Foxconn SiS964, Silicon 3112A User Manual
SiS964/Silicon 3112A SATA
RAID User’s Manual
User’s Guide
Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Edition
V1.0
P/N:
91-185-755-10-00
Trademarks
All brand or product names mentioned are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................................1
Features.......................................................................................................2
Support operating Systems........................................................................2
KNOW HOW..........................................................................................3
PERFORMANCE HINTS AND RECOMMEND SETTING.............3
Step 1. Hardware Setup .............................................................................4
HARD DRIVES SETUP ........................................................................4
FOR RAID 0 (STRIPING ARRAY) ...............................................................4
FOR RAID 1 (MIRROR ARRAY).................................................................. 4
FOR JBOD (SPANNING ARRAY)................................................................4
Step 2. Installing Software Drivers ...........................................................5
WINDOWS XP/2000..............................................................................5
NEW WINDOWS XP/2000 INSTALLATION ................................................ 5
EXISTING WINDOWS XP/2000 INSTALLATION.......................................6
CONFIRMING WINDOWS XP/2000 DRIVER INSTALLATION................6
Step 3. BIOS Utility Operation..................................................................7
STARTING BIOS UTILITY.................................................................7
CREATE RAID ....................................................................................10
CREATING A RAID 0 (STRIPE) ARRAY FOR PERFORMANCE............ 10
CREATING A RAID 1 (MIRROR) ARRAY.................................................14
CREATING A JBOD ARRAY ...................................................................... 18
DELETE RAID.....................................................................................22
STARTING TO DELETE A RAID ARRAY................................................. 22
Step 4. SiS964 RAID Utility.....................................................................25
STARTING TO USE SIS964 RAID UTILITY..................................25
Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
ABOUT CREATE RAID....................................................................28
VIEWING THE “CREATE RAID” ...............................................................28
CREATE A RAID SET.................................................................................. 30
ABOUT DELETE RAID.....................................................................38
VIEWING THE RAIDTYPE MEANING......................................................38
DELETE A RAID SET ..................................................................................39
ABOUT RAID RECOVERY..............................................................41
RAID RECOVERY OPERATION................................................................. 41
SATA RAID Software to be used with the SiI 3112..............................43
Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Introduction
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller support two Serial ATA on two
independent ports. Specifications are as follows:
Serial ATA Interface
Serial ATA (SATA) is the latest generation of the ATA interface. SAT A hard
drives deliver blistering transfer speeds of up to 150MB/sec. Serial ATA uses
long, thin cables, making it easier to connect your drive and improving the
airflow inside your PC.
♦ Supports 150 MB/s transfers with CRC error checking
♦ Large LBA support for drives over 137 GB
♦ Data handling optimizations including tagged command queuing, elevator seek
and packet chain command
Serial ATA RAID Interfaces
The Serial ATA RAID is designed to provide a cost-effective, high
performance RAID solution that adds performance and/or reliability to PC
desktops and/or servers using Serial ATA/150 hard disks.
Serial ATA RAID function supports striping (RAID 0), mirroring (RAID 1) and
span (JBOD).
With striping, identical drives can read and write data in parallel to increase
performance. Mirroring increases read performance through load balancing
and elevator sorting while creating a complete backup of your files. Span
would increase the logic hard disk space.
Serial ATA RAID striped arrays can double the sustained data transfer rate
of Serial ATA/150 drives. Serial ATA RAID fully supports Serial ATA/150
specification of up to 150MB/sec per drive, depending on individual drive
specifications.
The technology also offers fault tolerant, data redundancy for entry-level
network file servers or simply for desktop PC users wanting to continually
protect valuable data on their PC. The Serial ATA RAID offers RAID 1
mirroring (for two SATA drives) to protect data. Should a drive that is part of
a mirrored array fail, Serial ATA RAID technology uses the mirrored drive
(which contains identical data) to assume all data handling. When a new
replacement drive is later installed, Serial ATA RAID rebuilds data to the new
drive from the mirrored drive to restore fault tolerance.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Features
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller only support two Serial ATA
(Serial ATA RAID) drivers.
Support RAID function: RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD.
Support bootable disk.
Windows-based SiS RAID Utility software tool (only support Windows
XP and 2000).
BIOS RAID Setting Utility.
Support operating Systems
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Server
Microsoft Windows XP
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Step 0. What is RAID
Know How
This section will give you an overview about the RAID system and introduce
the basic background and glossary which you need to know before using
“SiS RAID Controller Application”.
1. RAID: (Redundant Array of Independent Disk Drives) use jointly several
hard drives to increase data transfer rates and data security. It depends
on the number of drives present and RAID function you select to fulfill
the security or performance purposes or both.
