MSI K8n Sli H Manual

							6-6MS-7100 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 F10 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 ex-
plained in “Installing the NVIDIA RAID Software Under Windows” on p6-9. 
						

							6-7 nVIDIA RAID IntroductionInstalling 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:MSI Reminds You...
Please follow the instruction below to make an nVIDIA Serial ATA 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 (including the sub-folders) in the
\
Vidia\System\CK804\IDE\Win2k-XP to a formatted floppy
disk.
4.The driver disk for nVIDIA Serial ATA driver is done.
(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: 
						

							6-8MS-7100 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 
						

							6-9 nVIDIA RAID IntroductionNVIDIA RAID Utility Installation
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. See “Initializing and Using the
Disk Array” on p6-10. 
						

							6-10MS-7100 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”
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. 
						

							6-11 nVIDIA RAID Introduction5.Check the disk in the list if you want to make the array a dynamic disk, then click
Next. The Completing the Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard window appears.
6.Click Finish. The “Computer Management” window appears.
The actual disks listed will depend on your system, and the unallocated partition is
the total combined storage of two hard disks. You must format the unallocated
disk space in order to use it.
7.Format the unallocated disk space. Right click “Unallocated space”, select “New
Partition…” and follow the wizard. After the drive has been formatted, it is ready
for use. 
						

							6-12MS-7100 ATX MainboardRAID Drives Management
There is an application called NVRAIDMAN which helps you perform the following
tasks of nVDIA RAID.
• Viewing RAID Array Configurations
View an array configuration (mirrored, striped, mirror-striped, JBOD, or any sup-
ported combination)
• Setting Up a Spare RAID Disk
• View free and/or dedicated free disks
• Designate a free disk to a particular array
• Rebuilding a RAID Mirrored Array
• Rebuild a broken mirrored array
• Watch the progress of rebuilding an array
Viewing RAID Array Configurations
To view your RAID configuration from Windows, launch the NVRAID Management
utility by double-clicking NvRaidMan.exe (the default location of NvRaidMan.exe is in
\\nVidia\System\CK8S\Win2k-XP\IDE\WinXP of the setup CD accompanied with your
mainboard).
The RAID configuration information appears in the right-side pane, as shown below.NVRAID Mirrored Array
The figure below shows an example of a two hard drive mirrored array using iden-
tical 55.90 GB IDE hard drives (ST360015A), where one drive is configured as
Master and the other drive is configured as Slave. The total hard disk space used is
55.90 GB. (1.1 GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes)MSI Reminds You...
The information in the figures in this part may very from what it is shown
in your system. 
						

							6-13 nVIDIA RAID IntroductionNVRAID 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. 
						

							6-15 nVIDIA RAID IntroductionAssigning 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.