MSI K8n Neo4 Manual

							5-1
nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Chapter 5. nVidia RAID In-
troduction
NVIDIA brings Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)
technology—which is used by the world’s leading businesses—to
the common PC desktop. This technology uses multiple drives to
either increase total disk space or to offer data protection. For all
levels, RAID techniques optimize storage solutions by using multiple
disks grouped together and treating them as a single storage
resource.
nVidia RAID Introduction 
						

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MS-7125 ATX Mainboard
Introduction
System Requirement
Operating System Support
NVRAID supports the following operating systems:
Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Professional Edition
Windows 2000 Professional
RAID Arrays
NVRAID supports the following types of RAID arrays described in this section:
RAID 0:  RAID 0 defines a disk striping scheme that improves the disk read and write
times for many applications.
RAID 1:  RAID 1 defines techniques for mirroring data.
RAID 0+1: RAID 0+1 combines the techniques used in RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays.
Spanning (JBOD): JBOD provides a method for combining drives of differentsizes
into one large disk.
Summary of RAID Configurations
Array Uses  Advantages  Drawbacks  # Hard 
Disks Fault 
To l e r a n c e  
RAID 0 Non-critical data 
requiring high 
performance. High data throughput.  No fault tolerance.  multiple  None 
RAID 1 Small databases or any 
other small capacity 
environm ent requiring 
fault tolerance. 100% data 
redundancy. Requires 2 drives for 
the storage space of 1 
drive. 2 Yes  
RAID 0+1 Critical data requiring 
high performance. Optimized for both 
100% data 
redundancy and 
performance. 
Allows spare disks. Requires 2 drives for 
the storage space of 1 
drive—the same as 
RAID level 1.   4+ Yes 
JBOD Combining odd size 
drives into one big drive Combines and uses 
the capacity of odd 
size drives. Decreases 
performance because 
of the difficulty in 
using drives 
concurrently or to 
optim ize drives for 
different uses. Multiple No 
MSI Reminds You...
Please note that users cannot install OS, either WinME or Win98, in
their SATA hard drive. Under these two OSs, SATA can not support. 
						

							5-3
nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Basic Configuration Instructions
The following are the basic steps for configuring NVRAID:
Non-Bootable RAID Array
1. Choose the hard disks that are to be RAID enabled in the system BIOS.
2. Specify the RAID level, either Mirroring (RAID 1), Striping (RAID 0), Striping and
    Mirroring (RAID 0+1), or Spanning (JBOD) and create the desired RAID array.
3. Enter the Windows OS, run the Windows nForce Setup application and install the
    RAID software. (Check p.5-9 for details.)
4. Initialize the NVRAID Array Disks.
Bootable RAID Array
1. Choose the hard disks that are to be RAID enabled in the system BIOS.
2. Specify the RAID level, either Mirroring (RAID 1), Striping (RAID 0), Striping and
    Mirroring (RAID 0+1), or Spanning (JBOD) and create the desired RAID array.
3. Boot from the Windows CD, use the floppy disk that has the RAID driver to copy
    and install the nForce RAID software. (Check p.5-9 for details.)
4. Initialize the NVRAID Array Disks.
Setting Up the NVRAID BIOS
Be sure to enable the IDE RAID or SATA RAID items in RAID Config of Integrated
Peripherals in BIOS before configuring the NVRAID BIOS. After that press F10 to
save the configuration and exit. The PC will reboot right away. Then enter the RAID
BIOS Setup by pressing F10 when prompted, and follow the procedures described
below to set up the NVRAID BIOS.
NVRAID BIOS setup lets you choose the RAID array type and which hard drives you
want to make part of the array.
Entering the RAID BIOS Setup
1. After rebooting your PC, wait until you
see the RAID software prompting you
to press F10. The RAID prompt ap-
pears as part of the system POST and
boot process prior to loading the OS.
2. Press F10, and the NVIDIA RAID Utility
--- Define a New Array window will
appear.
The default RAID Mode is set to Mir-
roring and Striping Block is set to
Optimal.
RAID Configuration 
						

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MS-7125 ATX Mainboard
Understanding the “Define a New Array” Window
Use the Define a New Array window to
• Select the RAID Mode
• Set up the Striping Block
• Specify which disks to use for the RAID Array
Depending on the platform used, the system can have one or more channels. In a
typical system there is usually one controller and multiple channels, and each chan-
nel has a slave and a master.
The channel/controller/master/slave status of each hard disk is given in the Loc
(location) columns of the Free Disks and Array Disks lists.
In the example above, 1.0.M means the hard drive is attached to Channel 1, Controller
0, and the drive is set to Master. The following is a list of all possible combinations:
Parallel ATA
0.0.MChannel 0, controller 0, Master
0.0.SChannel 0, controller 0, Slave
0.1.MChannel 0, controller 1, Master
0.1.SChannel 0, controller 1, Slave
Serial ATA
1.0.MChannel 1, controller 0, Master
1.1.MChannel 1, controller 1, Master
2.0.MChannel 2, controller 0, Master
2.1.MChannel 2, controller 1, Master
MSI Reminds You...
There is no such thing as Slave drive in Serial ATA. All drives are
considered to be Master since there is a one to one connection
between the drive and the controller. 
						

