully preserved on the other drive.
IMPORTANT!
Before setting up your new RAID array, verify the status of your
hard disks. It is possible to use a pre-existing hard disk for RAID 0 only if the data
is backed up before configuring the array as all hard disk data will be lost during the
set up. RAID 0 requires at least two hard disks for optimal results. It is possible to
use a pre-existing hard disk for RAID 1 to duplicate the source data; also, RAID 1
can set up two or more new disks. The Promise
chip, the FastTrak™ "Lite" BIOS
®
and the FastBuild™ Utility on the A7V133 permit only two disks to be configured
in RAID 0 or RAID 1 pairs and combinations; a third, "hot" spare hard disk may be
used to support a RAID 1 array; (see the end of this section for more detail). For
optimal performance, install only identical hard disks of the same model and storage
capacity. Use only Ultra ATA-100/66 compatible IDE cables and connectors. The
Promise
®
chip also supports UltraATA-100 specifications of up to 100 MB/sec per
disk, with or without multiple disk arrays up to four hard disks. (See Section 3.4.5,
Hardware Setup: Motherboard Settings for information about changing the jumper
cap IDE default settings to support ATA-100 instead of RAID 0 and 1.)
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ASUS A7V133 User's Manual
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