38 MediaShield User’s Guide – Version 1.0
C
HAPTER 4
Installing and Using the NVIDIA MediaShield Application
Managing Spare Disks
About Spare Disks
YoucandesignateaharddrivetobeusedasasparedriveforaRAID1,RAID0+1or
RAID5array
1
.Thesparedrivecantakeoverforafaileddisk.MediaShieldRAID
supportstwotypesofsparedrives:
Free Disks
AfreediskisadiskthatisnotpartofanyRAIDarray,butcanbeusedbyanyavailable
RAID1,RAID0+1,orRAID5arraythatrequiresanotherdiskwhenoneofitsdisks
crashesorbecomesunusable.Theprocessisautomaticandrequiresnouserinteraction.
Example:AsystemmayhavefourharddiskswhereonediskisusedtoboottheOS,two
harddrivesaresetupinamirroredarray,andafourthharddiskissetupasafreedisk.If
oneofthemirroredarraydrivesfails,thefreedisk
willbeassignedautomaticallytothe
mirroredarraytoreplacethe faileddisk.
Dedicated Disks
AdedicatedfreediskisadiskthatisassignedtoaRAID1,RAID0+1,orRAID5array.
Thededicateddiskisusedbythatarrayonlywhenneeded‐forexample,duringasystem
crashwhereaRAIDmirroreddriveisbroken.Thededicateddiskcanbeusedonly
bythe
arraythatitisassignedtoandnotbyanyotherarray,unlikeafreediskwhichcanbeused
byanyavailableRAID1,RAID0+1,orRAID5array.
Tomarkadiskasdedicated(reserveitforusebyaspecificarray),youmusthave
atleast
onefreediskandyoumustalsohaveatleasttwoRAID1,RAID0+1,orRAID5arrays
created.
1. See Table 1.1, “Supported nForce Platforms and RAID Arrays” on page 2 for a matrix of supported
RAID levels.
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