Asus P7F-M WS - Manual (Page 93)

ASUS P7F-M WS 5-3
5.1 Setting up RAID
The motherboard comes with the Intel ® 3420 chipset that allows you to configure
Serial ATA hard disk drives as RAID sets. The motherboard supports the following
RAID configurations: RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and RAID 5.
• You must install Windows ® XP Service Pack 2 or later versions before using
Serial ATA hard disk drives. The Serial ATA RAID feature is available only if
you are using Windows ® XP SP2 or later versions.
• 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 6.1 Creating a RAID
driver disk for details.
5.1.1 RAID definitions
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 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.
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.