							5-5
nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Using the Define a New Array Window
If necessary, press the tab key to move from field to field until the appropriate field is
highlighted.
• Selecting the RAID Mode
By default, this is set to [Mirroring]. To change to a different RAID mode, press the
down arrow key until the mode that you want appears in the RAID Mode box—either
[Mirroring], [Striping], [Spanning], or [Stripe Mirroring].
• Selecting the Striping Block Size
Striping Block size is given in kilobytes, and affects how data is arranged on the
disk. It is recommended to leave this value at the default [Optimal], which is 32KB, but
the
values can be between [4 KB] and [128 KB].
• Assigning 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 disks.
To designate a free disk to be used as a RAID array disk,
1.  Tab to the Free Disks section. The first disk in the list is selected.
2.  Move it from the Free Disks block to the Array Disks block by pressing the right
arrow key (-->). The first disk in the list is moved, and the next disk in the list is
selected and ready to be moved.
3.  Continue pressing the right-arrow key (
						

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MS-7125 ATX Mainboard
Completing the RAID BIOS Setup
1. After assigning your RAID array disks, press F7. The Clear disk data prompt
appears.
2. Press Y if you want to wipe out all the data from the RAID array, otherwise press
N. You must choose Yes if the drives were previously used as RAID drives.
The Array List window appears, where you can review the RAID arrays that you
have set up.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the array that you want to set up, then press Enter.
The Array Detail window appears.
4. If you want to mark this disk as empty and wipe out all its contents then press C.
5. At the prompt, press Y to wipe out all the data, otherwise press N.
6. Press Enter again to go back to the previous window and then press Ctrl-X to
exit the RAID setup. Now that the RAID setup has been configured from the RAID
BIOS, the next step is to configure and load NVRAID drivers under Windows, as
explained in “Installing the NVIDIA RAID Software Under Windows” on p5-9. 
						

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nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Installing the RAID Driver (for bootable RAID Array)
1. After you complete the RAID BIOS setup, boot from the Windows CD, and the
Windows Setup program starts.
2. Press F6 and wait for the Windows Setup screen to appear.
3. Specify the NVIDIA drivers:
(1) Insert the floppy that has the RAID driver, press S, then press Enter. The
Windows Setup screen appears as below:
(2) Select “NVIDIA RAID CLASS DRIVER” and then press Enter.
(3) Press S again at the Specify Devices screen, then press Enter.
(4) Select “NVIDIA NForce Storage Controller” and then press Enter. The follow-
ing Windows Setup screen appears listing both drivers:
MSI Reminds You...
Please follow the instruction below to make an nVIDIA RAID driver for
yourself.
1. Insert the MSI CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Ignore the Setup screen and use “Explorer” to browse the CD.
3. Copy all the contents (not including the sub-folders) in the
\
Vidia\System\CK804\IDE\WinXP
     or \
Vidia\System\CK804\IDE\Win2k  to a formatted floppy disk.
4. The driver disk for nVIDIA RAID driver is done.
NVIDIA RAID Utility Installation 
						

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MS-7125 ATX Mainboard
4. Press Enter to continue with Windows XP Installation. Be sure to leave the floppy
disk inserted in the floppy drive until the blue screen portion of Windows XP
installation is completed, then take out the floppy.
5. Follow the instructions on how to install Windows XP. During the GUI portion of the
install you might be prompted to click Yes to install the RAID driver. Click Yes as
many times as needed in order to finish the installation. This will not be an issue
with a signed driver.
MSI Reminds You...
Each time you add a new hard drive to a RAID array, the RAID driver
will have to be installed under Windows once for that hard drive. After
that, the driver will not have to be installed 
						

							5-9
nVIDIA RAID Introduction
Installing the NVIDIA RAID Software Under Windows
(for Non-bootable RAID Array)
The existing Windows IDE Parallel ATA driver (as well as the Serial ATA driver if SATA
is enabled) must be upgraded to use the NVIDIA IDE Parallel ATA driver (as well as the
NV Serial ATA driver if SATA is enabled).
This section describes how to run the setup application and install the RAID software
which will upgrade the Windows IDE driver and install the RAID software.
1. Start the nForce Setup program to open the NVIDIA Windows nForce Drivers page.
2. Select the modules that you want to install. Make sure that the “NVIDIA IDE Driver”
is selected.
3. Click Next and then follow the instructions.
4. After the installation is completed, be sure to reboot the PC.
5. After the reboot, initialize the newly created array. 
						

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MS-7125 ATX Mainboard
Initializing and Using the Disk Array
The RAID array is now ready to be initialized under Windows.
1. Launch Computer Management by clicking “Start” --> “Settings” --> “Control Panel”
--> “Switch to Classic View” then open the “Administrative Tools” folder and
double click on “Computer Management”.
2. Click “Disk Management” (under the “Storage” section). The Initialize and Convert
Disk Wizards appears.
3. Click Next. The Select Disks to Initialize window appears. The disks listed depend
on how many arrays you have configured.
4. Click Next. The Select Disks to Convert window appears.