ASUSTeK COMPUTER ITE8212F Manuale utente
RAID installation guide for ITE8212F
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Contents
Contents 2
1Introduction 3
1.1 About this Guide 3
1.2 The Basics 3
1.2.1 What is RAID? 3
1.2.2 Advantages of RAID 3
1.2.3 Disadvantages of RAID 3
1.3 Different Types of RAID Configurations 3
1.3.1 RAID 0 (Striping) 3
1.3.2 RAID 1 (Mirroring) 3
1.3.3 RAID 0+1 (Striping/Mirroring) 4
1.3.4 JBOD (Spanning) 4
2Drivers 4
2.1 Creating a Driver Disk 4
2.2 Installing Drivers 5
3Installing Hard Disks 7
4Creating a RAID Array 7
4.1 Configuring BIOS 7
4.2 Using the BIOS Configuration Utility 8
4.3 Auto Configuration 9
4.4 Define RAID 10
4.5 Delete RAID 13
4.6 Rebuild RAID 14
4.7 RAID Card Configuration 16
5Using your RAID Drive 17
5.1 Partitioning and Formatting Under Windows XP 17
5.2 Installing an OS on a RAID Drive 17
5.2.1 Installing Windows 2000/XP 17
6Using Hard Drives as Non-RAID 20
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1Introduction
1.1About this Guide
This document provides a brief step-by-step guide for beginners in how to set up a RAID
drive using the onboard ITE8212F RAID controller, operating under the Windows XP
environment. This guide was designed to only cover the basic operations in setting up
RAID. Should this document not cover what you need, please refer to the ITE8212 RAID
User’s Manual provided on the motherboard’s Support CD.
1.2The Basics
1.2.1What is RAID?
A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) controller lets you combine multiple hard
disks to simulate a single drive.The drive created will properties different to that of the
individual drives.
1.2.2Advantages of RAID
The obvious advantage of using a RAID configuration is the ability to create drives with
larger capacity.However, since multiple drives are used, data can be stored in such a way
that it spans over many disks, thus the information can be accessed by the disks
simultaneously, significantly improving data access times.
1.2.3Disadvantages of RAID
Using many drives has adisadvantage. The probability of a single drive failing out of many
drives is much higher than that of one failing out of only one.This results in a greater
chance of losing the information on your disks. There are ways however, to minimize this
effect, even making it more reliable than using single disks.
1.3Different Types of RAID Configurations
There are many different ways in which RAID can be configured, each with its set of
advantages and disadvantages. The ITE8212F controller supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID
0+1 and JOBD configurations, each one is described below.
1.3.1RAID 0 (Striping)
RAID 0 works by breaking down data and spreading it over multiple disk drives. RAID 0
does not protect data from failure, and due to the way it stores data, a fault on one drive
would result in failure of the entire array. It does however, have vast improvements in both
reading and writing speeds, with the theoretical speed proportional to the number of disks
used in the array. It is also fairly efficient in using disk space, with its size is equal to the
size of the smallest disk multiplied by the number of disks.
1.3.2RAID 1 (Mirroring)
RAID 1 works by maintaining an identical copy ofthe data ofone drive onanother. If either
of these drives should fail, no information is lost as the second drive will always contain an
identical copy of the other. A RAID 1 system can be recovered by simply replacing the
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damaged disk and mirroring the data on the new drive. This method should cause a
decrease in writing speeds, and results in a disk capacity equivalent to that of the smaller
disk.
1.3.3RAID 0+1 (Striping/Mirroring)
RAID 0+1 combines RAID 0 and RAID 1, creating two arrays of RAID 0, one mirroring the
other. This method has both the faster data access speeds of RAID 0 and the data
security level of RAID 1.Its disk capacity (in a 4 drive array) is double that of the smallest
drive.
1.3.4JBOD (Spanning)
Standing for Just a Bunch Of Disks, JBOD simply stores data on a drive in an array and
moves on onto another in the array when it is full. It creates a drive size equal to the sum
of the sizes of all the drives in the array with no performance enhancement. JBOD does
not protect data from failure and a fault on one drive will cause the entire array to fail.
