RAID RAIDExpress 133 User manual

RAIDExpress 133 RAID
USER MANUAL
Preliminary Specification 0.3

Notice
Reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information in this
manual is accurate. We assume no liability for technical inaccuracies,
typographical, or other errors contain herein.
Backup your important data before using the IDE RAID product, and
use at your own risk. In no event shall we be liable for any loss of
profile, or for direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential
damages arising from any defect or error in our products or manuals.

Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................1
Features ...........................................................................................................2
What is the RAIDExpress 133 card..................................................................3
Quick Start................................................................................................................5
Unpack your RAIDExpress 133 Card package.................................................5
Install the RAIDExpress 133 Card....................................................................6
Create Your Disk Array .....................................................................................8
Setup Utility............................................................................................................14
Using the RAIDExpress 133 Card Setup Utility..............................................14
RAIDExpress 133 Card Setup Utility Main Menu............................................15
Auto Configuration..........................................................................................16
Define RAID....................................................................................................21
Delete RAID....................................................................................................27
Rebuild RAID..................................................................................................30
RAID Card Configuration................................................................................35
Driver Installation...................................................................................................37
Windows XP...................................................................................................38
Windows 2000................................................................................................44
Linux...............................................................................................................52
Application .............................................................................................................60
Installation ......................................................................................................60
Functions Description.....................................................................................63
How to Create Disk Array? .............................................................................75
Q&A.........................................................................................................................77
Technology Support ..............................................................................................78

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Introduction
This manual is mainly to help users setup the RAIDExpress 133 card and solve
problems when they use it.
If it is your first time to use the RAIDExpress 133 card and you are about to install it,
please refer to the “Quick Start” section on page 5. After finishing installing it, you
can get the advantages of enhancing the performance and raising the system’s
reliability.
When you face any difficulties and find anything you don’t understand while using the
RAIDExpress 133 card, please refer to the “Q&A” section on page 93. In this section,
you can refer to the problems users may face and find the correct solutions. You can
follow the instructions to solve your problems and then you will get satisfactory
results.
If there are still any questions you don’t understand, please refer to the “Technology
Support” section on page 94 to look for technical support.

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Features
 Compatible with the ATA/ATAPI-6 specification and supports two IDE channels
with 4 drives.
 Supports ANSI ATA proposal PIO modes 0,1,2,3,4 with flow control, DMA
Modes 0,1,2,3,4,5,6.
 512 bytes FIFO for auto transfer per IDE channel to get a high performance
 Supports the RAID 0/1/0+1 function.
 Supports the JBOD function.
 Supports the Scatter/Gather function for the DMA/UDMA function.
 Includes one embedded CPU and firmware on the system to handle the RAID
function. It can reduce the driver’s loading of system CPU and improve the
system’s ability.
 Supports Hot Swap function and doesn’t need any special HD removable box.
 Low CPU utilization based on local processor architecture.
 Compatible with PCI Local bus specification v2.2. Our systems can be easily
installed to PCs.
 Supports PCI power Management v1.0 to reduce the power consumption.
 Supports the drivers for Windows 98SE/ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows
2000/XP and Linux v2.4.1.0.

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What is the RAIDExpress 133 card
This RAIDExpress 133 card is an excellent product resulting from Soc concept. It
includes one RAID Chip combining the CPU, firmware, advanced PCI controller and
IDE controller. Its architecture can provide users a RAID system with low CPU
utilization. When a PC is in the high CPU operation or PCI traffic, users won’t have
any penalties for installing the RAID system. This is because this system embeds a
local CPU to deal with the RAID function and it’s unnecessary to share CPU’s
performance. It is entirely different from the traditional software RAID system.
Similarly, it also provides users more system stability. It provides users high speed
and integration and a low price PC RAID system. Additionally, it also provides PCI
33MHz interface and is compatible with PCI spec. v2.2. It can be easily installed into
the PC system nowadays. Besides, we provide each OS a corresponding driver so
that users don’t have to worry that their systems and the IDE RAID system have any
compatibility issue.
This RAIDExpress 133 card can support IDE drivers ranging from the lowest speed of
PIO mode drive to the highest speed of ATA/133 drive. Thus, users can use this
characteristic to combine RAID system without any limitations. Users can use
ATA/133 drive and RAID function to achieve the best performance and get the merit
of system’s stability.
The RAIDExpress 133 card can support the RAID0 (striping), RAID1 (mirroring),
RAID0+1 (striping and mirroring) or JBOD (spanning) mode. When a system is
programmed to the RAID0 mode, it can read or write two drivers at the same time to
enhance the performance. When a system is programmed to the RAID1 mode, two
drivers have the same data and it will prevent data from being damaged. Once data
are damaged, the system will start the rebuild function automatically and save data
back to another new drive. Similarly, this system can use this data-copying

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characteristic to let two drivers transmit at the same time and balance the
performance to raise the throughput. The RAID0+1 mode uses four drivers to get the
merits of RAID0 and RAID1. As for the JBOD mode, it combines more than two
drives into a drive with a large capacity. This mode does not have the RAID function
and its merits.

