User manual ASROCK INTEL RAPID STORAGE

[. . . ] Also, due to drive load balancing, even systems with RAID 1 can take advantage of faster boot times and data reads. Intel Rapid Storage Technology provides benefits to users of a single drive as well. Through AHCI, storage performance is improved through Native Command Queuing (NCQ). AHCI also delivers longer battery life with Link Power Management (LPM), which can reduce the power consumption of the chipset and Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive. 1 Installation Instructions 1. [. . . ] The F6 installation method is not required for Microsoft Windows Vista* or Microsoft Windows 7*. Note Enable RAID in System BIOS Use the instructions included with your motherboard to enable RAID in the system BIOS. Click F2 or Delete to enter the BIOS Setup program after the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) memory test begins. Click F10 to save the BIOS settings and exit the BIOS Setup program. Create a RAID Volume Use the following steps to create a RAID volume. When the Intel Rapid Storage Technology option ROM status screen appears during POST, press Ctrl and i at the same time to enter the option ROM user interface. Use the up or down arrow keys to select the RAID level and press Enter. Unless you have selected RAID 1, use the up or down arrow keys to select the strip size and press Enter. Select the appropriate number of hard drives by using the up or down arrow keys to scroll through the list of hard drives and press Space to select the drive. Press Y to confirm your exit. Install the RAID Driver Using the F6 Installation Method Perform the following steps to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver during operating system setup: 1. Press F6 when you see a message in the status line that says, Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver. This message appears at the beginning of Windows XP* setup (during text-mode phase). Nothing will happen immediately after pressing F6. You will then be prompted with a screen asking you to load support for mass storage device(s). 2. When you see a prompt that says, Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A:, insert ;a floppy disk containing the following files: IAAHCI. INF, IAAHCI. CAT, IASTOR. INF, IASTOR. CAT, IASTOR. SYS, and TXTSETUP. OEM. Note Use the Floppy Configuration Utility to create a floppy disk with the necessary files. 4. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll through the list as all controllers may not be visible. At this point, you have successfully installed the driver and Windows setup should continue. Leave 13 the floppy disk in the floppy drive until the system reboots. Windows setup will need to copy the files again from the floppy to the Windows installation folders. Once Windows setup has copied these files again, remove the floppy disk so that Windows setup can reboot as needed. During Windows setup, create a partition and file system on the RAID volume as you would on any physical disk. If you wish to use the Intel Rapid Storage Technology user interface in Note Windows, you will need to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology by running the Setup. exe process after these steps have been completed and the operating system has been successfully installed. 14 What if I want to use RAID but my OS is already installed?If your operating system is already installed, you can still use RAID as long as the following conditions are met: · Your system has a RAID I/O controller hub (ICH). Note If your system does not have a RAID ICH, you will not be able to use RAID without installing a third-party RAID controller card. · Your RAID controller is enabled. If your RAID controller is not enabled, enabling the RAID controller is not recommended or supported when a SATA hard drive is the boot Warning drive. Enabling the RAID controller may cause an immediate blue screen with an 0x0000007b error code, followed by a reboot. [. . . ] At this point, you have successfully installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and Windows setup should continue. Windows setup will need to copy the files again from the floppy to the Windows installation folders. Once Windows setup has copied these files again, remove the floppy disk so that Windows setup can reboot as needed. Note If you wish to use the Intel Rapid Storage Technology user interface within Windows, you will need to run Setup. exe from within Windows. 17 How to do unattended install of AHCI/RAID driver on Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003* The unattended method of installation is available for Microsoft Windows XP*, Windows 2000* and Windows Server 2003*. It is used to install the RAID or AHCI driver, as outlined in the Microsoft document Deployment Guide Automating Windows NT* Setup. [. . . ]