Rosewill RC-223 User Manual

RAID5 SATA II – 3Gbps

External Dual Ports PCI-Express Host

(Raid 5, 0, 1,10 & JBOD)

RC-223

User Manual

RAID5 SATA II – 3Gbps External Dual Ports PCI-Express Host (Raid 5, 0, 1,10 & JBOD) RC-223 User Manual

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When the HBA be used on Macintosh as a non-bootable adapter, please refer the

Mac drivers on the path of \ Mac OS \ SiI3132 \ Raid5 at the packed driver CD or

download from http://www.siliconimage.com/support/index.aspx?pid=0&cid=0&.

Important Message for User:

**** The setting of Raid 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD will appear on screen accordingly

and automatically when Port Multiplier and multiple Drives be connected to 2Port

RAID5 SATA II Host Card.

**** Before controller card installation, we recommend the users to study this

manual and the PDF file of SATARaid5 Manual at enclosed CD folder \SATA

PCIe_Raid5_2Port\SiI3132\Windows\Gui (or\Raid5 SATA2_4Port\SiI3124\

Windows\GUI) first. This Raid manual has more information on Raid architecture,

Raid features, Raid installation, Raid setting and Management software for

Raid5 GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Q0: What is RAID5 Card?

A0: RAID5 Card means the SATA Host adapter (the PCI, PCI-X, PCI-e, Cardbus and ExpressCard) which

can support RAID5, RAID0, RAID1, RAID10, BigDrive and JBOD functions by software setting.

Q1: Can I install non-Raid (base) driver or SATARAID driver on RAID5 card?

A1: No, only SATARaid5 driver is used on RAID5 card.

Q2: How to use a single hard drive on RAID5 Card?

A2: New RAID5 GUI (Graphical User Interface) has a new “Pass-Thru” feature. “Pass-Thru” allows access to

a new hard drive or a used one that without any SATARAID5 configuration. If your current driver doesn’t

support this “Pass-Thru” feature, please download the new one and install it.

Q3: Why 2Port SATA II Host Card can support Raid5 or Raid10?

A3: It needs Port Multiplier and multiple drives. When SATA Port Multiplier and multiple drives are

installed on 2Port SATA II host card, the setting of Raid 0, 1, 10, 5 and JBOD will appear on the screen

accordingly and automatically.

Q4: What is Raid0?

A4: RAID0 also known as Stripping or FAST. Stripping is a performance-oriented, non-redundant data

mapping technique. Stripping arrays need at least two drives and use them to form a larger virtual disk.

RAID5 SATA II – 3Gbps External Dual Ports PCI-Express Host (Raid 5, 0, 1,10 & JBOD) RC-223 User Manual

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Q5: What is Raid1?

A5: RAID1 also known as Mirroring or SAFE. Mirroring creates an identical twin for a selected disk by

having the data simultaneously written to two disks. If a read failure occurs on one drive, the system will

read the data from the other drive. Raid1 need two drives to store the same data.

Q6: What is Raid10?

A6: RAID10 also known as RAID 0+1 or Mirrored-Striping or “SAFE and FAST”. RAID10 combine both

Striping and Mirroring technologies to provide both the performance enhancements that come from Striping

and the data availability and integrity that comes from Mirroring. There are at least four hard drives is need

for RAID10 setting.

Q7: What is RAID5?

A7: RAID5 also known as Distributed Parity RAID. RAID 5 adds fault tolerance to Disk Striping by

including parity information with the data. The data and parity information is arranged on the disk array

so that parity is written to different disks. There are at least three hard drives is need for RAID5 setting.

Q8: What is JBOD?

A8: The JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks , also known as Contiguous) means a single logical drive that can either

be an entire disk drive or a segment of a disk drive. JBOD is the Contiguous configuration option when

creating RAID Groups (or sets) in the SATARAID5 Manager utility.

Q9: What is CONCATENATED?

A9: Concatenated also known as Big Drive, The Concatenated combines multiple disks or multiple

segments of disks into a single large disk. It does not provide any data protection or performance

improvement but can be useful for utilizing leftover space on all disks.

Q10: How to make sure RAID5 setting is ready for working?

A10: RAID5 setting may cost hours for component ready and function available, please be patient for that.

Especially if Raid5 setting by BIOS, please Click “Task Manager” to make sure there is “Green” color on the

selected components and then Raid5 setting is completed.

Q11: May use the existing used hard drive to RAID5 Card?

A11: Yes, it is workable. But, the working data on your existing used HDD may NOT work and be treated

as a blank drive when you migrate it to RAID5 Card environment.

Q12: Why Windows Device Manager can NOT detect my hard drives, but BIOS

can detect it?

RAID5 SATA II – 3Gbps External Dual Ports PCI-Express Host (Raid 5, 0, 1,10 & JBOD) RC-223 User Manual

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A12: In RAID storage system, RAID managing information is saved on the drive. If without the correct

RAID Creating by BIOS or GUI, Windows Device Manager can NOT recognize the existing of hard

drive.

Q13: Why RAID5 GUI can NOT recognize my migrating used drive?

A13: When migrating the used HDD to RAID5 card, we better to perform the "Delete Raid Set" on BIOS

setting, since the used HDD may have some different format of RAID managing information and RAID5 GUI

may be confused by this data and no recognition.

Q14: Why Rebuilding take so long time?

A14: The “Rebuilding” function on Raid 1 or Raid10 always spend long hours for component ready, data

copying and function available, especially for high volume data. Please be patient for the rebuilding ready.

Q15: How to create the RAID setting on RAID5 Card?

A15: If 32bit PCI or 64bit PCI-X or PCI-Express RAID5 Host card, RAID5 sets can be created and managed

by either the BIOS utility setting or SATARAID5 GUI setting under Windows. Only SATARAID5 GUI is

functional, as CardBus adapter or ExpressCard/34 Adapter for Notebook.

A16: How to get the PDF file of complete RAID5 manual for RAID5 Host Adapter?

Q16: Please find the SATARAID5-UserGuide_v1.40.pdf under the GUI folder of Driver CD on your card

package.

Q17: OK to use multiple RAID5 Cards in one server system?

A17: Yes, it works, even mixed with different product model of RAID5 card in one server system. RAID5 GUI

can manage each RAID5 card individually but NO cross Raid5 setting is provided.

Q18: Can we add RAID5 Cards to one PC system, which has RAID card (No RAID5,

only RAID0 or RAID1) already?

A18: No, only one RAID GUI or RAID5 GUI can exist in PC system, so we don’t recommend to use the

mixed RAID and RAID5 cards in one system. If you decide to sacrifice the RAID GUI and use the RAID5 GUI

only in system, you must remove the existing RAID GUI from your PC system first before RAID5 Card

hardware installation, otherwise the system will hang up. After RAID5 card, RAID5 driver and RAID5 GUI be

successfully installed, RAID5 GUI can manage the activities of RAID5 card only, no RAID card activity.

Q19: Whether I can plug a 64bit PCI-X SATA II –3Gbps RAID5 card into a

motherboard 32bit PCI slot and test it?

A19: Yes, it works.