4 using the promise – Asus A7V333 User Manual

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Chapter 5: Software support

5.4 Using the Promise

Chip for RAID 0 or 1

The Promise

chip, PDC20276, onboard the A7V333, offers a high

performance Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) configuration
that supports only UltraDMA-133/100/66/33, EIDE or FastATA-2 hard disks.
After connecting two hard disks to the motherboard, activating either RAID 0
or 1 function is easily configured through the MBFastTrak133™ “Lite” firmware
BIOS during boot up. In addition, the support CD permits installation of
system drivers according to the Operating System (OS) on your computer.
Read through this section in its entirety before setting up a new RAID system.

RAID 0 is also known as “data striping.” 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, and at a sustained data
transfer rate double that of a single disk alone. The main advantage of a
RAID 0 array is to improve the Speed Performance of data access and
storage. With FAT32 and NTFS partitioning, the array will be addressed as
one large volume.

RAID 1 is also known as “data mirroring.” Mirroring optimizes two identical
hard disk drives to copy all data from one hard disk drive to the other and
vice versa. As new data is written, it is duplicated onto both disks using a
parallel write process. The main advantage of RAID 1 is that it greatly
increases Fault Tolerance of the entire system, especially if each hard disk is
connected separately to both ATA-133 IDE channels available on the A7V333.
Should one hard disk suffer mechanical trouble, all system data will be
preserved on the other drive.

IMPORTANT!

Before setting up your new RAID array, verify the status

of your hard disks. It is possible to use a pre-existing hard disk for RAID
0 only if the data is backed up before configuring the array as all hard
disk data will be lost during the set up. RAID 0 requires at least two hard
disks for optimal results. It is possible to use a pre-existing hard disk for
RAID 1 to duplicate the source data; also, RAID 1 can set up two or more
new disks. The Promise

chip, the FastTrak™ “Lite” BIOS and the

FastBuild™ Utility on the A7V333 permit only two disks to be configured
in RAID 0 or RAID 1 pairs and combinations; a third, “hot” spare hard
disk may be used to support a RAID 1 array; (see the end of this section
for more detail). For optimal performance, install only identical hard disks
of the same model and storage capacity. Use only UltraDMA-100/66
compatible IDE cables and connectors. The Promise

chip also supports

UltraDMA-133 specifications of up to 133 MB/sec per disk, with or without
multiple disk arrays up to four hard disks.