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Brand : MSI

Model : Z68AGD65G3

Category : Motherboard

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USER MANUAL Z68AGD65G3 MSI

Intel RAID Contents English 1 Français 17 한국어 33 日本語 49 繁體中文 65 简体中文 81 Intel RAID English Intel RAID English Introduction This appendix will assist users in con󰘰guring and enabling RAID functionality and ac- celerating system on platforms The mainboard comes with the Intel RAID controller that allows you to con󰘰gure SATA hard drives as RAID sets SATA hard drives deliver blistering transfer speeds up to 6 Gb/s Serial ATA uses long, thin cables, making it easier to connect your drive and improving the air󰘱ow inside your PC The most outstanding features are: Supports 3 Gb/s or 6 Gb/s transfers with CRC error checking Supports Hot-plug-n-play feature Data handling optimizations including tagged command queuing, elevator seek and packet chain command Intel

RAID controller o󰘯ers RAID level 0 (Striping), RAID level 1 (Mirroring and Duplex- ing), RAID level 5 (Block Interleaved Distributed Parity), RAID level 10 (A Stripe of Mir- rors) , IntelIntel

Rapid Storage Technology RAID 0 breaks the data into blocks which are written to separate hard drives Spread- ing the hard drive I/O load across independent channels greatly improves I/O perfor- mance RAID 1 provides data redundancy by mirroring data between the hard drives and pro- vides enhanced read performance RAID 5 Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe error correction informa- tion This results in excellent performance and good fault tolerance Level 5 is one of the most popular implementations of RAID RAID 10 Not one of the original RAID levels, multiple RAID 1 mirrors are created, and a RAID 0 stripe is created over these Intel

Rapid Storage Technology is the advanced ability for two RAID volumes to share the combined space of two hard drives being used in unison Intel

Rapid Storage Technology utilizes RAID 1 functionality to copy data from a des-Storage Technology utilizes RAID 1 functionality to copy data from a des- Technology utilizes RAID 1 functionality to copy data from a des- ignated Master drive to a designated Recovery drive The size of the Master drive must be less than or equal to the size of the Recovery drive When a Recovery volume is created, complete capacity of the Master drive will be used as the Master volume Only one Recovery Volume can exist on a system There are methods of updating the data on the Master to the Recovery drive They are Continuous Update Policy and On Request Update Policy Important The least number of hard drives for RAID 0, RAID 1, Recovery or Matrix mode is The least number of hard drives for RAID 10 mode is 4 And the least number of hard drives for RAID 5 mode is 3 All the information/ volumes/ pictures listed in your system might di󰘯er from the illustra- tions in this appendix

Intel RAID English Using Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM The Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM should be integrated with the sys-Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM should be integrated with the sys- Option ROM should be integrated with the sys- tem BIOS on all mainboards with a supported Intel chipset The Intel Rapid StorageRapid Storage Technology Option ROM is the Intel RAID implementation and provides BIOS and DOS Option ROM is the Intel RAID implementation and provides BIOS and DOS disk services Please use <Ctrl> + keys to enter the “Intel

RAID for Serial ATA” status screen, which should appear early in system boot-up, during the POST (Power- On Self Test) Also, you need to enable the RAID function in BIOS to create, delete and reset RAID volumes Creating, Deleting and Resetting RAID Volumes: The Serial ATA RAID volume may be con󰘰gured using the RAID Con󰘰guration utility stored within the Intel RAID Option ROM During the Power-On Self Test (POST), the following message will appear for a few seconds Important The “Device Model”, “Serial #” and “Size” in the following example might be di󰘯erent from your system RAID Volumes None de󰘰ned Physical Disks: Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status(Vol ID)

1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Non-RAID Disk Press <CTRL-I> to enter Con󰘰guration Utility After the above message shows, press <Ctrl> and keys simultaneously to enter the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM Important The following procedure is only available with a newly-built system or if you are reinstall- ing your OS It should not be used to migrate an existing system to RAID4 Intel RAID English Intel RAID English After pressing the <Ctrl> and keys simultaneously, the following window will ap- pear: Create RAID Volume Select option 1 “Create RAID Volume” and press <Enter> key The following screen appears Then in the Name 󰘰eld, specify a RAID Volume name and then press the <TAB> or <Enter> key to go to the next 󰘰eld Use the arrow keys to select the RAID level best suited to your usage model in RAID Level

