Specifications

Modules
Setting Up SATA RAID or AHCI Mode 7 - 3
7
Prepare the following before setting up your serial ATA hard disks in RAID mode (to con-
figure AHCI mode you do not need to prepare any extra hard disks but will need to install
the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology application):
1. The Microsoft Windows 7 OS DVD.
2. A hard disk installed in the Primary HDD bay.
AND
For RAID levels 0/1: A second (identical) hard disk installed in the Primary HDD bay.
For RAID level 5: A third (identical) hard disk installed in the Secondary HDD bay.
3. The Device Drivers & Utilities + User’s Manual disc.
4. A USB Flash drive or external USB hard disk drive with the RAID folder from the Device
Drivers & Utilities + User’s Manual copied on to it.
RAID Level Description
RAID 0
Two Identical drives reading and writing data in parallel to increase performance.
RAID 0 implements a striped disk array and the data is broken into blocks and each
block is written to a separate disk drive.
RAID 1
Two Identical drives in a mirrored configuration used to protect data. Should a drive
that is part of a mirrored array fail, the mirrored drive (which contains identical data) will
handle all the data. When a new replacement drive is installed, data to the new drive is
rebuilt from the mirrored drive to restore fault tolerance.
RAID 5
Identical drives (at least three drives must be used) in a parity across disks
configuration are used to protect data and increase performance. A RAID 5 array
can withstand a single disk failure without losing access to data.
Table 7 - 1
RAID Levels

Array Types
A Mirrored Array
(RAID 1) provides full
data protection, as
data can simply be
copied from a healthy
disk to a replacement
for any failed disk.
A Striped Array
(RAID 0) is NOT fault-
tolerant. The failure of
one drive will result in
the loss of all data in
the array. It is de-
signed to increase disk
performance by
spreading the I/O load
across the channels
and drives.