MSI K7n2 Delta 2 Manual

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
NVRAID Striped Array
The figure below shows an example of a two hard drive striped array using identical
55.90 GB IDE hard drives (ST360015A), where one drive is configured as Master
and the other drive is configured as Slave. The total disk space used is 111.80 GB.
NVRAID Striped Mirror Array
The figure below shows an example of a four hard drive stripe-mirrored array. The
total disk space used is 111.80 GB.
NVRAID Spanning (JBOD) Array
The figure below shows an example of a two hard drive spanning array. The total
disk space used is 111.80 GB.
NVRAID Mirrored Array and a Striped Array
Figure 3.6 shows an example of a two hard drive mirrored array as well as a two
hard drive striped array. 
						

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Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk
You can designate a hard drive to be used as a spare drive for a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1
array2. The spare drive can take over for a failed disk. NVRAID supports two types
of spare drives:
• Free Disk
A free disk is a disk that is not part of any RAID array, but can be used by any
available RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array that requires a particular disk when one of its
disks crashes or becomes unusable. The process is automatic and doesn’t require
any user interaction.
For example, if you have a system with four hard disks where one disk is used to
boot the OS, two hard drives are set up in a mirrored array, and a fourth hard disk is
set up as a free disk, then if one of the mirrored array drives fails, the free disk will
be automatically assigned to the mirrored array to be used instead of the failed disk.
• Dedicated Disk
A dedicated free disk is a disk that is assigned to a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array and that
disk is used by that array only when needed, for example during a system crash
where a RAID mirrored drive is broken. The dedicated disk can be used only by the
array that it is assigned to and not by any other array, unlike a free disk which can be
used by any available RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 array.
Assigning a Free Disk
To mark a disk as free, or not a part of any array,
1. Enter the system BIOS setup and make sure that the drive that you want to mark as
free is RAID enabled.
2. Enter the RAID BIOS and make sure that the drive is not part of any array (if one
exists).
3. Boot into Windows and run the NVRAIDMAN program. The drive appears under the
Free Disk section. The figure below shows an example of the NVRAIDMAN display
if you have a mirror array and one free disk. 
						

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Assigning a Dedicated Disk
To mark a disk as dedicated, or reserve it for use by a specific array,
Step 1: Mark the Disk as a Free Disk
1. Enter the system BIOS setup and make sure that the drive that you want to mark as
free is RAID enabled.
2. Enter the RAID BIOS and make sure that the drive is not part of any array (if one
exists).
3. Boot into Windows and run the NVRAIDMAN program. The drive appears under the
Free Disk section.
Step 2: Dedicate the Free Disk to an Array
While running NVRAIDMAN, dedicate the free disk to an array using one of the
following two methods:
• Method 1: Select a free disk and then assign it to an array.
• Method 2: Select an array and then assign a free disk to it.
Both methods are equally simple ways of accomplishing the same task.
Method 1: Select a free disk and then assign it to an array.
1. Right click one of the available disks under the Free Disk section. The pop-up menu
    appears.
2. Select Designate Spare from the menu to launch the Spare Disk Allocation Wizard. 
						

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3. Click Next.
The RAID Array Selection page appears.
4. From the RAID Array Selection page, select one of the arrays from the list.
This is the array to which you want to allocate the dedicated free disk.
Note: In Figure 3.10 there is only one array created on the system.
5. Click Next.
The Completing the NVIDIA Spare Disk Allocation page appears.
6. Click Finish.
As shown in figure below, the ST380023AS drive is now a dedicated free disk in the
mirrored array. If a system crash occurs that causes any of the two ST360015A
drives to fail, the ST380023AS hard drive will take over and be used in the newly
formed mirrored array.
Once a dedicated disk has been assigned to a particular array, it can be removed at
any time. To remove the disk, right click on the dedicated disk and select the option to
remove it. 
						

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Method 2: Select an array and then assign a free disk to it.
1. Right click on the array to which you want to assign a dedicated free disk. The pop-
up menu appears.
2. Select Designate Spare from the menu to launch the Spare Disk Allocation Wizard.
3. Click Next. The Free Disk Selection page appears.
4. From the Free Disk Selection page, select one of the disks from the list. Please note
that there can be more than one disk to choose from. 
						

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5. Click Next. The Completing the NVIDIA Spare Disk Allocation page appears.
6. Click Finish.
You have now assigned a dedicated free disk to a mirrored array.
Once a dedicated disk has been assigned to a particular array, it can be removed at
any time. To remove the disk, right click on the dedicated disk and select the option to
remove it. 
						

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Example of Dedicating a Free Disk in a RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 Array
You can also assign a dedicated free disk to a RAID 1 or a RAID 0+1 array, using the
same process.
1. Right-click either the free disk that you want to dedicate to an array, the array type,
or the array drives as shown in the figure below. Then click Designate Spare to
launch the Spare Disk Allocation Wizard.
2. Click Designate Spare and then follow the instructions in the Wizard. The figure
below shows an example of a RAID 1 array that has one spare disk dedicated to it.
Once a dedicated disk has been assigned to a particular array, it can be removed at
any time. To remove the disk, right click on the dedicated disk and select the option to
remove it. 
						

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Rebuilding a RAID Mirrored Array
Rebuilding is the process of recovering data from one hard drive to another. All data
is copied from one hard drive to another and then the data is synchronized between
the two hard drives. This only applies to RAID 1 array as well as a RAID 0+1 array.
Rebuilding Instructions
After creating a mirrored array, you can rebuild the array using the following steps:
1. Go to Windows and run the NVRAID Management utility. The figure below shows
an example of a system with one mirrored array.
2. Right-click on Mirroring. The popup menu appears.
3. From the popup menu, click Rebuild Array. The NVIDIA Rebuild Array Wizard
appears. 
						

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
4. Click Next. The Disk Selection page appears.
5.  Select the drive that you want to rebuild by clicking it from the list, then click Next.
The Completing the NVIDIA Rebuild Array page appears.
6. Click Finish. The array rebuilding starts after a few seconds, and a small pop-up
message appears towards the bottom right corner of the screen as shown in the
figure below.
During the rebuilding process, the NVRAID Management utility screen shows the
status under the System Tasks and Details sections. 
						

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More About Rebuilding Arrays
• Rebuilding Occurs in the Background
The rebuilding process is very slow (it can take up to a day) and occurs in the
background so as not to affect the performance of the system.
• Rebuilding Applies Only to RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 Arrays
Rebuilding an array works only when using RAID1 and/or RAID 0+1. Rebuilding does
not apply to RAID 0 and JBOD arrays.
• You Can Use Any Available Free Disk
You can rebuild a mirrored array using any available Free Disk or Dedicated Disk.
For example, the figure below shows a mirrored array using 34.48 GB HD while
having two Free Disks each 55.90 GB large.
To use one of these available free disks to rebuild your array, follow the same steps
as explained in “Rebuilding a RAID Mirrored Array” on p.5-20, except when prompted
to select a disk, choose one of the two available free disks.