2. RAID 0: Also known as “Stripping”. All of the data are distributed evenly
to all of the existing drives. You gain benefits on performance because
the data transfer rate is multiplied by the number of drives. However,
RAID 0 has high risks of data security. All of the stored data will be lost if
even any one drive in the RAID set crashes.
3. RAID 1: Also known as “Mirroring”. Two hard drives are required. The
goal of RAID 1 is to ensure data security. Data is written to two or more
drives synchronously. That is, 100% duplication of data from one drive
to another.
4. JBOD: (Just a Bunch of Drives). Also known as “Spanning”. Two or
more hard drives are required. Several hard disk types configured as a
single hard disk. The hard drives are simply hooked up in series. This
expands the capacity of your drive and results in a useable total capacity.
However, JBOD will not increase any performance or data security.
Performance hints and recommend setting
For the best performance and reliability, please read the following
suggestions.
1. Use the same model hard drives.
2. If you have only two Serial ATA drives, the auto-configure function will
assign each on a different channel as a master drive.
3. Always use 80-conductor cables.
4. We strongly recommend you should use “DMA” transfer mode.
5. The recommended block size is “64K” when creating RAID 0.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Step 1. Hardware Setup
Hard Drives setup
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller only supports two Serial ATA
hard drivers.
For RAID 0 (Striping array)
Any of 2 SATA Hard disks would make a stripe system.
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller only supports combination 6.
NOTE: Storage Capacity: the number of hard drives times the capacity of the
smallest drive in the disk array
Working Speed: the speed of the lowest drive in the disk array
For RAID 1 (Mirror array)
Any of 2 SATA Hard disks would make a mirror system.
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller only supports combination 6.
NOTE: Storage Capacity: the capacity of the smallest drive in the disk array
Working Speed: the speed of the lowest drive in the disk array
For JBOD (Spanning array)
Any of 2 SATA Hard disks would combine to a JBOD system.
The South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller only supports combination 6.
NOTE: Storage Capacity: the number of hard drives times the capacity of the
smallest drive in the disk array
Working Speed: the speed of the lowest drive in the disk array
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
NOTE: Before Installing software drivers, make sure to set the item
“SIS Serial ATA Mode” to Raid in “Integrated Peripherals”
of BIOS Setup.
Step 2. Installing Software Drivers
SiS RAID driver support Microsoft Windows XP/2000
1. South Bridge SiS964 SATA controller support Serial ATA W/ RAID0,
RAID 1 and JBOD by installing SiS RAID driver. For RAID function, SIS
964 support RAID0, RAID1 and JBOD by software RAID driver.
2. Support the function of installing Windows Operation System to
RAID array.
For special occasions, users can refer to the following sections with
details on the SiS964 driver installation when used with Windows
XP/2000 operating systems.
Windows XP/2000
New Windows XP/2000 Installation
The following details the installation of the drivers while installing new
Windows XP/2000.
1. Start the installation:
Boot from the CD-ROM. Press F6 when the message “Press F6
key if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver” appears.
2. When the Windows XP/2000 Setup window is generated, press S
key to specify an Additional Device(s).
3. Insert the driver diskette into drive A: and press Enter.
4. Choose one of the following items:
“WinXP SiS Raid/IDE Controller ”,
“Win2000 SiS Raid/IDE Controller”,
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
that appears on screen, and then press the Enter key.
5. Press Enter to continue with installation or if you need to specify
any additional devices to be installed, do so at this time. Once all
devices are specified, Press Enter to continue with installation.
6. From the Windows XP/2000 Setup screen, press the Enter key.
Setup will now load all device files and then continue the
Windows XP/2000 installation.
7. Please install the driver package again (ex. SiS RAID driver
v1.03) while the operation system has been setup.
Remark:
If you would like to install windows to any RAID sets, you should
create RAID from BIOS RAID setting Utility or SiS964 RAID Utility
first and then follow the steps above. Pleaser refer to step 3 or step
4.
Existing Windows XP/2000 Installation
1. Install the driver by execute SiS RAID driver setup utility.
2. The drivers will be automatically installed.
Confirming Windows XP/2000 Driver Installation
1. From Windows XP/2000, open the Control Panel from “My
Computer” followed by the System icon.
2. Choose the “Hardware” tab, then click the “Device Manager” tab.
3. Click the “+” in front of “SCSI and RAID Controllers” hardware type.
The driver “ SiS 180 Raid Controller ” should appear.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Step 3. BIOS Utility Operation
Note:
For the best performance and reliability, please read “Performance Hints
and Recommend Setting” section in Step 0.
