Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product GA-7VM400MF-P Gigabyte
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SATA Host Controller User Manual Revision 1.01 May 19, 2003.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 i Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................... i Introduction ......
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 1 Introduction I NTRODUCTION This section gives a brief in troduction on the RAID-related b ackground knowledge and a brief introductio n on VIA SATA RAID Host Controller. For users wishing to install their VIA SATA RAID driv er and RAID software, proceed to Dri ver and RAID Software Installation section.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 2 Introduction JBOD (Spanning) A spanning disk array is equal to th e sum of the all drives when the drives used are having diff erent capacities. Spanning sto res data onto a drive until it is full, th en proceeds to store files on to the next drive in the array.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 3 Installing The Hard Drives I NSTALLING T HE H ARD D RIVES The VT6420 SATA controller provides the fol lowing two configurations: 1. Two SATA + Two PATA Configuratio n: VT6420 supports two “Master” SATA hard disk drives and one “Master”, on e “Slave” PATA hard disk drives.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 4 BIOS Configuratio n Utility BIOS C ONFIGURATION U TILITY Enter BIOS Configuration Utility When the system powers on, the following info rm ation will appear on screen. Press the ‘Tab’ key to enter BIOS configur ation utility.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 5 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Create Disk Array 1. Use the arrow key s to navigate t he main m enu. Use the up and down a rrow keys to select the Create Array comm and and press <Enter> to call out the list o f creation steps.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 6 BIOS Configuratio n Utility 2. Select Array Mode and press <Enter>, a list of array modes will appear. Highlight the target array mode that you want to create, and press <Enter> to confirm the sel ection.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 7 BIOS Configuratio n Utility 4. If user selects a RAID 0 array in step 2, the bl ock size of the array can also be selected. Use the arrow key to highl ight Block Size and press <Enter>, then select a block si ze from the popup m enu.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 8 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Delete Disk Array A RAID can be deleted after it has been created . To delete a RAID, use the following steps: 1. Select Delete Array in the main menu and press <Enter>. The chan nel column will be activated.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 9 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Create and Delete Spare Hard Drive If a RAID 1 array is created and there are drives that do not be long to other arrays, the one that has a capacity which is equa l to or greater than the array capacity can be selected as a spare drive for the RAID 1 a rray.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 10 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Select Boot Array User can select a disk array as boot de vice if user wants to b oot o perating system from an array. Boot disk arra y cannot be selected if the operatin g system does not b oot from the disk array .
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 11 BIOS Configuratio n Utility View Serial Number of Hard Drive Highlight Serial Number View and press <Enter>. Use arrow key to select a drive, the selected drive’s serial number can be viewed in the last colum n.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 12 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Duplicate Critical RAID 1 Array When booting up the system, BIOS will detect if the RAID 1 arra y has any incon sistencies between user data and backup d ata.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 13 BIOS Configuratio n Utility Rebuild Broken RAID 1 Array When booting up the system, BIOS will detect if any member disk drives of RAID has failed or is absent. If BIOS detects any disk drive failures or missing disk dr ives, the status of the array will be marked as broken.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 14 BIOS Configuratio n Utility 1. Power off and Check the Failed Drive: This item turns off t he computer and replaces the failed hard dr ive with a good one. If your co m puter does not support APM, you must turn off your co mputer manually.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 15 Driver and RAID Software Installation D RIVER AND RAID S OFTWARE I NSTALLATION Microsoft Windows Driver Installation 1. After Windows has finished booting up, th e system will au tomatically find the n ewly installed adapter and prompt the Found New Hardware Wizard window.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 16 Driver and RAID Software Installation 3. Confirm t he follow-up dialogue windows to fi nish the installa tion. 4. When in stallation is completed, click Finish to restart the system.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 17 Driver and RAID Software Installation Verify Installation After the driver installation is completed and the system has restarted: 1. Right-cli ck on My Computer and select Properties from t he popup menu. 2. From the popup window, cl ick on Hardware and then click on Device Manager .
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 18 RAID Software RAID S OFTWARE Installation The RAID software is installed simultaneously with driver installation..