4 Recovery Volume Options 5 Acceleration Options 6 Exit RAID Volumes : None de󰘰ned Physical Devices : Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status (Vol ID) 1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Non-RAID Disk XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Non-RAID Disk [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume 3 Reset Disks to Non-RAID

Intel RAID English In the Disk 󰘰eld, press <Enter> key and use <Space> key to select the disks you want to create for the RAID volume, then click <Enter> key to 󰘰nish selection This 󰘰eld will become available according to the selected RAID level Then select the strip size for the RAID array by using the “upper arrow” or “down arrow” keys to scroll through the available values, and pressing the <Enter> key to select and advance to the next 󰘰eld The available val- ues range from 4KB to 18 KB in power of increments The strip size should be chosen based on the planned drive usage Here are some typical values: RAID0 -18KB / RAID10 - 64KB / RAID5 - 64KB This 󰘰eld will become available according to the selected RAID level Then select the capacity of the volume in the Capacity 󰘰eld The default value is the maximum volume capacity of the selected disks

HELP Name : The default value indicates the maximum capacity using the selected disks Entering a lower capacity allows you to create a second volume on these disks [ ↑↓] - Change [TAB] - Next [ESC] - Previous Menu [ENTER] - Select RAID Level : Disks : Strip Size : Capacity : Sync : Volume0 RAID1(Mirror) Select Disks N / A XXXX GB N / A Create Volume Important Since you want to create two volumes, this default size (maximum) needs to be re- duced Type in a new size for the 󰘰rst volume As an example: if you want the 󰘰rst volume to span the 󰘰rst half of the two disks, re-type the size to be half of what is shown by default The second volume, when created, will automatically span the remainder of two hard drives6 Intel RAID English Intel RAID English Then the following screen appears to indicate that the creation is 󰘰nished7 Go to the Create Volume 󰘰eld and press <Enter>, the following screen appears for you to con󰘰rm if you are sure to create the RAID volume Press <Y> to continue

Are you sure you want to create this volume? (Y / N) :

4 Recovery Volume Options 5 Acceleration Options 6 Exit RAID Volumes : ID Name Level Strip Size Status Bootable 0 Volume0 RAID1(Mirror) N / A XXXXGB Normal Yes Physical Devices : Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status (Vol ID) 1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk(0) XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk(0) [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume 3 Reset Disks to Non-RAID MAIN MENU

Intel RAID English Delete RAID Volume Here you can delete the RAID volume, but please be noted that all data on RAID drives will be lost Important If your system currently boots to RAID and you delete the RAID volume in the Intel RAID Option ROM, your system will become un-bootable Select option Delete RAID Volume from the main menu screen and press <Enter> key to select a RAID volume for deletion Then press <Delete> key to delete the selected RAID volume The following screen appears

HELP Deleting a volume will reset the disks to non-RAID [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Previous Menu [DEL] - Delete Volume

WARNING : ALL DISK DATA WILL BE DELETED

(This does not apply to Recovery volumes) Name Level Drives Capacity Status Bootable Volume0 RAID1(Mirror) XXXXGB Normal Yes ALL DATA IN THE VOLUME WILL BE LOST! (This does not apply to Recovery volumes) Are you sure you want to delete “Volume0”? (Y / N) :

Press <Y> key to accept the volume deletion

Intel RAID English Intel RAID English Reset Disks to Non-RAID Select option 3 Reset Disks to Non-RAID and press <Enter> to delete the RAID volume and remove any RAID structures from the drives The following screen appears:

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Non-RAID Disk [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume Resetting RAID disk will remove its RAID structures and revert it to a non-RAID disk

WARNING : Resetting a disk causes all data on the disk to be lost

(This does not apply to Recovery volumes) Select the disks that should be reset [ ↑↓] - Previous/ Next [SPACE] - Selects [ENTER] - Selection Complete Port Drive Model Serial # Size Status 1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk

MAIN MENU Use the <Space> key to select the disks and press <Enter> key A con󰘰rmation sen- tence will appear below, and then press <Y> key to accept the selection Important You will lose all data on the RAID drives and any internal RAID structures when you perform this operation Possible reasons to “Reset Disks to Non-RAID” could include issues such as incom- patible RAID con󰘰gurations or a failed volume or failed disk

Intel RAID English Recovery Volume Options Select option 4 Recovery Volume Options and press <Enter> to change recovery volume mode The following screen appears:

