Msi K8T Master2-FAR7 User Manual download pdf (Page 68)

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MS-9617 ATX Workstation Board

This section gives a brief introduction on the RAID-related background knowledge

and a brief introduction on VIA SATA RAID Host Controller. For users wishing to install

their VIA SATA RAID driver and RAID software, proceed to Driver and RAID Soft-

ware Installation section.

RAID Basics

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining two or more

hard disk drives into one logical unit. The advantage of an Array is to provide better

performance or data fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is achieved through data redun-

dant operation, where if one drives fails, a mirrored copy of the data can be found on

another drive. This can prevent data loss if the operating system fails or hangs. The

individual disk drives in an array are called “members”. The configuration information

of each member is recorded in the “reserved sector” that identifies the drive as a

member. All disk members in a formed disk array are recognized as a single physical

drive to the operating system.

Hard disk drives can be combined together through a few different methods. The

different methods are referred to as different RAID levels. Different RAID levels

represent different performance levels, security levels and implementation costs.

The RAID levels which the VIA VT8237 SATA RAID Host Controller supports are RAID

0 and RAID 1. The table below briefly introduced these RAID levels.

Introduction

RAID Level

No. of Drives

Capacity Benefits

RAID 0

(Striping)

2 Number drives * 2

Highest performance without

data protection

RAID 1

(Mirroring)

2 Smallest size Data protection

RAID 0 (Striping)

RAID 0 reads and writes sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives. If any

disk member fails, it affects the entire array. The disk array data capacity is equal to

the number of drive members times the capacity of the smallest member. The striping

block size can be set from 4KB to 64KB. RAID 0 does not support fault tolerance.

RAID 1 (Mirroring)

RAID 1 writes duplicate data onto a pair of drives and reads both sets of data in

parallel. If one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical failure or does not respond,

the remaining drive will continue to function. Due to redundancy, the drive capacity of

the array is the capacity of the smallest drive. Under a RAID 1 setup, an extra drive

called the .spare drive. can be attached. Such a drive will be activated to replace a

failed drive that is part of a mirrored array. Due to the fault tolerance, if any RAID 1

drive fails, data access will not be affected as long as there are other working drives

in the array.

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