Promise Technology FastTrak S150 User Manual
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Promise Technology FastTrak S150 User Manual

Promise Technology FastTrak S150 User Manual

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S150 TX4
AST
RAK
U
M
SER
ANUAL
Version 1.3

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Summary of Contents for Promise Technology FastTrak S150

  • Page 1 S150 TX4 ANUAL Version 1.3...

  • Page 2: Important Data Protection Information

    You should back up all data before installing any drive controller or storage peripheral. Promise Technology is not responsible for any loss of data resulting from the use, disuse or misuse of this or any other Promise Technology product. Notice...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Adding Fault Tolerance to an Existing Drive ... 25 Creating a Hot Spare Drive for Mirrored Arrays ... 27 How FastTrak S150 TX4 Orders Arrays... 27 How FastTrak S150 TX4 Saves Array Information ... 27 Deleting an Array ... 28 Rebuilding a Mirrored Array ... 30 Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers ...
  • Page 4 New Windows 98 Installation ... 42 Existing Windows 98 Installation ... 43 Confirming Windows 98 Driver Installation... 43 Chapter 5: Disk Array Concepts ... 45 About FastTrak S150 TX4... 45 About Adapter BIOS ... 45 FastBuild Auto Menu Setup ... 45 Reserve Sector ... 45 Disk Array Terms ...

  • Page 5: Chapter 1: Introduction

    PC. Each model offers RAID 1 mirroring (for two drives) and RAID 0+1 mirroring plus striping (for four drives) to protect data. Should a drive that is part of a mirrored array fail, FastTrak S150 TX4 uses the mirrored drive (which contains identical data) to assume all data handling.

  • Page 6: Promise Array Management Utility (Pam)

    (server, controller, data channels, individual drives, and enclosure). For information on using PAM, refer to the PAM User Manual, which is included on the CD that came with your FastTrak S150 TX4. Or download it from the Promise website.

  • Page 7: Key Features And Benefits

    Easy to install; supports 4 Serial ATA drives on the FastTrak S150 TX4 while still supporting 4 devices on motherboard ATA controller. Drive workload is distributed in parallel between members of the array.
  • Page 8 Employs the latest Promise PCI Serial ATA ASIC technology Mirroring supports automatic background rebuilds Features Complies with PCI v2.3 Local Bus standard Complies with SATA Specification 1.0 Compliant with PCI Bus Master standard. PCI Bus Master support Tested compatibility to coexist with motherboards that have integrated IDE controllers...

  • Page 9: Chapter 2: Installation

    Chapter 2: Installation This section is designed to quickly get your FastTrak S150 TX4 Serial ATA RAID controller card up and running using the default settings, which will be optimal for most users. If you wish to modify any of the default settings, please refer to Chapter 3, page 15, Using FastBuild™...

  • Page 10: Installing The Fasttrak Card

    Attach your system case’s 2- or 4-pin LED cable to the LED connector on the FastTrak S150 TX4 RAID card (see Figure 2, on page 8). Make sure that pin 1 on the connector is aligned with pin 1 of the cable.

  • Page 11: Installing The Hard Drives

    Installing the Hard Drives If you wish to include your current bootable Serial ATA drive using the Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored (RAID 1) array on your FastTrak Serial ATA RAID card, do NOT connect the hard drive to the FastTrak yet.
  • Page 12 Attach the Y-cable power splitters to the Serial ATA hard drives. Note The FastTrak S150 TX4 RAID controller is a PCI Plug-n-Play (PnP) device. No changes are necessary in the Motherboard CMOS Setup for resources or drive types in most applications.

  • Page 13: Creating Your Disk Array

    Boot your system. If this is the first time you have booted with the FastTrak S150 TX4 card and drives installed, the Promise onboard BIOS will display the following screen. FastTrak S150 TXx (tm) BIOS Version 1.aa (Build xxxx) (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved No array defined . . .

