MSI K8n Sli H Manual

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Create RAID set is used to create a new legacy RAID Set or for allocating legacy
spare drives.
Delete RAID set is used to delete a legacy RAID Set or to deallocate a legacy
spare drive.
Rebuild RAID 1 Set is used to initiate the rebuild of a RAID 1 set after, for
example, a drive in the Group has been replaced.
Resolve Conflicts is used to automatically find the member drives of a RAID set
which has been disrupted (physical drives
swapped around, for example) and restore the Set to proper operation.
Low Level Format allows a single drive to have its data completely wiped out.
Drives assigned to Sets or allocated as spares
cannot be low level formatted.
Logical Drive Info shows the current configuration of each RAID set, allocated
spare, and unallocated physical drive attached
to the SATA host adapter.
These operations are detailed in the pages that follow.
Help Window
This window displays context-sensitive help and status messages.
Physical Drive Information
This window displays the model number and capacities of the drives physically
attached to the SATA host adapter.
Logical Drive Information
This window displays all logical drives connected to the controller. The upper part
lists RAID sets and JBOD drives reported to the system BIOS. The lower part lists
spare drives, reserved drives, conflict drives, and invalid drives not reported to
the system BIOS.
Command Line
The bottom line of the display lists the currently active command keys:
Up and Down arrows select the menu item or action
ESC takes the user to the previous menu
Enter selects the highlighted choice
Ctrl-E exits the utility
Other keys may be active depending upon the currently selected action. 
						

							7-5 Silicon RAID IntroductionCreating RAID Groups
As previously discussed, the Silicon Image SATA host adapter supports RAID 0, 1,
and Concatenation configurations. The selection of the RAID level to be used should
be based upon factors including performance, data security, and number of drives
available. It is best to carefully consider the long-term role of the system and plan the
data storage strategy appropriately.Silicon Image has made the creation of RAID sets
very simple. They can be created either automatically or to allow the greatest flexibility,
manually.
1. Select “Create RAID set”
2. Choose a RAID 0 Striped, a RAID 1 Mirrored, or a Concatenation combination
set.
3. Select “Automatically” or “Manually configuration” of the RAID Set. 
						

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4. If manual configuration is selected, the chunk size of RAID Sets can be selected.
5. If auto configuration is selected, BIOS will select RAID member drives automatically.
6. Select RAID set size with    and    keys.7. After the RAID set size is set, the message “Are You Sure?” will display before
completing the configuration. Answer “N” to abort the creation of the new RAID
set, or “Y” to proceed with the RAID set creation.
8. RAID sets can be created in both BIOS and in the SATARaid GUI. If you have
excess capacity left on your hard drives after creating a RAID set in the BIOS, you
can later go to the SATARaid GUI to create additional logical drives that fully
utilize the capacity on all your hard drives.
Creating Spare Drive
If there is a RAID 1 set, spare driver can be created. The spare drive can be
allocated to the RAID 1 set in the event of a failure of one of the drives in the RAID
1 set.
1. To create a spare drive for RAID 1 set, Select “Create RAID set”
2. Select “Spare Drive” and press Enter.
3. Select spare drive from the physical drive list and press Enter.
4. Select spare drive size with    and    keys.
5. After the spare drive size is set, the message “Are You Sure?” will display
before completing the configuration. Answer “N” to abort the creation of the spare
drive, or “Y” to proceed with the spare drive creation. 
						

							7-7 Silicon RAID IntroductionCreating Concatenation
Since BIOS no longer reports non-RAID drives to the system BIOS, if a non-RAID
boot drive or data drive is desired, a Concatenation can be created so BIOS will
report it to the system BIOS.
1. To create a Concatenation, Select ”Create RAID set”
2. Select “Concatenation” and press Enter.
3. Select Concatenation drive from the physical drive list and press Enter.
4. Select Concatenation size with    and    keys.
5. After the Concatenation size is set, the message “Are You Sure?” will display
before completing the configuration. Answer “N” to abort the creation of the
Concatenation, or “Y” to proceed with the Concatenation creation.Deleting RAID Groups, Spare Drive, and Concatenation
1. To remove one or more RAID sets, spare drives, and Concatenation, select
“Delete RAID set”
2. Select the desired item to delete from the logical drive list and press Enter.
3. Press “Y” when asked, “Are You Sure?”
4. The drives will be returned to the selection of logical drives from which a new
RAID set can be created. 
						

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Rebuild RAID 1 Set
This menu selection is used to initiate the copying of data from an existing drive to
a replacement drive that has been installed in a RAID 1 set after the failure of one
of the members.
1. Select “Rebuild RAID 1 set”
2. Select the desired set and press Enter.
3. Press “Y” when asked, “Are You Sure?”
4. The set will be rebuilt. The status of the rebuild is displayed in the MAIN MENU
window.
Resolving Conflicts
When a RAID set is created, the metadata written to the disk includes drive connec-
tion information including the channel on the host adapter to which it is connected. If
after a disk failure the replacement disk was previously part of a RAID set or used in
another system, it may have conflicting metadata, specifically in reference to the
drive connection information. If so, this will prohibit the RAID set from being either
created or rebuilt. In order for the RAID set to function properly, this old metadata
must be first overwritten with the new metadata. To correct this, select “Resolve
Conflict” and the correct metadata, including the correct drive connection information;
will automatically be written to the replacement disk. 
						