2Drivers
A driver is required for your operating system (OS) to recognize your RAID drives. If you
are planning to install Windows 2000 or XP on a RAID drive, you will need a copy of the
drivers on a floppy disk during installation (refer to 2.1 Creating aDriver Disk). If the RAID
drive is to be installed onto a system with an existing OS, please ensure the drivers are
correctly installed for your OS to recognize the newly constructed RAID system (refer to
2.2 Installing Drivers).
2.1Creating a Driver Disk
**This will most likely need to be done on a second computer unless you are re-installing
your OS onto a RAID drive.**
1)Insert your motherboard’s Support CD into your CD-ROM drive. A menu should
automatically pop up if Autorun is enabled.
2)Go to My Computer and then your CD-ROM drive to find the folder. Please note that
the directory structure may vary between different Support CDs.
3)Run MakeDisk.exe.
4)Insert a floppy into your floppy drive and click on Extract. This will copy the driver files
onto the floppy.
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5)When the program finishes copying the files, click on Quit to close the program.
2.2Installing Drivers
The drivers for the ITE8212 IDE RAID controller should be already installed if you have
followed your motherboard’s manual after installing your OS. However, it is still best to
check.
1)Under Windows XP, right click on My Computer and go to properties.
2)Click on the Hardware tab and then click on Device Manager.
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3)Open SCSI and RAID controllers and check if ITE RAID Controller (Windows XP) is
there.
4)If it is, then you should be ready to install your RAID drive. If not, follow the remaining
steps to install the driver.
5)Insert your motherboard’s Support CD into your CD-ROM drive. A menu should
automatically pop up if Autorun is enabled.
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6)Click on the Drivers tab and then on ITE8212 Driver and Application. Likewise, if
Autorun isn’t enabled, run the installer from \Drivers\ITE8212\Driver\ITERAID.exe.
3Installing Hard Disks
The ITE8212 controller supports up to a maximum of 4 hard disks,2 parallel ATA disks on
each of the 2 connectors.
For a RAID 0 or JBOD array, a minimum of 2 disks must be used.A RAID 1 array needs
two disks while a RAID 0+1 needs four disks.
When installing hard disks for a RAID array, it is preferable to use disks that are similar in
disk capacity. For best results,please use identical disks.
Connect your hard drives, please refer to your motherboard’s manual for help if necessary.
4Creating a RAID Array
4.1Configuring BIOS
Please note that procedures may vary between different motherboards. Check with your
motherboard’s manual if you have any problems.
1)Power on your computer and go into the BIOS settings by pressing the <Delete> key
during the boot sequence.
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2)Enter the Advanced menu by pressing the right arrow key.
3)Browse until you reach the Onboard Devices Configuration and then press <Enter>.
4)Set ITE8212F Controller to RAID Mode.
5)Press <F10> to save your settings and reboot.
4.2Using the BIOS Configuration Utility
The ITE8212 RAID BIOS Setup Utility is used to manage your RAID arrays with this
chipset.
On that screen it alsolists the drivesconnected to your ITE8212F RAID controller.
Enter the Setup Utility by pressing<Ctrl-F>or <Ctrl-E> when it prompts you toduring boot.
The main menu of the Setup Utility allows you to access the functions used to create and
manage your RAID arrays.
There are five options in the main menu, please press 1~5 to enter the submenu or the
“Esc”key to quit the Setup Utility.
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4.3Auto Configuration
This function allows you to quickly create a RAID drive using default settings. (Please
make you have already back up your data in hard drive before you create arrays)
1)Enter the Setup Utility and select1 Auto Configuration.
2)Use the arrow keys "and !and the “space”key to change the options.
3)There are five configuration options:
RAID Type Raid Mode Number of disks
required
RAID 0 Striping 2 or 3 or 4
RAID 1 Mirroring 2
RAID 0+1 Striping + Mirroring 4
JBOD Span 2 or 3 or 4
IDE None 1 or 2 or 3 or 4
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4)Press <Ctrl-Y> to save the setting, or “Esc”key to leave Auto Configuration and go
back to theMain Menu.
5)Setting up a new array will cause old data on the disks to disappear. A warning
message will appear on the screen. Press<Y> to create the array, or any key to cancel
the array creation.
4.4Define RAID
This function allows you to manually create RAID arrays, allowing better flexibility over
what was offered when setting up automatically.
1)Enter the Setup Utility and select2 Define RAID.
2)Use arrow keys #and $to highlight the Array No you wish to define. Please use the
“space”key to make the array bootable if you would like to boot your system from the
array. Press <Enter> to select the highlighted Array No and enter Define RAID
submenu to configure the array. Press <Esc>to quit and go back to theMain Menu.
Indice