  • Page 14: Creating A Performance Array

    [↑] Up [↓] Down [←, →, Space] Change Option [ESC] Exit [Ctrl-Y] Save Creating a Performance Array Use this setting to create a Striped (RAID 0) array. FastTrak S150 TX4 enables you to create striped arrays with 1, 2, 3, or 4 drives. These arrays have no fault tolerance.

  • Page 15: Creating A Security Array With New Drives

    Creating a Security Array with New Drives Use this setting to create a Mirrored (RAID 1) array with two new hard drives. If one of the drives has data on it, follow the Creating a Security Array with an Existing Data Drive procedure on the next page. When creating a Security array with new drives, a feature called Gigabyte Boundary will automatically be set to ON.

  • Page 16: Creating A Security Array With An Existing Data Drive

    Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored (RAID 1) array on your FastTrak S150 TX4, do NOT connect the hard drive to the FastTrak yet. You MUST install the Windows NT4, 2000, or XP driver software first to this drive while it is still attached to your existing hard drive controller.
  • Page 17 Channel:ID ----- Channel:ID ----- [Please Select A Source Disk] Channel:ID [↑] Up [↓] Down [ESC] Exit [Ctrl-Y] Save Use the arrow keys to choose which drive contains the existing data to be copied. Press Ctrl-Y to Save selection and start duplication. The following progress screen will appear.

  • Page 18: Creating A Security Array With Quick Initialization

    Creating a Security Array with Quick Initialization Use this setting to create a Mirrored (RAID 1) array with one or two existing hard drives containing data that you do not want to keep. This method creates a mirrored array and erases the first data block from your existing drives. Using the Quick Initialization option on existing drives will result in the loss of all data on those drives.

  • Page 19: Chapter 3: Using Fastbuild Configuration Utility

    Viewing FastTrak S150 TX4 BIOS Screen When you boot your system with the FastTrak S150 TX4 card and drives installed, the Promise onboard BIOS will detect the drives attached and show the following screen.

  • Page 20: Navigating The Fastbuild Setup Menu

    Array on page 28. To rebuild a mirrored array, see Rebuilding a Mirrored Array on page 30. After you install the FastTrak S150 TX4 card and configure an array using FastBuild, use FDISK to format the arrayed drive(s) if you are using new, blank drives...

  • Page 21: Creating Arrays Automatically

    It will assign all available drives appropriate for the disk array you are creating. After making all selections, press Ctrl-Y to Save the selections. FastBuild will automatically build the array. FastBuild (tm) Utility 2.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Optimize Array for: Mode... Stripe Spare Drive Count ...
  • Page 22 FastTrak S150 TX4 permits striped arrays using 1, 2, 3, or 4 drives attached in Auto Setup mode. Under the Security setting, FastTrak S150 TX4 permits two drives to be used for a single Mirrored array or four drives to be used for a Mirrored/Striped array in Auto Setup.

  • Page 23: Using A Hot Spare Drive

    It is automatically added to an array once a disk member of the array has been detected as failed. To restore fault tolerance as quickly as possible, FastTrak S150 TX4 begins to perform an automatic data rebuild on the spare drive in the background without the need to restart the system.

  • Page 24: Viewing Drive Assignments

    Unassigned drives are not accessible by the OS. The menu also displays the data transfer mode that relates to speed used by each drive (U5 refers to 100MB/sec transfers, U4 refers to 66MB/sec transfers, etc...) FastBuild (tm) Utility 2.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Channel:ID Drive Model...

  • Page 25: Manually Creating An Array

    You may use a single drive in striping mode with FastTrak S150 TX4. In this rare scenario, the card will create an individual array ID but will offer conventional controller performance depending on the drive type.

  • Page 26: Selecting Array Type

    Press the Spacebar to scroll through choices progressing as follows (16, 32, 64, 128 KB). The size selected affects how FastTrak S150 TX4 sends and retrieves data blocks to and from the drives. You will need to perform your own testing to determine how the data block size is affecting your particular use of the array.

