Operating System-Related Errors

FastTrak100 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 Windows NT’s Disk Administrator utility to reassign the letters which NT has 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 98/NT4.0/2000

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. Each controller can view a drive differently. This can be an issue for a new controller which loads the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem translating it or the Operating System boot record.

For Windows NT or Windows 2000, Promise recommends a “clean” install of the Operating System. This restores the MBR and OS boot record. You will then need to repartition and format the drive.

For Windows 98,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 98 registry may have become corrupted during the boot process and must be restored. See the Windows documentation to perfrom this procedure.

Promise Windows driver does not appear Device Manager

Windows may already be listing the controller under “Other Devices” instead of “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, and then click on the “Driver” tab. Depending on your version of Windows, choose either “Change Driver” or “Update Driver”. Then 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 or 2000

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 NT4.0 or the message "Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver" appears in Windows 2000.