CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [170]
Figure 11-38 RAID configuration utility
Personal RAID
Due to drastic reductions in the cost of ATA RAID controller chips, in the past few years we’ve seen an explosion of ATA-based hardware RAID solutions built into mainstream motherboards. While this “ATA RAID on the motherboard” began with parallel ATA, the introduction of serial ATA made motherboards with built-in RAID extremely common.
These personal RAID motherboards might be common, but they’re not used too terribly often given that these RAID solutions usually provide only RAID 0 or RAID 1. If you want to use RAID, spend a few extra dollars and buy a RAID 5–capable controller.
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NOTE RAID controllers aren’t just for internal drives; some models can handle multiple eSATA drives configured at any of the RAID levels. If you’re feeling lucky, you can create a RAID array using both internal and external SATA drives.
The Future Is RAID
RAID has been with us for about 20 years, but until only recently it was the domain of big systems and deep pockets. During those 20 years, however, a number of factors have come together to make RAID a reality for both big servers and common desktop systems. Imagine a world where dirt-cheap RAID on every computer means no one ever again losing critical data. I get goose bumps just thinking about it!
Installing Drives
Installing a drive is a fairly simple process if you take the time to make sure you have the right drive for your system, configure the drive properly, and do a few quick tests to see if it’s running properly. Since PATA, SATA, and SCSI have different cabling requirements, we’ll look at each of these separately.
Choosing Your Drive
First, decide where you’re going to put the drive. Look for an open ATA connection. Is it PATA or SATA? Is it a dedicated RAID controller? Many motherboards with built-in RAID controllers have a CMOS setting that enables you to turn the RAID on or off (Figure 11-39).
Figure 11-39 Settings for RAID in CMOS
Second, make sure you have room for the drive in the case. Where will place it? Do you have a spare power connector? Will the data and power cables reach the drive? A quick test fit is always a good idea.
Don’t worry about PIO modes and DMA—a new drive will support anything your controller wants to do.
Jumpers and Cabling on PATA Drives
If you have only one hard drive, set the drive’s jumpers to master or standalone. If you have two drives, set one to master and the other to slave. See Figure 11-40 for a close-up of a PATA hard drive, showing the jumpers.
Figure 11-40 Master/slave jumpers on a hard drive
At first glance, you might notice that the jumpers aren’t actually labeled master and slave. So how do you know how to set them properly? The easiest way is to read the front of the drive; most drives have a diagram on housing that explains how to set the jumpers properly. Figure 11-41 shows the front of one of these drives, so you can see how to set the drive to master or slave.
Figure 11-41 Drive label showing master/slave settings
Hard disk drives may have other jumpers that may or may not concern you during installation. One common set of jumpers is used for diagnostics at the manufacturing plant or for special settings in other kinds of devices that use hard drives. Ignore them; they have no bearing in the PC world. Second, many drives provide a third setting to be used if only one drive connects to a controller. Often, master and single drive are the same setting on the hard drive, although some hard drives require separate settings. Note that the name for the single drive setting varies among manufacturers. Some use Single; others use 1 Drive or Standalone.
Many current PATA hard drives use a jumper setting called cable select rather than master or slave. As the name implies,