Asrock N68-GS4 FX R2.0 RAID Installation Guide

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 Win Vista 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions ….. 5

1.3.1 Installing Windows

1.3.2 Installing Windows

1.4 Create Disk Array ……………………………………….. 8

2. NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide ………………… 11

dows 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista /

XP / XP 64-bit With

RAID Functions ……………………................. 5

8 / 8 64-bit /

/ Vista / Vista 64-bit With RAID Functions ...... 7

7 / 7 64-bit

2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows

XP / XP 64-bit Users ……………………...........………. 11

2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit Users ….. 21

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 two SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use

RAID 0, RAID 1, or JBOD function with your motherboard. 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.

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.

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.

1.3 Installing Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

VistaTM 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions

If you want to install Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit 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 [IDE].

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,

Please insert a blank formatted diskette into floppy drive A: press any key to start

Please insert a floppy diskette into the floppy drive, and press any key.

E. The system will start to format the floppy diskette and copy SATA /

SATAII drivers into the floppy diskette.

STEP 3: Set Up BIOS.

A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen Storage

Configuration.

B. Set the “SATA Operation Mode” option to [RAID].

STEP 4: 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. Please refer to the BIOS RAID installation guide part of the document in the following path in the Support CD:

.. \ RAID Installation Guide

STEP 5: 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 / SATAII driver diskette containing the NVIDIA® 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.

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 part of the document in the following path in the Support CD:

.. \ RAID Installation Guide

1.3.2 Installing Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

VistaTM 64-bit With RAID Functions

If you want to install Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / 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 Storage

Configuration.

B. Set the “SATA Operation Mode” option to [RAID].

STEP 2: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.

.. \ RAID Installation Guide STEP 3: Install Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS on

your system.

Insert the Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit optical disk into the optical drive to boot your system, and follow the instruction to install W indows 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.

OS)

64-bit OS)

NOTE. If you install Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 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

NOTE. For Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit users, you do not need to load RAID driver

from ASRock support CD. Please use the native driver to install Windows bit / 7 / 7 64-bit OS, and then install ASRock All-in-1 driver.

8 / 8 64-

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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Asrock N68-GS4 FX R2.0 RAID Installation Guide

Specifications and Main Features

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User Manual