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Quick Start
This section leads you to quickly establish your RAID system with default settings.
The default settings can meet most people’s requirements. If you need more
advanced optimal, please refer to Setup Utility on page 14 to achieve your goal.
Unpack your RAIDExpress 133 Card package
When you unpack your RAIDExpress 133 card package, you can see the following
items.
 RAIDExpress 133 card.
 RAIDExpress 133 manual.
 RAIDExpress 133 card software CD.
 Two 80-wire/40-pin Ultra ATA/133 hard drive cables.
I f you lack anything mentioned above, please contact your distributor to ask for
remedy.
Warning: In order to prevent any data loss resulting from
inappropriate operation, please backup data before you start to
install your system.
!

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Install the RAIDExpress 133 Card
This RAIDExpress 133 card meets the PCI v2.2 standard and can be easily installed
under 32-bit PCI slots of different PC systems. Please follow the following procedures
to install it.
1. Remove the case of the PC system.
2. Remove the inside slot cover of any available 32-bit PCI slot.
3. Install the RAIDExpress 133 card in this open slot.
4. Attach Ultra ATA/133 hard drives to the RAIDExpress 133 card.

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The hard drives which are required for the installation
The hard drives, which are connected on the RAIDExpress 133 card, can support
Ultra ATA/133, Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra ATA/33, EIDE or Fast ATA-2 drives.
Nevertheless, for the best performance, it is suggested that you had better use the
hard drives of the same type and capacity to establish your own RAID system. After
getting ready for the hard drives, you can follow the procedures below to install the
system.
1. Exactly set up every hard drive’s master and slave setting to assure that the
hard drives can surely action and unnecessarily incorrect action of data access
won’t occur.
2. Exactly insert the hard drive’s cables into the connectors on the hard drive and
check if it’s really firmly inserted.
3. Insert every power cable connector into the corresponding hard drive and
check if it’s firmly inserted in a correct direction.
Warning: Because this system can support the hard drives of
Ultra ATA/133, it is suggested that you can use the 80-wire,
40-pin cable included in the package to connect the
RAIDExpress 133 card and hard drives in order to assure the
system’s ability and efficiency. If the cable is damaged after a period of time, it
is also suggested to buy the cable with the same specification.
!

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Create Your Disk Array
You can create your own array using the onboard BIOS utility of the RAIDExpress
133 card with the attached hard drives. Please follow the steps below to setup your
disk array.
!
Warning: Please backup data in your hard drives to prevent data
damage resulting from the unfamiliarity with the operation.
1. Boot your system
Please attach your hard drives to the RAIDExpress 133 card, boot your system
and then you will see the following message shown by the RAIDExpress 133
card onboard BIOS on the screen.

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Please press “Ctrl-F” or “Ctrl-E” keys to enter the BIOS utility Main Menu. The screen
below will appear.

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Please click ”1” to enter the Auto Configuration window. It will guide you to set an
array and this is the simplest and fastest way to create your first array. Under the
Setup Array Type as option, you can use arrow keys →and ←and the “space”
bar key to change your option to setup your array type.

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Totally, there are five configurations supported:
RAID level/Type Configurations Number of disks needed
RAID 0 Disk Striping 2 or 3 or 4
RAID 1 Disk Mirroring 2
RAID 0+1 Disk Striping + Mirroring 4
JBOD Disk Concatenation 2 or 3 or 4
IDE None 1 or 2 or 3 or 4
Setup Array for RAID 0:
The RAIDExpress 133 card allows you to use two, three or four hard drives to set a
RAID 0 (stripe) array. All the hard drives attached on the controller will be set as array
0. When you create a striped array, files are broken into 64k (stripe size) and stripes
are sent to each disk in the array. Selecting RAID 0 can increase data transfer rate
and allow the best overall performance characteristics because of giving up
redundancy.