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 19 RAID Software Getting Start After installing the GUI software, it will be automatically started every time Windows is initiated. An icon will appear in the system t ray of the tool bar to indi cate that GUI software is currentl y running.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 20 RAID Software The main interface is divide d into two windo ws and the toolbar above contain the m ain functions. Click on t hese toolbar button s to execute t heir specifi c funct ions.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 21 RAID Software View Online Help Click on to launch the Help Topics. It is recomme nded that y ou read through the help article s before using RAID utility.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 22 RAID Software View Controller and Device Status Click on or button to determine the viewing type of left window pane. There are two vie wing typ es: By controlle rs and by device. Click on t he object in the left wi ndowpane to display the st atus of the object in the right windowpane.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 23 RAID Software Create Disk Array 1. Depending on users’ pre ferences, there are three butt ons used t o create a dis k array: RAID 1, Sp an, and RAID 0. Click on the RAID but ton you want to create, t he Select Array Creating Method will be displayed.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 24 RAID Software 2. Click on Auto to la unch the creat ing array window. If Custom is selected, the available disks window lists the available disk drives that can be used t o create the array. Select a disk drive and click on the right arrow button to add th e specified disk drive to the array.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 25 RAID Software 3. A warning message will pop up after clicking on Create button. Cli ck Yes to finish the creati on of disk array, or No to cancel. 4. A message box will popup to prompt the user that disk array has been created successfully and ask th e user whether to restar t the computer.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 26 RAID Software Delete Disk Array 1. Select the disk array that you w ant to delete from the left windowpane, click o n Remo ve Array , a warning message will pop up. 2. Clic k Yes to delete the specified disk array or click No to cancel.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 27 RAID Software 3. A message box will popup to prompt the user that disk array ha s been rem oved successfully and ask the user whether to restar t the computer. Click Yes to restart the com puter or click No to skip restarting.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 28 RAID Software Add and Remove Spare Disk Drive Add Spare Disk Drive A spare disk drive can be a dded when a RAID 1 array is created. The capacity of the sp are disk drive must be greater than or equal to the capacity of the RAID 1 array.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 29 RAID Software 4. A message box will popup to prom pt the us er that a spare disk drive has been succes sfully a dded to the specific R AID 1 array , and ask whether the user would like to restart the computer. Click Yes to restart the com puter or click No to skip restarting.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 30 RAID Software Remove Spare Disk Drive Spare disk drives can be removed from a specified RAID 1 and changed int o normal hard disk dri ves. 1. Select the RAID 1 a rray that y ou want to remove f rom the spare disk d rives in the l eft windo wpane, an d click on , a warning message will popup.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 31 RAID Software Check All Disks You can check whether the di sk drives are working normally at any time by clicking on . After the disk check is co m pleted, a dialog window will pop up to show the stat us of each disk. See picture below.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 32 RAID Software View Event Log The RAID software records important events into a log file, su ch as disk a rray creation, disk array rem oval, disk failure, synchronization…etc. 1. Clic k on to display the event lo g. There are three types of log items: Information , Warning , and Error .
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 33 RAID Software 2. To view the details of a log item, you can double click on the log item, select the log ite m and press <Enter>, or select th e log item and click on Operation->View Detail in the m enu bar. The following dialo g will appear.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 34 RAID Software Verify Mirror Disk The data on the mi rror disk must be t he same with i ts corresponding source disk to provide faul t tolerance for RAID 1. 1. Select a RAID 1 array. Right-click the selected RAID, then a shortcut m enu will be shown.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 35 RAID Software 2. After executing the “v erify mirror” command, a dialog box will show the verifying process. This action can paused or cancel ed at any tim e. It may take a long tim e to verify the source and m irror disk if the capaci ty of the RAID is large.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 36 RAID Software Synchronize Mirror Disk RAID 1 arrays must be synchron ized when the data on the mirro r disk is not identical with its co rresponding source disk. Sometime s the data on the mirror di sk may be newer t han the data o n the source disk.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 37 RAID Software 2. After synchronization has star ted, a dialog box will show the process. This action can be paused or canceled at any time.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 38 RAID Software Disk Error Detection The RAID software will pop up an error messa ge if a disk drive fails or m issing..
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 39 RAID Software Duplicate Critical RAID 1 Array When booting up the system, the RAID utility will detect if ther e are any inconsistencies between the source and mirror disk dr ive s of the RAID 1 array.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 40 RAID Software Rebuild Broken RAID 1 Array After booting up the system, the RAID utility will detect if any me mber disk drives of the RAID 1 array has failed or is absent . If the RAID utility detects any disk d rive failures or missing disk drives, the status o f the array will be marked as broken.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 41 RAID Software 3. Select a disk drive from Available Disks and click on to replace the broken drive and then click Next .
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 42 RAID Software 4. A warning message will appear. If you want to rebuild the RAID using the d isk driver that you selected in the previous step , click Next . Warning: All the data on the selected disk drive will be lost.
Revision 1 .01 , May 19, 2003 43 RAID Software Icon View All icon t ypes and their c orrespon ding meani ngs are l isted bel ow. The real stat us of an array or a disk dri ve is desc ribed o n “Array status” or “Device status” in the right wi ndowpane.
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