NVIDIA RAID Installation Guide
1. NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide …………………….. 2
1.1 Introduction to RAID …………………………………….. 2
1.2 RAID Configurations Precautions ……………………… 3
1.3 Installing Windows 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit / XP
/ XP 64-bit With RAID Functions …………………...... 5
1.3.1 Installing Windows XP / XP 64-bit With RAID
Functions ……………………................................ 5
1.3.2 Installing Windows 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit
With RAID Functions …………………….............. 7
1.4 Create Disk Array ………………………………………… 8
2. NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide ………………… 11
2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows
XP / XP 64-bit Users …………………………………….. 11
2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows
7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit Users ………………….. 21
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1. NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide
NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide is an instruction for you to configure RAID
functions by using NVIDIA RAID Utility under BIOS environment. After you make a
SATA / SATAII driver diskette, press <F2> to enter BIOS setup to set the option to
RAID mode by following the detailed instruction of the “User Manual” in our support CD
or “Quick Installation Guide”, you can start to use NVIDIA RAID Utility to configure
RAID.
This section includes examples of using NVRAID RAID Utility for creating RAID arrays.
If your motherboard is equipped with four SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use
RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD, or RAID 5 function with your motherboard
according to the SATA / SATAII HDDs amount you install. Please refer to the RAID
functions your motherboard provides in advance and follow the instruction in this
section to create RAID arrays.
1.1 Introduction to 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.
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RAID 0+1 (Stripe Mirroring)
RAID 0 drives can be mirrored using RAID 1 techniques, resulting in a RAID 0+1
solution for improved performance plus resiliency. The controller combines the
performance of data striping (RAID 0) and the fault tolerance of disk mirroring
(RAID 1). Data is striped across multiple drives and duplicated on another set of
drives.
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.
RAID 5
RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more hard disk drives.
Among the advantages of RAID 5configuration include better HDD performance, fault
tolerance, and higher storage capacity. The RAID 5 configuration is best suited for
transaction processing, relational database applications, enterprise resource planning,
and other business systems. Use a minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this
setup.
1.2 RAID Configurations Precautions
1. 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.
2. You may use two new drives, or use an existing drive and a new drive to
create a RAID 1 (mirroring) array for data protection (the new drive must be
of the same size or larger than the existing drive). If you use two drives of
different sizes, the smaller capacity hard disk will be the base storage size.
For example, if one hard disk has an 80GB storage capacity and the other
hard disk has 60GB, the maximum storage capacity for the RAID 1 set is
60GB.
3. Please verify the status of your hard disks before you set up your new RAID
array.
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WARNING!!
Please backup your data first before you create RAID functions. In the process you
create RAID, the system will ask if you want to “Clear Disk Data” or not. It is
recommended to select “Yes”, and then your future data building will operate under a
clean environment.
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1.3 Installing Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista
TM
/ VistaTM 64-bit / XP
/ XP 64-bit With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit OS
on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below procedures
according to the OS you install.
1.3.1 Installing Windows® XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows® XP / XP 64-bit on your SA TA / SATAII HDDs with RAID
functions, please follow below steps.
STEP 1: Set Up BIOS.
A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen Storage
Configuration.
B. Set the “SATA Operation Mode” option to [RAID].
STEP 2: Make a SATA / SATAII Driver Diskette.
A . Insert the ASRock Support CD into your optical drive to boot your system.
B. During POST at the beginning of system boot-up, press <F11> key, and
then a window for boot devices selection appears. Please select CD-ROM
as the boot device.
C. When you see the message on the screen, “Generate Serial ATA driver
diskette [YN]?”, press <Y>.
D. Then you will see these messages,
Plea se choose:
1. Generate AHCI Driver diskette for WindowsXP
2. Generate RAID Driver diskette for WindowsXP
3. Generate AHCI Driver diskette for WindowsXP64
4. Generate RAID Driver diskette for WindowsXP64
5. Exit
Reboot system now
Press any key to continue
Please in sert a floppy diskette into the floppy drive. Select your required
item on the list according to the mode you choose and the OS you install.