  • Page 27: Gigabyte Boundary

    This can be helpful in the event that a drive fails and an exact replacement model is no longer available. Without this feature enabled, FastTrak S150 TX4 will NOT permit the use of a replacement drive that is slightly smaller than the remaining working drive.

  • Page 28: Creating A Striped Array

    Creating a Striped Array As described in the Drive Assignments Option section above, if you selected a performance array, follow the directions here. Set the Stripe Block size. 64 KB is the default. Assign new drives to the Performance array. You may assign from one to four drives.

  • Page 29: Adding Fault Tolerance To An Existing Drive

    Adding Fault Tolerance to an Existing Drive FastTrak S150 TX4 will create a mirrored array using an existing system drive with data. You must assign the existing drive and another drive of same or larger capacity to the Mirroring array. The BIOS will send the existing data to the new blank drive.
  • Page 30 Channel:ID Channel:ID [Please Select A Source Disk] Channel:ID SEAGATE S380023AS SEAGATE S380023AS [ ] Up [ ] [ESC] Exit [Ctrl-Y] Save Press the arrow keys to choose which drive contains the existing data to be copied. All target drive data will be erased. Make sure you choose the correct drive.

  • Page 31: Creating A Hot Spare Drive For Mirrored Arrays

    How FastTrak S150 TX4 Orders Arrays During startup, the disk arrays on the FastTrak S150 TX4 are recognized in this order: The array set to bootable in the FastBuild Setup.

  • Page 32: Deleting An Array

    Make sure to record all array information including the array type, the disk members, and stripe block size in case you wish to undo a deletion. FastBuild (tm) Utility 2.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 1...
  • Page 33 FastBuild (tm) Utility 2.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 1 Stripe Stripe Block: 64 KB Channel:ID Drive Model SEAGATE S380023AS SEAGATE S380023AS Press Ctrl-Y to confirm Yes to the following warning message and continue array...

  • Page 34: Rebuilding A Mirrored Array

    Drives MUST be replaced if they contain any physical errors. Follow these steps before using the Rebuild Array menu option: On bootup, the FastTrak S150 TX4 Startup BIOS will display an error message identifying which drive has failed. Press Ctrl-F to enter FastBuild Main Menu.
  • Page 35 FastBuild (tm) Utility 2.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 2 Mirror Stripe Block: Not Available Channel:ID [ ] Up [ ] Down [ESC] Exit 11. Under Select Drive for Rebuild, highlight the replacement drive. 12. Press Enter and confirm that the data will be copied on to the selected drive.
  • Page 36 FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual...

  • Page 37: Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers

    Chapter 4: Installing Software Drivers Following are driver installation procedures for the Windows operating systems that support the FastTrak S150 TX4 Controller. The FastTrak TX4 software drivers for Windows are included on the driver diskette. Drivers and installation instructions for other Operating Systems are downloadable from the Promise website at www.promise.com.

  • Page 38: New Windows Xp Installation

    New Windows XP Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4 drivers while installing Windows XP. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows XP installation diskettes. • CD-ROM Install: Boot from the CD-ROM. Press F6 after the message “Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver”...

  • Page 39: Existing Windows Xp Installation

    Existing Windows XP Installation After installing the FastTrak S150 TX4 card and rebooting your system, Windows XP setup will show a “Found New Hardware” dialog box. Under Windows XP, “Mass Storage Controller” will be displayed. Insert the FastTrak TX4 driver diskette into the A:\ drive.

  • Page 40: New Windows 2000 Installation

    New Windows 2000 Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4 drivers while installing Windows 2000. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows 2000 installation diskettes. • CD-ROM Install: Boot from the CD-ROM. Press F6 after the message “Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver”...

