RAID installation guide for Silicon Image 3112A PDF Installation Instructions

1.1 About this Guide
This document provides a brief step-by-step guide for beginners in how to set up a RAID drive using the onboard SiI 3112 controller, operating under the Windows XP environment. This guide was designed to only cover the basic operations in setting up RAID.

1.2 The Basics
1.2.1 What is RAID?
A RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) controller lets you combine multiple hard disks to simulate a single drive. The drive created will properties different to that of the individual drives.
1.2.2 Advantages of RAID
The obvious advantage of using a RAID configuration is the ability to create drives with larger capacity. However, since multiple drives are used, data can be stored in such a way that it spans over many disks, thus the information can be accessed by the disks simultaneously, significantly improving data access times.
1.2.3 Disadvantages of RAID
Using many drives has a disadvantage. The probability of a single drive failing out of many drives is much higher than that of one failing out of only one. This results in a greater chance of losing the information on your disks. There are ways however, to minimize this effect, even making it more reliable than using single disks.

1.3 Different Types of RAID Configurations
There are many different ways in which RAID can be configured, each with its set of advantages and disadvantages. The Silicon Image® controller supports the RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations.
1.3.1 RAID 0 (Striped)
RAID 0 works by breaking down data and spreading it over multiple disk drives. RAID 0 does not protect data from failure, and due to the way it stores data, a fault on one drive would result in failure of the entire array. It does however, have vast improvements in both reading and writing speeds, with the theoretical speed proportional to the number of disks used in the array. It is also fairly efficient in using disk space, with its size is equal to the size of the smallest disk multiplied by the number of disks.
1.3.2 RAID 1 (Mirrored)
RAID 1 works by maintaining an identical copy of the data of one drive on another. If either of these drives should fail, no information is lost as the second drive will always contain an identical copy of the other. A RAID 1 system can be recovered by simply replacing the damaged disk and mirroring the data on the new drive. This method should cause a decrease in writing speeds, and results in a disk capacity equivalent to that of the smaller disk.

2 Drivers
A driver is required for your operating system (OS) to recognize your RAID drives. If you are planning to install Windows 2000 or XP on a RAID drive, you will need a copy of the drivers on a floppy disk during installation (refer to 2.1 Creating a Driver Disk). If the RAID drive is to be installed onto a system with an existing OS, please ensure the drivers are correctly installed for your OS to recognize the newly constructed RAID system (refer to 2.2 Installing Drivers).

2.1 Creating a Driver Disk
**This most likely will need to done on a second computer unless you are reinstalling your OS onto a RIAD drive.**
1) Insert your motherboard’s Support CD into you CD-ROM drive. A menu should automatically pop up if Autorun is enabled.
2) Click on Browse CD if the option is available and locate the folder DriversSATA. If not, go to My Computer and then your CD-ROM drive to find the folder. Please note that the directory structure may vary between different Support CDs.
3) Copy the files Si3112r.mpd, TxtSetup.oem, Si3112r.inf, Si3112r.sys and SIISUPP.VXD to a floppy.

2.2 Installing Drivers
The drivers for the SiI® RAID controller should be already installed if you have followed your motherboard’s manual after installing your OS. However, it is still best to check.
1) Under Windows XP, right click on My Computer and go to properties. 2) Click on the Hardware tab and then click on Device Manager.
3) Open SCSI and RAID controllers and check if Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller is there.
4) If it is, then you should be ready to install your RAID drive. If not, follow the remaining steps to install the driver.
5) Insert your motherboard’s Support CD into your CD-ROM drive. A menu should automatically pop up if Autorun is enabled.
6) Click on the Drivers tab and then on Silicon Image Serial ATA driver. This will open a text file. Likewise, if Autorun isn’t enabled, open the file DriversSATAreadme.txt. The file will contain instructions on how to install the driver.

3 Installing Hard Disks
The SiI 3112A RAID controller supports up 2 serial ATA connectors, both of these are needed to create a RAID array. When installing hard disks for a RAID array, it is preferable to use disks that are similar. For best results, use identical disks. Connect 2 SATA hard drives to the SATA connectors, referring to your motherboard’s manual for help if necessary.

4 Creating a RAID Array
4.1 Using the RAID Configuration Utility
Enter the RAID configuration utility by pressing <Ctrl+S> or <F4> when it prompts you to do so during boot. The main menu of the utility allows you to access the functions used to create and manage your RAID arrays…

Download RAID installation guide for Silicon Image 3112A PDF Installation Instructions


March 15, 2010 | Posted in Electronic Manual, Portable Storage Manual

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