With hardware assembly out of the way, we now can create the drive array. To do this you need to connect a keyboard, monitor, and power to the computer. Boot up the computer, and when you see the message shown in Figure 8 appear on the screen, hold down <Ctrl>+M to kick off the MegaRAID's ROM software.

Figure 8: MegaRAID splash screen

I'm going to go through the RAID set up step by step because I found that the biggest stressor in building your own NAS is figuring out the MegaRAID user interface. I stumbled around for several days before getting my first disk array up and running because I could not find any step-by-step instructions. So now there are!

Step 1: Figure 9 shows the MegaRAID Management Menu that will pop up on your screen after you hold down <Ctrl>+M while your computer boots. Move the cursor to "Configure" on this menu, and press <Enter>.

Figure 9: MegaRAID Management menu

Step 2: Your screen will now appear as in Figure 10. Move the cursor to "New Configuration" and press <Enter>.

Figure 10: Select New Configuration

Step 3: When the "Proceed?" menu pops up (see Figure 11) move the cursor to "Yes" and then hit <Enter> again. The MegaRAID card will then begin to scan all the hard drives attached to it. After a moment, the screen will go from looking like Figure 11, back to looking like Figure 10. If you try to move the cursor, it will seem like your system is locked up. Don't panic.

Figure 11: Select Yes or No to proceed

The trick is to watch the bottom row of characters on your computer screen. Figure 12 shows the messages that flash by on the bottom row. What is happening here is that your MegaRAID card is scanning the hard drives attached to it.

Figure 12: Status messages