RECOVERY VOLUME OPTIONS

HELP Enable Only Recovery Disk - enables recovery disk if available and disables master disk Enable Only Master Disk - enables master disk if available and disables recovery disk Actions will result in change from Continuous Update mode to On-Request [ ↑↓] - select [ESC] - Previous Menu [ENTER] - Select 1 Enable Only Recovery Disk Enable Only Master Disk Recovery mode will change from Continuous Update to On-Request after you en- able “Only Recovery Disk” or “Only Master Disk” ■10 Intel RAID English Intel RAID English Important Please follow the instruction below to make an “Intel

RAID Driver” for yourself Insert the MSI DVD into the DVD-ROM drive Click the “Browse CD” on the Setup screen Copy all the contents in \\Storage\Intel\PCH\f6󰘱py-x86 or f6󰘱py-x64 to a formatted 󰘱oppy diskette The driver diskette for Intel

RAID Controller is done

Installing Driver New Windows 7/ Windows Vista / Windows XP Installation The following details the installation of the drivers while installing operating system When you start installing Windows XP, you may encounter a message stating, “Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices installed in your system” If this is the case, then you are already in the right place and are ready to supply the driver If this is not the case, then press F6 when prompted at the beginning of Windows setup Press the “S” key to select “Specify Additional Device” You should be prompted to insert a 󰘱oppy disk containing the Intel

RAID driver into the A: drive Note: For Windows XP, you can use the USB 󰘱oppy drive only For Windows Vista/ Windows 7 you can use CD/ DVD/ USB drive

For Windows Vista/ Windows 7: During the Operating system installation, after selecting the location to install Vista / Windows 7 click on “Load Driver” button to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver When prompted, insert the 󰘱oppy disk or media (CD/DVD or USB) you created in step 3 and press Enter You should be shown a list of available SCSI Adapters Select the appropriate Intel RAID controller and press ENTER The next screen should con󰘰rm that you have selected the Intel

RAID controller Press ENTER again to continue You have successfully installed the Intel

Rapid Storage Technology driver, and Windows setup should continue Leave the disk in the 󰘱oppy drive until the system reboots itself Windows setup will need to copy the 󰘰les from the 󰘱oppy again after the RAID volume is formatted, and Windows setup starts copying 󰘰les

Intel RAID English Existing Windows Driver Installation Insert the MSI DVD into the DVD-ROM drive The DVD will auto-run and the setup screen will appear Under the Driver tab, click on Intel RAID Drivers The drivers will be automatically installed Con󰘰rming Windows Driver Installation From Windows, open the Control Panel from My Computer followed by the System icon Choose the Hardware tab, then click the Device Manager tab Click the “+” in front of the SCSI and RAID Controllers hardware type The driver Intel(R) SATA RAID Controller should appear

Intel RAID English Intel RAID English Degraded RAID Array A RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10 volume is reported as degraded when one of its hard drive members fails or is temporarily disconnected, and data mirroring is lost As a result, the system can only utilize the remaining functional hard drive member To re-establish data mirroring and restore data redundancy, refer to the procedure below that corre- sponds to the current situation Missing Hard Drive Member Make sure the system is powered o󰘯 Reconnect the hard drive Reboot the system to Windows; the rebuild will occur automatically Failed Hard Drive Member Make sure the system is powered o󰘯 Replace the failed hard drive with a new one that is of equal or greater capacity Reboot the system to Intel RAID Option ROM by press <Ctrl> and keys simul- taneously during the Power-On Self Test (POST)

Select the port of the destination disk for rebuilding, and then press ENTER4 RAID Volumes ID Name Level Strip Size Status Bootable 0 Volume0 RAID 1(Mirror) N/A XXXXGB Degraded Yes Physical Disks: Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status(Vol ID) 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk (0) XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk (0) Press <CTRL-I> to enter Con󰘰guration Utility

4 Recovery Volume Options 4 Recovery Volume Options 5 Exit RAID Volumes : None de󰘰ned Physical Devices : Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status (Vol ID) 1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Non-RAID Disk XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Non-RAID Disk [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume “Degraded” volume and disk available for rebuilding detected Selecting a disk initiates a rebuild Rebuild completes in the operating system

Select the port of the destination disk for rebuilding (ESC to exit): [ ↑↓] - Previous/ Next [ENTER] - Select [ESC] - Exit Port Drive Model Serial # Size

