NVIDIA JMicron RAID installation Guide
NVIDIA / JMicron RAID Installation Guide
1. Introduction to NVIDIA / JMicron RAID Installation Guide ………………………………………………………………………. 3
1.1 Installing Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit With RAID Functions ……………………………. 4
1.1.1 Installing Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions ………………………………………. 4
1.1.2 Installing Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit With RAID Functions ………………………………………….. 5
2. NVIDIA RAID Installation Guide ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
2.1 NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide ………………………………………………………………………………… 6
2.1.1 Introduction of RAID ………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
2.1.2 RAID Configuration Precautions …………………………………………………………………………... 7
2.1.3 Create Disk Array ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide …………………………………………………………………………….. 10
2.2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit Users ……………….. 10
2.2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit Users …………………... 18
3. JMicron RAID Installation Guide …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
3.1 JMicron BIOS RAID Installation Guide …………………………………………………………………………………. 22
3.1.1 Enter BIOS Configuration Utility ……………………. ……………………………………………………... 22
3.1.2 Create RAID Disk Drive ……………………………………………………………………………………… 22
3.1.3 Delete RAID Disk Drive ……………………………………………………………………………………… 25
3.1.4 Revert HDDs to non-RAID ………………………………………………………………………….……….. 25
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3.1.5 Solve Mirror Conflict …………………………………………………………………………………………. 26
3.1.6 Rebuild Mirror Drive …………………………………………………………………………………………. 26
3.2 JMicron Windows RAID Installation Guide …………………………………………………………………………….... 27
3.2.1 JMicron Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit Users ………………. 27
3.2.1.1 Creating RAID …………………………………………………………………………………… 27
3.2.1.2 Creating RAID from Existing Disk …………………………………………………………….. 30
3.2.1.3 Deleting RAID …………………………………………………………………………………… 30
3.2.1.4 Rebuilding RAID ………………………………………………………………………………… 31
3.2.1.5 Auto-Resynching RAID ………………………………………………………………………… 31
3.2.2 JMicron Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit Users ………………….. 32
3.2.2.1 Create RAID …………………………………………………………………………………….. 32
3.2.2.2 Create RAID from Existing Disk ………………………………………………………………. 35
3.2.2.3 Remove RAID …………………………………………………………………………………… 35
3.2.2.4 Rebuild RAID ……………………………………………………………………………………. 36
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1. Introduction to NVIDIA / JMicron RAID Installation Guide
This motherboard is equipped with 2 SATA connectors supported by NVIDIA nForce3 250 south bridge chipset, which support RAID (RAID 0,
RAID 1, JBOD) functions, and 2 SATAII connectors supported by JMicron JMB363 chipset, which support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD)
functions. To create RAID with two HDDs, please insert the two HDDs simultaneously to either NVIDIA SATA connectors (black) or JMicron
SATAII connectors (red and orange). If you insert two HDDs to NVIDIA SATA connectors and plan to configure RAID functions, please refer to
NVIDIA RAID installation guide part, including NVIDIA BIOS/Windows RAID installation guide. If you insert two HDDs to JMicron SATAII
connectors and plan to configure RAID functions, please refer to JMicron RAID installation guide part, including JMicron BIOS/Windows RAID
installation guide.
To configure RAID functions on this motherboard correctly, please read this installation guide and follow the installation procedures carefully. You
may refer to the motherboard layout below for SATA (black) and SATAII (red and orange) connectors’ location before configuring RAID functions.
Please note that if you insert one HDD to SATA connector and the other HDD to SATAII connector, you are not allowed to create RAID.
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1.1 Installing Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / Vista / Vista 64-bit With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows 2000, XP, XP 64-bit, Vista or Vista 64-bit on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below
procedures according to the OS you install.
1.1.1 Installing Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows 2000, XP or XP 64-bit on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below steps.
NOTE.
Before installing Windows 2000 to your system, your Windows 2000 optical disk is supposed to include SP4. If there is no SP4 included in your disk, please visit
below website for proper procedures of making a SP4 disk:
http://www.microsoft.com/Windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4/spdeploy.htm#the_integrated_installation_fmay
STEP 1: Set up BIOS.
A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY → Advanced screen →IDE Configuration.
B. If you plan to install Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit on NVIDIA SATA ports with RAID functions, please set the “SATA Operation Mode”
option to [RAID]. If you plan to install Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit on JMicron SATAII ports with RAID functions, please set the
“PCIE-SATAII 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, “Do you want to 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: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.
Before you start to configure RAID function, you need to check this RAID installation guide for proper configuration. Please refer to the BIOS RAID
installation guide part in this document for details.
STEP 4: Install Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit OS on your system.
After making a SATA / SATAII driver diskette and set RAID configuration, you can start to install Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit 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 NVIDIA and JMicron RAID driver. After reading the floppy disk, the driver will be presented. Select your required driver to install
according to the SATA / SATAII controller support vendor and the OS you install. The driver options are as below:
1. NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER (required) Windows XP/2000
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2. NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER (required) Windows XP64
3. NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (required) Windows XP/2000
4. NVIDIA nForce Storage Controller (required) Windows XP64
5. (Windows 2000/XP/2003) RAID/AHCI Driver for JMicron JMB36X Controller
6. (Windows XP/2003 x64) RAID/AHCI Driver for JMicron JMB36X Controller
If you insert HDDs to NVIDIA SATA connectors (black), please choose item 1, 2, 3 or 4 according to the OS you install. If you insert HDDs to
JMicron SATAII connectors (red and orange), please choose item 5 or 6 according to the OS you install. You can also specify twice to load both
two drivers if you plan to create RAID on two SATA HDDs and two SATAII HDDs, but please note that the two SATA HDDs and two SATAII HDDs
provide separated RAID functions.
