MS-6728 ATX Mainboard
C-2
Introduction
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 Software Installation section.
RAID Basics
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combin-
ing 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 redundant 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. Dif-
ferent RAID levels represent different performance levels, security levels and
implementation costs. The RAID levels which the VIA VT6420 SATA RAID
Host Controller supports are RAID 0 and RAID 1. The table below briefly
introduced these RAID levels.
RAID Level No. of Drives Capacity Benefits
RAID 0
(Striping)
2 Number drives *
Smallest size
Highest performance without data
protection
RAID 1
(Mirroring)
2 Smallest size Data protection
JBOD
(Spanning)
2 Sum of all drives No data protection and
performance improving, but disk
capacity is fully used.
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