Operating System-Related Issues

FastTrak TX4000 User Manual

Different drive lettering under Windows NT

This may happen when using a SCSI card in addition to the Promise card. Windows NT does not necessarily load the driver for the boot device controller first. This results in a drive that in MS-DOS is the C: drive being the D:, or E:, etc. in Windows NT. Use the Windows NT Disk Administrator utility to reassign the letters that NT has improperly assigned to the drives. See your Windows NT documentation for instructions on how to use Disk Administrator.

The Operating System no longer boots after creating a Mirrored Array using your existing boot drive using Windows

This is due to Drive Geometry issues. You can verify this if you move the original drive back to the onboard controller and it boots successfully. Each controller can view a drive differently. This can be an issue for a new controller that loads the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem translating it or the Operating System boot record.

For Windows NT, 2000, XP and Server 2003, Promise recommends a clean install of the Operating System. This action restores the MBR and OS boot record. This requires repartitioning and formatting the drive.

For Windows 98 and ME, you can perform the DOS Command SYS C: from a bootable floppy or CD-ROM to restore the operating system boot record and transfer the system files to the boot drive. If this does not work, the Windows registry may have become corrupted during the boot process and must be restored. See the Windows documentation to perform this procedure.

Promise Windows driver does not appear in Device Manager

Windows may already be listing the controller under Other Devices instead of the Hard disk controllers section. In Device Manager under Other Devices to see if it lists a PCI Card or RAID Controller. If so, highlight this listing and click on the Properties button then click on the Driver tab. Depending on your version of Windows, choose either Change Driver or Update Driver. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete installation of the driver. If Windows asks if you want to test if the device can be removed safely, click on CANCEL. Reboot the system to complete installation of the driver.

“Inaccessible Boot Device” Message Appears During Floppyless Install of Windows NT, 2000, XP or Server 2003

The F6 key was not pressed at the appropriate time. Reboot the system, and press the F6 key when the message “Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration…” appears in Windows NT4 or the message “Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver” appears in Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003.