							7-9 Silicon RAID Introduction2. Select the “Conflict” entry in the Logical Drive Status window and press Enter. 1. Select “Resolve Conflicts” and press Enter. 
						

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3. Note that some conflict resolutions may result in the drive letter assignment changing;
for example the RAID set may have been drive D: but after the conflict resolution, it
may become drive E. Be aware of this when performing a conflict resolution. To
maintain the same drive lettering, the SATA cables connected to the drives may need
to be swapped, or in the case of a SATA-based removable drive unit, the order of the
drives within the chassis made need to be changed.
Press ‘Y’ to accept the change and resolve the conflict.
4. The conflict will be resolved. The RAID Set will appear in the Logical Drive window. 
						

							7-11 Silicon RAID IntroductionLow Level Formatting
The Low Level Format menu selection allows the complete erasure of data on a hard
drive. This is not an action, which typically needs to be performed as formatting the
drive under Windows is usually sufficient to prepare the drive for use.
Logical Drive Information
This menu item allows the display of the assignment of physical drives within a logical
set (RAID set, RAID 1 spare, or unassigned). It is a display-only function. Use the up
and down arrow keys to scroll between the drives in the Logical Drive Properties
window. Press the ESC key when done viewing logical drive information. 
						

							7-12MS-7100 ATX MainboardReserved Drive and Setting Size for RAID Set, Spare Drive, or
Concatenation
Once a physical drive has been used to create a RAID set, spare drive, or
Concatenation by BIOS utility, BIOS saves user selected set or drive size in the
reserved area of the physical drive. There is no way to remove the reserved area
information even after the user deletes the set or drive. For this reason, after a set
or drive is deleted, BIOS recognizes the physical drive as a reserved logical drive
and it will not report the drive to the system BIOS.
When user selects to create a RAID set, spare drive, or Concatenation, he or she
has to select size for the set or drive. BIOS will set a default size for it and user
can use the   and   keys to change the size. If the physical drive has never been
used to create a set or drive by the BIOS before, the full size of the physical drive
will be set as default size. Otherwise, BIOS will set default size to the size it
saved in the reserved area of the physical drive before.
If the user wants to increase the default size, BIOS will display a warning
message in the help window and for user’s response
before changing the default size. 
						

							7-13 Silicon RAID IntroductionInstall Driver in Windows XP / 2000
† New Windows XP / 2000 Installation
     The following details the installation of the drivers while installing Windows XP /
      2000.
1.Start the installation:
Boot from the CD-ROM. Press F6 when the message Press F6 if  you
need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver appears.
2.When the Windows XP/2000 Setup window is generated, press  key to
specify an Additional Device(s).
3.Insert the driver diskette Silicon Image RAID Driver For Win2K/XP
driver into drive A: and press .
4.Choose the driver Silicon Image Sil 3132 SATARAID Controller that
appears on Windows XP/2000 Setup screen, and press the  key.
5.Press  to continue with installation or if you need to specify any
additional devices to be installed, do so at this time. Once all devices are
specified, press  to continue with installation.
6.From the Windows XP/2000 Setup screen, press the  key. Setup
will now load all device files and then continue the Windows XP/2000
installation.
†  Installing OS on RAID Drive
1.After setup examines your disks, it will copy files to Windows installation
folders and restart the system.
2.The setup program will continue and finish the installation after restarting.
3.Wait until Windows XP/2000 finishes installing devices, regional settings,
networking settings, components, and final set of tasks, then reboot the
system if necessary.
†  Confirming Windows XP/2000 Driver Installation
1.From Windows XP/2000, open the Control Panel from My Computer
followed by the System icon.
2.Choose the Hardware tab, then click the Device Manager tab.
3.Click the + in front of the SCSI and RAID Controllers hardware type.
The driver should appear.Installing the RAID Driver (For bootable RAID array)MSI Reminds You...
The Silicon Image Sil 3132 SATARAID Driver Installation Disk should
be accompanied in the mainboard package. You may make the Serial
ATA RAID driver by yourself by following the instruction below.
1.Insert the MSI CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2.Click the “Browse CD” botton on the Setup Screen.
3.Copy all the contents (including the sub-folders) in the
\
Vidia\IDE\Silicon_Image\Sil3132\RAID to a formatted floppy
disk. (For bootable non-RAID device, the copy path is
\
Vidia\IDE\Silicon_Image\Sil3132\SATA)
4.The driver disk for Silicon Image Sil 3132 SATARAID
(SATALINK) Controller  is done.