Asus K8U-X - Manual (Page 75)

ASUS K8U-X Motherboard 3-7
3.3 RAID Configurations
This onboard Southbridge Chipset ULi M1689 allow you to set HardDisk RAID. It
supports RAID as follows:
RAID 0 (called 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.
RAID 1 (called 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.
JBOD (for “just a bunch of disks” or sometimes “just a bunch of drives”) is officially
termed as “spanning”. This is used to refer to a computerʼs hard disks that havenʼt been
configured according the RAID system to increase fault tolerance and improved
data access performance. This RAID system stores the same data redundantly on
multiple drives by combining the drives into one larger logical drive.
If you use either Windows ® XP or Windows ® 2000 operating system (OS), copy
first the RAID driver from the support CD to a floppy disk before creating RAID
configurations. Refer to section “3.4 Creating a RAID driver disk” for details.
3.3.1 Installing hard disks
The motherboard supports Serial ATA hard disk drives. For optimal performance,
install identical drives of the same model and capacity when creating a disk array.
Installing SATA hard disks
To install the SATA hard disks for RAID configuration:
1. Install the SATA hard disks into the drive bays.
2. Connect the SATA signal cables.
3. Connect the SATA power cable to the power connector on each drive.