NOTE1.
After the installation of Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit OS and RAID utility, if you want to manage RAID functions, please refer to the Windows RAID installation guide
part of this document for details.
NOTE2.
If you want to use “NVIDIA RAID Tool” in Windows environment, please install SATA drivers from the Support CD again so that “NVIDIA RAID Tool” will be installed to
your system as well. If you want to use “JMicron RAID Tool” in Windows environment, please install SATAII drivers from the Support CD again so that “JMicron RAID
Tool” will be installed to your system as well.
1.1.2 Installing Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit With RAID Functions
If you want to install Windows Vista or Vista 64-bit on your SATA / SATAII HDDs with RAID functions, please follow below steps.
NOTE.
Since NVIDIA does not provide Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit RAID driver, RAID function is not available on SATA ports of this motherboard under Windows Vista /
Vista 64-bit OS. If you install Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit OS on this motherboard, RAID function is only available on SATAII ports.
STEP 1: Set up BIOS.
A. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY → Advanced screen →IDE Configuration.
B. If you plan to install Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit on JMicron SATAII ports with RAID functions, please set the “PCIE-SATAII Operation
Mode” option to [RAID].
STEP 2: Make a SATAII driver diskette. (For JMicron SATAII ports in RAID mode only.)
If you set “PCIE-SATAII Operation Mode” to [RAID] mode, and plan to install Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit on JMicron SATAII HDDs, please refer
to step 2 on page 4 for detailed procedures of making a SATAII driver diskette.
STEP 3: Use “RAID Installation Guide” to set RAID configuration.
Before you start to configure RAID function, you need to check this RAID installation guide for proper configuration. Please refer to the BIOS RAID
installation guide part in this document for details.
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STEP 4: Install Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit OS on your system.
Insert the Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit optical disk into the optical drive to boot your system, and follow the instruction to install Windows Vista /
Vista 64-bit OS on your system.
If you plan to install Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit on JMicron SATAII HDDs, when you see “Where do you want to install Windows?” page, please
click the “Load Driver” button on the left on the bottom to load the JMicron RAID drivers from the SATAII driver diskette you just made.
After that, please insert Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit optical disk into the optical drive again to continue the installation.
2. NVIDIA RAID Installation Guide
If you insert two HDDs to NVIDIA SATA connectors and plan to configure RAID functions, please refer to NVIDIA RAID installation guide part,
including NVIDIA BIOS RAID installation guide and NVIDIA Windows RAID installation guide.
2.1 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 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 (RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD). Please follow the instruction in this section to configure
RAID functions..
2.1.1 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.
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
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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.
2.1.2 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.
2.1.3 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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Striping block size is given in kilobytes, and affect how data is arranged on the disk. It is recommended to leave this value at the default Optimal,
which is 64KB, but the values can be between 8KB and 128KB (8, 16, 32, 64, and 128KB). Then, you have to assign the disks. The disks that you
enabled from the RAID Config BIOS setup page appear in the Free Disks block. These are the drives that are available for use as RAID array
disk,
A. Tab to the Free Disks section. The first disk in the list is selected.
B. Move it from the Free Disks block to the Array Disks block by pressing the
right-arrow key.
C. Continue pressing the right-arrow key until all the disks that you want to use
as RAID array disks appear in the Array Disks block.
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After assigning your RAID array disks, press <F7> to save your changes of RAID array disks.
Depending on the platform used, the system can have one or more channels. In a typical system there is usually one adapter and multiple
channels, and each channel has a slave and a master. The adapter / channel / master / slave status of each hard disk is given in the Loc (location)
columns of the Free Disks and Array Disks lists. For example:
1 . 0 . M
1: Channel - Typically, channel 0 is used for Parallel ATA drives while channel 1 is used for Serial ATA drives.
0: Controller
M: M means Master, S means Slave
Seri al AT A
1 . 0 . M Channel 1, controller 0, Master
1 . 1 . M Channel 1, controller 1, Master
Finally, the Array List window appears, where you can review the RAID arrays that you have set up.
Healthy NVIDIA STRIPING 74.53G
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2.2 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide
NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide is an instruction for you to configure RAID functions by using NVIDIAMAN under Windows environment.
Please read this guide carefully and follow the instructions below to configure and manage RAID functions. For Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit
and Windows Vista / Vista 64-bit, there are different installation procedures. Please follow the instructions below according to the OS you install.
2.2.1 NVIDIA Windows RAID Installation Guide for Windows 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit Users
A. Enter NVIDIAMAN
RAID driver is built in NVIDIA ALL in one driver provided in our support CD. After you finish the driver installation, you can create, delete, or
rebuild any RAID array. Please enter NVRAIDMAN by clicking on Start → Programs → NVIDIA Corporation → Mediashield → Mediashield.
(There is also a “Mediashield” shortcut on the desktop.)
Then, below screen appears.
B. Creating RAID Arrays
In this section, we take RAID 0 for example to show you how to use NVRAIDMAN to create RAID 0 (Striping). If you plan to use NVRAIDMAN to
create other RAID arrays, the operation procedures are similar to the steps of creating RAID 0. Please do the following:
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1. Go to the system BIOS and make sure that the drives that you want to use are RAID enabled.
2. Boot to Windows and launch the NVRAIDMAN application.
3. Create Array and the following screen will appear.
4. Click Next and the following screen shot will appear.
5. Click the RAID Mode list arrow and select Striping, and leave the “Stripe Size” with its default value as shown in the following screen shot.
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