Promise Technology FAST TRAK100TM user manual Introduction, What is the FastTrak100 RAID Card?

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FastTrak100 User Manual

Introduction

Thank you for your recent purchase.The PC which you are using either already contains a Promise Technology ® FastTrak100 RAID card installed by a third-party or you have acquired a FastTrak100 retail box for your existing PC and will be installing the card yourself.

For PC owners wishing to install their Promise Technology® FastTrak100, proceed to the Getting Started section (see page 6).

For PCs with a Promise Technology® FastTrak100 card already installed, consult the Troubleshooting section of the manual (see page 71) if you are experiencing any difficulties with the hard drive being recognized by the card. If your operating system has crashed for some reason or you have downloaded updated drivers from the Promise website (www.promise.com), you may wish to reinstall software drivers for the FastTrak100 card. Use the Installing Drive rs section (see page 34).

What is the FastTrak100 RAID Card?

Promise designed its FastTrak100 card to provide a cost-effective, high performance RAID card that adds performance and/or reliability to PC desktops and/or servers using Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra ATA/33 or EIDE drives. FastTrak100 supports striping (RAID 0), mirroring (RAID 1), striping/mirroring (RAID 0+1), or spanning (JBOD) operation , respectively.

With striping, identical drives can read and write data in parallel to increase performance. Mirroring increases read performance through load balancing and elevator seek while creating a complete backup of your files. Striping with mirroring offers both high read/write performance and error tolerance. Spanning uses the full capacity of all attached drives without requiring identical drive size, but offers no other RAID functionality.

A FastTrak100 striped array can double the sustained data transfer rate of Ultra ATA/100 drives. FastTrak100 fully supports Ultra ATA/100 specification of up to 100 MB/sec per drive, depending on individual drive specifications.

FastTrak100 also offers fault tolerant, data redundancy for entry-level network file servers or simply for desktop PC users wanting to continually protect valuable data on their PC. FastTrak100 offers RAID 1 mirroring (for two drives) and RAID 0+1 mirroring and striping (for four drives) to protect data. Should a drive that is part of a mirrored array fail, FastTrak100 uses the mirrored drive (which contains identical data) to assume all data handling. When a new replacement drive is later installed, FastTrak100 rebuilds data to the new drive from the mirrored drive to restore fault tolerance.

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Contents Page Trademarks Table of Contents Troubleshooting & Tips Introduction What is the FastTrak100 RAID Card?Page Features Benefits Keys Features and BenefitsCompatibility Page Unpacking Your FastTrak100 Getting StartedInstalling The Card Jumper Settings Installing The Hard DrivesPage Processor ID MHz Bios version Cache Server Tag Checking Cmos SettingsCreating Your Disk Array Page Creating a Security Array With New Drives Creating an Array for PerformanceCreating a Security Array With An Existing Data Drive Page Page Viewing FastTrak100 Bios Screen Using FastBuild Configuration UtilityUsing the Main Menu Navigating the FastBuild Setup MenuOptimize Array For Auto Setup Options MenuCreating Multiple Disk Arrays Using a Hot Spare DriveDefining Typical Application Usage Mode Viewing Drive AssignmentsManually Creating an Array Array No RAID Mode Total Drv CapacityMB StatusAssigning Drives to Array Selecting Array TypeSelecting Stripe Block Adding Fault Tolerance to an Existing Drive Creating a Mirrored Array Using New DrivesChannelID Creating a Hot Spare Drive for Mirrored Arrays Making a FastTrak100 Disk Array BootableHow FastTrak100 Saves Array Information How FastTrak100 Orders ArraysDeleting An Array Press Ctrl-Y to Delete, others to Abort Total Drv CapacityMB Rebuilding a Mirrored ArrayQuantum CR8.4A Viewing FastTrak System Resources Viewing Controller SettingsHalting FastTrak Bios On Bootup Errors Page Windows Installing DriversInstalling Driver During New Windows 2000 Installation Confirming Windows 2000 Installation Installing Driver in Existing Windows 2000 SystemMicrosoft Millennium Installing Drivers During Millennium InstallationConfirming Driver Installation in Millennium Installing Drivers with Existing Millennium SystemWindows 95/98 Installing Drivers During Windows 95/98 InstallationPage Installing Drivers with Existing Windows 95/98 DOS/Windows Confirming Driver Installation in Windows 98/95Windows NT4.0 Installing Drivers During Windows NT 4.0 InstallationRemoving the Driver from Windows NT Installing Driver with Existing Windows NTInstalling FastCheck Using The FastCheck Monitoring UtilityClosing FastCheck Running FastCheckViewing Array Information Using FastCheck Array WindowViewing Arrayed Drive Information Using Array Pull-down Menu Page Synchronizing An Array Page Rebuilding An Array Using Rebuild WizardPage Page Viewing Controller Card Information Using Controller WindowViewing IDE Channel Information Viewing Drive Information Using Options Window Selecting Notification Options Scheduling Array Synchronization User may then decide what to do about the errors detectedSetting Rebuild Options Ignore FastTrak100 will log the event error and continueSetting Disk Parameters Option Setting PCI Bus Utilization OptionSetting Screen Preferences Disabling Password Creating PasswordChanging Password FastBuild Auto Menu Setup About Adapter BiosUnderstanding Disk Array Concepts About FastTrak100 Disk Array AdapterDisk Array Terms Striping RAID About RAID LevelsMirroring RAID Using a Spare DriveAbout Dual Data Redundancy Striping/Mirror RAID 0+1Spanning Jbod Motherboard Issues Troubleshooting & TipsConfiguring PCI IRQ resources System locks up during bootup or when Windows startsDrive-Related Errors System Cmos IssuesUnable to partition or format array Possible Master/Slave problemsSystem Cmos displays C or D drive failure during Startup ECC Error Reported on Rebuild ECC Error Reported on Synchronize Promise Windows driver does not appear Device Manager Operating System-Related ErrorsDifferent drive lettering under Windows NT Page Optimize Array for Performance Re-Configure PCI Latency SettingPerformance Tips Change Setting of PCI Bus Utilization Page Pre-Installation Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat kind of hard drives can I use for a FastTrak100 array? Can I use Atapi devices on the FastTrak100 controller?Jbod spanning RAID 0 stripeRAID 1 mirror Do the HDDs on the FastTrak100 have to be the same size? Drive IssuesHow do I partition/format my FastTrak100 RAID array? Installation IssuesWhy can’t I see the drives on the FastTrak100 under FDISK? Post-InstallationWhy does my system reboot after the Qemm driver loads from Page USA Tech Support Center Contacting Promise SupportAppendix a China Office Appendix a European Tech SupportPacific Rim Sales Office Appendix B Limited WarrantyAppendix B Appendix C Returning Product For RepairYour Responsibilities Index Index C6101F100000000-1
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