Then press any key.
E. The system will start to format the floppy diskette and copy SATA / SATAII
drivers into the floppy diskette.
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STEP 3: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.
Before you start to configure RAID function, you need to check the RAID installation
guide in the Support CD for proper configuration. Ple ase refer to the BIOS RAID
installation guide in the following path in the Support CD:
.. \ RAID Installation Guide
STEP 4: Install Windows® XP / XP 64-bit OS on your system.
You can start to install Windows® XP / XP 64-bit OS on your system. At the beginning
of Windows® setup, press F6 to install a third-party RAID driver. When prompted,
insert the SATA / SA T AII driver diskette containing the N VIDIA® RAID driver . After reading
the floppy disk, the drivers will be presented. Select the drivers to install. The drivers are
as below:
A. NVIDIA RAID Driver (required)
B. NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (required)
Please select A and B for Windows® XP / XP 64-bit in RAID mode. (There are two RAID
drivers needed for RAID mode, you have to select them se parately. Please specify the
first RAID driver a nd then specify again f or the second one.)
NOTE. If you install Windows® XP / XP 64-bit on IDE HDDs and want to manage
(create, convert, delete, or rebuild) RAID functions on SATA / SATAII HDDs, you still
need to set up “SATA Operation Mode” to [RAID] in BIOS first. Then, please set the
RAID configuration by using the Windows RAID installation guide in the following
path in the Support CD:
.. \ RAID Installation Guide
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1.3.2 Installing Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista
TM
/ VistaTM 64-bit
With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit on your SATA /
SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, plea se f ollow below steps.
STEP 1: Set Up BIOS.
A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen Storge
Configuration.
B. Set the “SATA Operation Mode” option to [RAID].
STEP 2: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.
Before you start to configure RAID function, you need to check the RAID installation
guide in the Support CD for proper configuration. Ple ase refer to the BIOS RAID
installation guide part of the document in the following path in the Support CD:
.. \ RAID Installation Guide
STEP 3: Install Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS on your
system.
Insert the Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit optical disk into the optical
drive to boot your system, and follow the instruction to install Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit
/ VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS on your system. When you see “Where do you want to
install Windows?” page, please insert the ASRock Support CD into your optical drive,
and click the “Load Driver” button on the left on the bottom to load the NVIDIA® RAID
drivers. NVIDIA® RAID drivers are in the following path in our Support CD:
.. \ I386 (For Windows® Vista
.. \ AMD64 (For Windows® Vista
After that, please insert Windows® VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit optical disk into the optical
drive again to continue the installation.
TM
OS)
TM
64-bit OS)
NOTE. If you install Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit on IDE HDDs and want to
manage (create, convert, delete, or rebuild) RAID functions on SATA / SATAII HDDs,
you still need to set up “SATA Operation Mode” to [RAID] in BIOS first. Then, please
set the RAID configuration by using the Windows RAID installation guide in the
following path in the Support CD:
.. \ RAID Installation Guide
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1.4 Create Disk Array
Power on your system. After adjusting the system BIOS to RAID mode, the below
window appears.
After rebooting your computer, wait until you see the RAID software prompting you to
press <F10>. The RAID prompt appears as a part of the system POST and boot
process prior to loading the OS. You have a few seconds to press <F10> before the
window disappears.
After you press <F10>, the NVIDIA RAID Utility - Define a New Array window
appears. By default, RAID Mode is set to Mirroring, but please set it to Striping if you
want to create RAID 0. And the Striping Block is set to Optimal as default. We take
RAID 0 for example to show you how to use NVRAID RAID Utility to create RAID 0
(Striping). If you plan to use NVRAID RAID Utility to create other RAID arrays, the
operation procedures are similar to the steps of creating RAID 0.
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