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1 VIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide
You are allowed to configure RAID functions under BIOS environment.
1.1 Introduction of RAID
VIA VT8237A south bridge chipset integrates RAID controller supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD functions with two independent SATA
channels. This section will introduce the basic knowledge of RAID.
RAID
The term "RAID" stands for "Redundant Array of Independent Disks", which is a method combining two or more hard disk drives into one logical
unit. For optimal performance, please install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a RAID set.
RAID 0 (Data Striping)
RAID 0 is called data striping that optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. It will improve data
access and storage since it will double the data transfer rate of a single disk alone while the two hard disks perform the same work as a single
drive but at a sustained data transfer rate.
WARNING!
Although RAID 0 function can improve the access performance, it does not provide any fault tolerance. Hot-Plug any HDDs of the RAID 0 Disk will cause data
damage or data loss.
RAID 1 (Data Mirroring)
RAID 1 is called data mirroring that copies and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to a second drive. It provides data
protection and increases fault tolerance to the entire system since the disk array management software will direct all applications to the
surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive if one drive fails.
JBOD (Spanning)
A spanning disk array is equal to the sum of all drives. Spanning stores data onto a drive until it is full then proceeds to store files onto the next
drive in the array. When any member disk fails, it will affect the entire array. JBOD is not really a RAID, and it does not support fault tolerance.
1. 2 RAID Configurations Precautions
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. For example, if one hard
disk has an 80GB storage capacity and the other hard disk has 60GB, the maximum storage capacity for the 80GB-drive becomes 60GB, and the
total storage capacity for this RAID 0 set is 120GB.
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