Asrock 4coren73pv-hd720p r1.0 Installation Guide

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1. 
NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide 
 
NVIDIA BIOS RAID Installation Guide is an instruction for you to configure RAID 
functions by using NVIDIA RAID Utility under BIOS environment. After you make a 
SATA / SATAII driver diskette, press <F2> to enter BIOS setup to set the option to 
RAID mode by following the detailed instruction of the “User Manual” in our support CD 
or “Quick Installation Guide”, you can start to use NVIDIA RAID Utility to configure 
RAID.   
 
This section includes examples of using NVRAID RAID Utility for creating RAID arrays. 
If your motherboard is equipped with two SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use 
RAID 0, RAID 1, or JBOD function with your motherboard. If your motherboard is 
equipped with four SATA / SATAII ports, you may choose to use RAID 0, RAID 1, 
RAID 0+1, JBOD, or RAID 5 function with your motherboard according to the SATA / 
SATAII HDDs amount you install. Please refer to the RAID functions your motherboard 
provides in advance and follow the instruction in this section to create RAID arrays.   
 
 
1.1 Introduction to RAID 
 
The term “RAID” stands for “Redundant Array of Independent Disks”, which is a 
method combining two or more hard disk drives into one logical unit. For optimal 
performance, please install identical drives of the same model and capacity when 
creating a RAID set. 
 
RAID 0 (Data Striping) 
RAID 0 is called data striping that optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and 
write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. It will improve data access and storage since 
it will double the data transfer rate of a single disk alone while the two hard disks 
perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate.   
 
WARNING!!  
Although RAID 0 function can improve the access performance, it does not provide any fault 
tolerance. Hot-Plug any HDDs of the RAID 0 Disk will cause data damage or data loss. 
 
RAID 1 (Data Mirroring)   
RAID 1 is called data mirroring that copies and maintains an identical image of data 
from one drive to a second drive. It provides data protection and increases fault 
tolerance to the entire system since the disk array management software will direct 
all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in 
the other drive if one drive fails.