FastTrak100 User Manual
Understanding Disk Array Concepts
About FastTrak100 Disk Array Adapter
FastTrak100 is a high performance Ultra ATA/EIDE RAID controller card that features parallel data channel operation and an onboard BIOS. The two channels on the FastTrak100 support parallel operation that allows for overlapped I/O under
About Adapter BIOS
The FastTrak100 card contains a BIOS code that extends the standard disk service routine provided through Int13h. The BIOS is bootable for DOS and other operating systems that rely on the system BIOS for drive operation. FastTrak100 can support drives and disk arrays with capacities exceeding 8.4 GB using Extended Interrupt13 support. When the FastTrak100 BIOS appears during bootup, users can press
FastBuild™ Auto Menu Setup
This setup utility is used to build and manage FastTrak100 disk arrays. The utility is menu driven and features the <1> Auto Setup option that uses a simple, interactive setup process. Once the array is built, all the array members store the configuration information in the drive’s reserved area. See Chapter 4 that provides descriptions of individual functions.
Reserved Sector
Array configuration data about the drive member and other members in the disk array are saved on a special location on the disk drives called the reserved sector. If any member of the array becomes corrupt or lost, the redundant configuration data on the other members can be used for rebuilds.
Disk array members do not have a “memory” of their drive positions. This allows drives to be placed on different FastTrak100 connectors within the system without reconfiguring or rebuilding.
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