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When a group of independent physical storage drives is set up to use RAID technology, they are in a RAID
array. This array distributes data across multiple storage drives, but the array appears to the host computer
as one single storage unit. Creating and using RAID arrays provides high performance, such as the expedited
I/O performance, because several drives can be accessed simultaneously.
RAID drive groups configured according to certain RAID levels also improve data storage reliability and fault
tolerance compared with single-drive storage systems. Data loss resulting from a drive failure can be
prevented by reconstructing missing data from the remaining drives.
Note: For RAID 0, the missing data resulting from a drive failure cannot be reconstructed.
RAID Level
Your computer must have the minimum number of SATA hard disk drives installed for the supported level of
RAID below:
• RAID Level 0 – Striped disk array
– Two hard disk drives minimum
– Better performance without fault tolerance
• RAID Level 1 – Mirrored disk array
– Two hard disk drives minimum
– Improved read performance and 100% redundancy
To install a secondary hard disk drive, refer to "Secondary hard disk drive" on page 93.
Configuring the system BIOS to enable SATA RAID functionality
This section describes how to configure the system BIOS to enable SATA RAID functionality.
Note: Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to make selections.
To enable SATA RAID functionality, do the following:
1. Start the Setup Utility program. See "Starting the Setup Utility program" on page 35.
2. Select Devices ➙ ATA Drive Setup.
3. Select Configure SATA as and press Enter.
4. Select RAID and press Enter.
5. Press F10 or Fn+F10 (depending on the keyboard) to save the new settings and exit the Setup Utility
program.
Creating RAID volumes
To create RAID volumes, do the following:
1. Press Ctrl+I when prompted to enter the Intel Matrix Storage Manager option ROM configuration utility
during the computer startup.
2. Use the up and down arrow keys to select Create RAID Volume and press Enter.
3. Type a proper RAID Volume name in the Name field and press Tab.
4. Use the arrow keys to select a RAID level in the RAID Level field and press Tab.
5. If appropriate, use the arrow keys to select a Stripe Size in the Stripe Size field and press Tab.
6. Type a volume size in the Capacity field and press Tab.
7. Press Enter to initiate volume creation.
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P320 User Guide
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