Promise Technology EX4650A Drive Issues, Can I use Atapi devices on the SuperTrak EX Series?

SuperTrak EX Series User Manual

Can I use ATAPI devices on the SuperTrak EX Series?

No. The SuperTrak EX Series Controller does not support ATAPI devices.

Will ACPI work with HDDs on the SuperTrak EX Series?

Yes. The SuperTrak EX Series controller supports ACPI S1, S3 and S4 standby modes.

What kind of PCI slots do the SuperTrak EX Series controllers use?

SuperTrak EX Series controllers will work in a PCI-Express x8 slot or x16 slot.

Drive Issues

Can I add a drive to a SuperTrak EX Series logical drive via hot-swap and dynamically adjust the array size/configuration?

Yes. The SuperTrak EX Series controller supports online logical drive expansion and migration. You must use the SuperBuild utility or the WebPAM PRO software to expand or migrate an existing logical drive.

Do the HDDs on the SuperTrak EX Series have to be the same size?

The physical drives that you use with the SuperTrak EX Series controller do not have to be the same size. If the sizes differ, the SuperTrak EX Controller will truncate the large drive so the capacities match. The resulting difference in drive space is unusable, so avoid using physical drives of significantly different capacities.

Can I take a drive used in a SuperTrak EX Series logical drive and access it directly with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the motherboard?

Yes, but only under certain configurations. First, the other controller must address the drives as LBA, not CHS.

Second, only the following configurations allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller:

•Single-drive RAID 0 (stripe)

•One drive from a RAID 1 (mirror) logical drive

No other array configurations will work for this purpose.

I already have an array on a Promise FastTrak controller. Can I move that array to my new SuperTrak EX Series controller?

No. The SuperTrak EX Series controller supports SNIA Disk Data Format (DDF), which is not backward compatible with the FastTrak controller.

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