ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE Manuel D’Utilisation

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Chapter 4: Software support

The motherboard supports the following SATA RAID solutions:
• 

 Rapid Storage Technology with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and RAID 5 support.

• 

You must install Windows

®

 XP Service Pack 3 or later versions before using Serial 

ATA hard disk drives. The Serial ATA RAID feature is available only if you are using 

Windows

®

 XP SP3 or later versions.

• 

Due to Windows

®

 XP / Vista limitation, a RAID array with the total capacity over 2TB 

cannot be set as a boot disk. A RAID array over 2TB can only be set as a data disk 

only.

• 

If you want to install a Windows

®

 operating system to a hard disk drive included in a 

RAID set, you have to create a RAID driver disk and load the RAID driver during OS 

installation. Refer to section 4.6 Creating a RAID driver disk for details.

RAID 0 (Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, 

interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data 

transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage. Use of two new 

identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.
RAID 1 (Data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to a second 

drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software directs all applications to the surviving 

drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive. This RAID configuration provides data 

protection and increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or use an existing drive 

and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be of the same size or larger than the existing drive.
RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more hard disk drives. Among the 

advantages of RAID 5 configuration include better HDD performance, fault tolerance, and higher 

storage capacity. The RAID 5 configuration is best suited for transaction processing, relational database 

applications, enterprise resource planning,  and other business systems. Use a minimum of three identical 

hard disk drives for this setup.
RAID 10 is data striping and data mirroring combined without parity (redundancy data) having to be 

calculated and written. With the RAID 10 configuration you get all the benefits of both RAID 0 and RAID 1 

configurations. Use four new hard disk drives or use an existing drive and three new drives for this setup.