Starting BIOS Utility
1. Boot your system. If this is the first time you have booted with the
SiS964 and the drives installed, the BIOS will display the following.
Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. RAID BIOS Setting Utility v0.XX
(c) 2003-2005 Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. All Rights Reserved.
Press <Ctrl><S> to run BIOS Setting Utility
Scan Devices. Please wait…………
Primary Master : XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXMB UDMA X
Secondary Master : < SATA Device Not Found >
[ RAID Information ]
[ RAID Information ] includes some statements. See below :
a. No RAID Install !! Not any completed RAID exists.
b. Raid 1 (Mirror) : [Disk X] [Disk X] Have a RAID set.
c. Broken RAID detected. Do you want to enter Setup Menu (Y/N)?
Y
You can select [Y] to enter setup menu to handle it. Or you can select
[N] to ignore this message.
d. Found a new HD! Do you want to rebuild RAID 1?
Y Occurs when
the controller has broken Raid 1 and single HDD existing simultaneously
and the location of single HDD is just conformed it’s rebuild conditions.
e. The Raid is wrong!! Do you want to fix it??(Y/N) Occurs when the
locations of two SATA HDD change owing to ATA HDD existing or not.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
2. Press <Ctrl-S> keys to display the SiS964 Utility Main Menu.
3. Press <R> to display the RAID setup menu below. This is the fastest
and easiest method to create your first array. The [A] and [D] key will
appear randomly in the different conditions.
[a]. No RAID existing but have available disks existing :
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
[b]. No available disk existing but have RAID existing:
[c]. Available disk is not enough to create RAID:
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
Create RAID
Creating a RAID 0 (Stripe) Array for Performance
NOTE:
SiS964 only supports 2 SATA drivers to create a stripe array.
To create an array for best performance, follow these steps:
1. Press <A> to start creating a RAID array.
2. Press <2> and <Enter> to select RAID 0.
3. You will have two selections to create a RAID 0 array. The default
value is <1>. If you select <1>Auto Create, you can create a RAID 0
array faster and easier. The Blocksize will be selected by its default
value “64K”. The result after auto creating will be shown on step 6.
Besides, you also can select <2>Manual Create, see following steps.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
4. Press <1>─<5> keys and <Enter> to select Block Size. ( Default : 64K )
5. Use <↑> <↓> to select disk , and press <Enter> to select disk, <Q> to
exit. When you press <Enter> on the disk you wanted, the RAID Type
will be changed from Single to RAID 0. And the disk you select first will
be the SOURCE disk.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
6. Next, you will see a message “Split the SOURCE(Disk x) data to RAID
disks?”. Press <N> and <Enter> to create RAID 0 array only or press
<Y> and <Enter> to split the data from source disk to other disks.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
7. Starting splitting action, the following frame will be shown.
8. After all steps finished, press <Q> until escape the setup menu and
RAID 0 array will be shown on the top of the main frame.
9. Press <Q> until exit this BIOS utility and the red message frame will
show. Press <Y> and <Enter> to save changes.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
10. Once the array has been created, you will need to FDISK and FORMAT
the array as if it was a new single hard drive.
Creating a RAID 1 (Mirror) Array
NOTE:
SiS964 enables users to create Mirror arrays with pair of drives only.
To create a Mirror array, follow these steps:
1. Press <A> to start creating a RAID array.
2. Press <3> and <Enter> to select Mirror.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
3. You will have two selections to create a RAID 1 array. The default
value is <1>. If you select <1>Auto Create, you can create a RAID 1
array faster and easier. The result after creating will be shown on step 5.
Besides, you also can select <2>Manual Create, see following steps.
4. Use <↑> <↓> to select disk , and press <Enter> to select disk, <Q> to
exit. When you press <Enter> on the disk you wanted, the RAID Type
will be changed from Single to RAID 1. The same as RAID 0, the disk
you select first will be the SOURCE disk.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
5. Next, you will see a message “Duplicate the SOURCE(Disk x) data to
RAID disks?”. Press <N> and <Enter> to create RAID 1 array only or
press <Y> and <Enter> to duplicate the data from source disk to mirror
disk.
6. Starting duplicating action, the following frame will be showing.
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Serial ATA RAID User’s Guide
7. After all steps finished, press <Q> until escape the setup menu and
RAID 1 array will be shown on the top of the main frame.
8. Press <Q> until exit this BIOS utility and the red message frame will
show as the same as the creation of the RAID 0 array. Press <Y> and
<Enter> to save changes.
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