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Intel RAID English Exit Intel RAID Option ROM, and then reboot to Windows system When prompted to rebuild the RAID volume, click ‘Yes’ The Intel Rapid Storage Technology application will be launched Right-click the new hard drive and select ‘Rebuild to this Disk’ The ‘Rebuild Wizard’ will be launched which will guide you through the process of rebuilding to the new hard drive

Rapid Storage Technology use a SSD as a cache Which can store frequently used data without having to use a slow virtual disk or depend on RAM The SSD cache with the advantages of high-speed read/write and non-volatile memory to accelerate the system performance Important Check your SSD manufacturer's website, upgrade 󰘰rmware in order to support Intel

Rapid Storage Technology can only work with RAID mode Even though there is only one hard drive, you must set the SATA Mode to RAID in BIOS The OS must be installed in the RAID ready disk in order to use the SSD caching Follow these steps to enable system acceleration If Windows has been installed in RAID mode, skip to the step 5 Reboot and enter the BIOS steup Set the SATA Mode to RAID in BIOS Install Intel

RAID controller driver Please refer to the section "Installing Driver" Install Windows operating system Powered o󰘯 Connect the SSD Reboot the system to Windows Insert the MSI DVD into the DVD-ROM drive

Click here Click the “STORAGE” on the Setup screen9 Click the "Intel RAID Driver" to install Intel

Rapid Storage Technology application Click "Enable acceleration" under Accelerate

Click here Select the acceleration options13 Click OK and reboot the system The page refreshes and reports the new acceleration con󰘰guration in the Acceleration View Important You can click “More help on this page” or "More help" of the Intel

Rapid Storage Technology application to view more information

Intel RAID English RST Synchronization If you are using Maximized mode as the Acceleration mode, the data on the hard disk is not always synchronized with the data in the SSD cache In some situations, you may want to manually sync the disks for avoiding data loss Follow these steps to sync manually Reboot system, during the Power-On Self Test (POST) press, press <Ctrl> and keys simultaneously to enter the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM Select option 5 “Acceleration Options” and press <Enter> key The following screen appears

HELP Name Press 's' to synchronize data from the cache device to the Accelerated Disk/Volume Press 'r' to remove the Disk/Volume Acceleration

1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Are you sure you want to create this volume? (Y / N) :

HELP Deleting a volume will reset the disks to non-RAID [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Previous Menu [DEL] - Delete Volume

WARNING : ALL DISK DATA WILL BE DELETED

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Non-RAID Disk [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume Resetting RAID disk will remove its RAID structures and revert it to a non-RAID disk

WARNING : Resetting a disk causes all data on the disk to be lost

RECOVERY VOLUME OPTIONS

RAID Volumes ID Name Level Strip Size Status Bootable 0 Volume0 RAID 1(Mirror) N/A XXXXGB Degraded Yes Physical Disks: Port Device Model Serial # Size Type/Status(Vol ID) 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk (0) XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB Member Disk (0) Press <CTRL-I> to enter Con󰘰guration Utility

Select the port of the destination disk for rebuilding (ESC to exit): [ ↑↓] - Previous/ Next [ENTER] - Select [ESC] - Exit Port Drive Model Serial # Size

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

HELP Name Press 's' to synchronize data from the cache device to the Accelerated Disk/Volume Press 'r' to remove the Disk/Volume Acceleration

Are you sure you want to create this volume? (Y / N) :

HELP Deleting a volume will reset the disks to non-RAID [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Previous Menu [DEL] - Delete Volume

WARNING : ALL DISK DATA WILL BE DELETED

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

Non-RAID Disk [ ↑↓] - Select [ESC] - Exit [ENTER] - Select Menu 1 Create RAID Volume Delete RAID Volume Resetting RAID disk will remove its RAID structures and revert it to a non-RAID disk

WARNING : Resetting a disk causes all data on the disk to be lost

RECOVERY VOLUME OPTIONS

Select the port of the destination disk for rebuilding (ESC to exit): [ ↑↓] - Previous/ Next [ENTER] - Select [ESC] - Exit Port Drive Model Serial # Size

1 XXXX-XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXGB

HELP Name Press 's' to synchronize data from the cache device to the Accelerated Disk/Volume Press 'r' to remove the Disk/Volume Acceleration