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Setup Array for RAID 1:
The RAIDExpress 133 card allows two drives to be setup as a RAID 1 (mirror) array
or four drives as two arrays. The first mirrored array will be set as array 0 and the
second as array 1. RAID 1 is implemented as mirroring; a drive has its data
duplicated on the other different drive. Selecting RAID 1 can enhance read
performance and allow fault tolerance. A RAID 1 array can thoroughly backup your
files to prevent data loss.
!
Warning: Two hard drives that form a RAID 1 array have to be
attached as the same master or slave hard disks.
Setup Array for RAID 0+1:
A RAID 0+1 (mirror and stripe) array has to be formed by four hard drives. RAID 0+1
is implemented as a mirrored array whose segments are RAID 0 arrays so RAID 0+1
also has fault-tolerance capacity as RAID 1. It not only enhances hard disk access
performance but also backups data to prevent data loss. The formed array is
automatically set as array 0.
Setup Array for JBOD:
The RAIDExpress 133 card allows you to use two, three or four hard drives to form a
JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) array as array 0. Although JBOD doesn’t offer other
RAID functionality, it makes the hard disks appear to be a single one by combining
the drives into one larger logical one without any capacity loss.

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Setup Array for IDE:
You can use the RAIDExpress 133 card as a normal IDE controller. The
RAIDExpress 133 card allows you to use one, two, three or four hard drives. All the
hard drives attached on the RAIDExpress 133 controller are left to act as
independent drive volumes.
Please follow the procedures below to set an array:
 Use the “space” bar key to select a RAID type.
 Press “Ctrl-Y” keys to save and create an array. If you select RAID 0, 1, 0+1 or
JBOD, the boot sector of the newly created array will be erased. If you select
IDE, the boot sector will be remained.
Warning: If you prefer to keep data in your hard drives, please
follow the procedures in the Define RAID section on page 21 to
setup your arrays manually.
!
 Click the “Esc” key to go back to the Main Menu on page 9.
 Click the “Esc” key to quit BIOS and boot.
 You need to FDISK and format your new array. The new array will be regarded
as a new hard drive by the system.

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Setup Utility
Using the RAIDExpress 133 Card Setup Utility
The RAIDExpress 133 card Setup Utility provides functions to create, delete and
rebuild an array. It also provides the information of each hard drive and the
configuration of the RAIDExpress 133 card. Please attach your hard drives to the
RAIDExpress 133 card and boot your system. If your array’s configuration is correct,
you will see the following message shown by the RAIDExpress 133 card onboard
BIOS on the screen. You can press “Ctrl-F” or “Ctrl-E” keys to enter Setup Utility or
press the “Esc” key to skip and boot directly.
If your array’s configuration is incorrect, you will see an error message on your
screen. You have to enter Setup Utility to reconfigure the arrays then quit utility to
boot.

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RAIDExpress 133 Card Setup Utility Main Menu
There are five options in the Setup Utility Main Menu, please press 1 ~ 5 to enter
the submenu or the “Esc” key to quit the Setup Utility.
If you are not familiar with the array setting, please follow the procedures in Auto
Configuration on page 16 to create new arrays automatically. You can use Define
RAID on page 21 and Delete RAID on page 27 to manually create or delete arrays.
You can also use Rebuild RAID selection on page 30 to help you rebuild a mirrored
(RAID 1 or RAID 0+1) array. Besides, you can use RAID Card Configuration on
page 35 to see the controller’s resources, each hard drive’s status and the setting of
the RAIDExpress 133 card.

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Auto Configuration
Click “1” on the Main Menu to enter Auto Configuration. You can use arrow keys →
and ←and the “space” bar key to change your option. After selecting your option,
you can press “Ctrl-Y” keys to save the setting and click the “Esc” key to leave Auto
Configuration menu and go back to the Main Menu on page 15.

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Setup Array for RAID 0:
The RAIDExpress 133 card allows you to use two, three or four hard drives to set a
RAID 0 (stripe) array. All the hard drives attached on the controller will be set as array
0. When you create a striped array, files are broken into 64k (stripe size) and stripes
are sent to each disk in the array. Selecting RAID 0 can increase data transfer rate
and allow the best overall performance characteristics because of giving up
redundancy.
RAID 0
Primary
Master
13
9
5
1
Primary
Slave
14
10
6
2
Secondary
Master
15
11
7
3
Secondary
Slave
16
12
8
4
Disk Controller
Primary
Master
13
9
5
1
Primary
Slave
14
10
6
2
Secondary
Master
15
11
7
3
Secondary
Slave
16
12
8
4
Disk Controller