MSI P4m900m3l Manual

A-3 VIA VT8237 SATA RAID IntroductionImportantBIOS Configuration
When the system powers on during the POST (Power-On Self Test) process, press
 key to enter the BIOS configuration.
The Serial ATA RAID volume may be configured using the VIA Tech. RAID BIOS. Always
use the arrow keys to navigate the main menu, use up and down arrow key to select
the each item and press  to call out the list of creation steps. The main interface
of BIOS configuration utility is as below:The BIOS Configuration pictures shown...

MS-7255 Mainboard
A-4Important Create Disk Array
Use the up and down arrow keys to select the Create Array command and press
.
Select Array Mode  and press , a list of array modes will appear.  Highlight the
target array mode that you want to create, and press  to confirm the selection.
If RAID 1 is selected, an option list will popup and enable the users to select Create
and duplicate which allows BIOS copy the data from the source to the mirroring drive.The “Channel”, “Drive  Name”, “Mode” and “Size...

A-5 VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Introduction
If user selects a RAID 0 array in step 2, the block size of the array can also be selected.
Use the arrow key to highlight Block Size and press , then select a block size
from the popup menu.  The block size can be 4KB to 64KB. After array mode is selected, there are two methods to create a disk array.  One
method is “Auto Setup” and the other one is “Select Disk Drives”.   Auto Setup
allows BIOS to select the disk drives and create arrays automatically, but it does...

MS-7255 Mainboard
A-6Important
Delete Disk Array
A RAID can be deleted after it has been created.  To delete a RAID, use the following
steps:
1.Select Delete Array in the main menu and press .  The channel column
will be activated.
2.Select the member of an array that is to be deleted and press .  A warning
message will show up, press Y to delete or press N to cancel.
Deleting a disk array will destroy all the data on the disk array except RAID 1
arrays.  When a RAID is deleted, the data on these two...

A-7 VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Introduction
Create and Delete Spare Hard Drive
If a RAID 1 array is created and there are drives that do not belong to other arrays, the
one that has a capacity which is equal to or greater than the array capacity can  be
selected  as a spare drive  for the RAID 1 array.  Select Create/Delete Spare  and
press , the channel column will then be activated.  Select the drive that you
want to use as a spare drive and press , the selected drive will be marked as
Spare.  The spare...

MS-7255 Mainboard
A-8 Rebuild Broken RAID 1 Array
When booting up the system, BIOS will detect if any member disk drives of RAID has
failed or is absent.  If BIOS detects any disk drive failures or missing disk drives, the
status of the array will be marked as broken.
If BIOS detects a broken RAID 1 array but there is a spare hard drive available for
rebuilding the broken array, the spare hard drive will automatically become the mirroring
drive.  BIOS will show a main interface just like a duplicated...

A-9 VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Introduction
1.Power off and Check the Failed Drive:
This item turns off the computer and replaces the failed hard drive with a good one.
If your computer does not support APM, you must turn off your computer manually.
After replacing the hard drive, boot into BIOS and select Choose replacement
drive and rebuild to rebuild the broken array.
2.Destroy the Mirroring Relationship:
This item cancels the data mirroring relationship of the broken array.  For broken
RAID 1 arrays, the...

MS-7255 Mainboard
A-10Install Driver in Windows OS
†New Windows OS (2000/XP/NT4) Installation
The following details the installation of the drivers while installing Windows  XP.
1.Start the installation:
-If your driver disk is damaged or  lost, make a new driver disk by copying
all the necessary files from the provided MSI CD: [ \IDE\VIA\Floppy ]
-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 Setup window is...

A-11 VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Introduction
Once the installation is complete, go to Start ---> Programs --->VIA ---> RAID --->
raid_tool.exe to enable VIA RAID Tool.After the software is finished installation, it will automatically
start whenever Windows is initiated. You may double-click
on the          icon shown in the system tray of the tool bar to
launch the VIA RAID Tool utility.The main interface is divided into two windows and the toolbar above contain the main
functions. Click on these toolbar...

MS-7255 Mainboard
A-12Click on the plus (+) symbol next to Array 0---RAID 0 to see the details of each disk.Click on  or  button to determine the viewing type of left window pane. There are
two viewing types: By controllers and by device.  Click on the object in the left window
pane to display the status of the object in the right windowpane. The following screen
shows the status of Array 0---RAID 0. It means that VT8237 SATA RAID only has the feature of monitoring the status of RAID
0 or RAID 1.Appendix...