  • Page 41: Existing Windows 2000 Installation

    Existing Windows 2000 Installation After installing the FastTrak S150 TX4 card and rebooting your system, Windows 2000 setup will show a “New Hardware Found” dialog box. Under Windows 2000, “PCI Mass Storage Controller” will be displayed. Choose Add New Hardware Wizard from the list, and then press Enter.

  • Page 42: New Windows Me Installation

    New Windows ME Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4 drivers while installing Windows ME. Install the FastTrak TX4 controller card into your system. Install Windows ME fully. After installation, go to the Start menu and choose Settings. From the Settings menu, choose Control Panel.

  • Page 43: Existing Windows Me Installation

    The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4 drivers on a system that has Windows ME already installed and running. After installing the FastTrak S150 TX4 controller card and configuring the hard drives, power up the system and boot.

  • Page 44: New Windows Nt4.0 Installation

    New Windows NT4.0 Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4 drivers while installing Windows NT4.0. Start the system installation by booting from the Windows NT disk: • Floppy install: boot the system with the Windows NT installation diskettes.

  • Page 45: Existing Windows Nt4.0 Installation

    Existing Windows NT4.0 Installation The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4 drivers on a system that has Windows NT4.0 already installed and running. NOTE: Do not attach the boot drive or any other hard drive to the FastTrak TX4 controller card before completing this step.

  • Page 46: New Windows 98 Installation

    New Windows 98 Installation The following section details the installation of the FastTrak TX4 drivers while installing Windows 98. Install the FastTrak S150 TX4 controller card and configure the hard drive(s), partition and format your hard drive(s), if necessary. Install Windows 98 normally.

  • Page 47: Existing Windows 98 Installation

    The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4 drivers on a system that has Windows 98 already installed and running. After installing the FastTrak S150 TX4 controller card and configuring the hard drives, power up the system and boot Windows.
  • Page 48 FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual...

  • Page 49: Chapter 5: Disk Array Concepts

    FastBuild setup to select from menu settings. FastBuild Auto Menu Setup This setup utility is used to build and manage FastTrak S150 TX4 disk arrays. The utility is menu driven and features the Auto Setup (1) option that uses a simple, interactive setup process.

  • Page 50: Disk Array Terms

    There are three disk array types (RAID 0, 1, and 0+1) in two categories that can be installed on the FastTrak S150 TX4 card. Striping is in the Performance category while Mirroring and Striping/Mirroring are in the Fault Tolerance category.

  • Page 51: About Raid Levels

    About RAID Levels Striping (RAID 0) Reads and writes sectors of data interleaved between multiple drives. When any disk member fails, it affects the entire array. Performance is better than a single drive since the workload is balanced between the array members. This array type is for high performance systems.

  • Page 52: Mirroring (Raid 1)

    Using a Spare Drive – Under a RAID 1 setup, an extra hot spare drive. You can attach a third drive to the FastTrak S150 TX4 without assigning it to the array. Such a drive will be activated to replace a failed drive that is part of a mirrored array.

  • Page 53: Striping / Mirroring (Raid 0+1)

    Striping / Mirroring (RAID 0+1) A combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 arrays. It can increase performance by reading and writing data in parallel while protecting data with duplication. A minimum of four drives are required. With a four-drive disk array, two pairs of drives are striped. Each pair mirrors the data on the other pair of striped drives.

  • Page 54: About Dual Data Redundancy

    In some cases, two drives can fail simultaneously yet the array still maintains the integrity of data. There are six combinations in which two of the four drives can fail. FastTrak S150 TX4 protects the data array in four of those cases. Assume the drives are configured as follows: •...

  • Page 55: Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips

    Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips This section is used to assist with troubleshooting conflicts and FastTrak S150 TX4 installation problems. Also refer to the README.TXT file on the FastTrak S150 TX4 driver and utility diskette for more recent information as well as the PromiseOnline services listed in Appendix B.

  • Page 56: System Cmos Issues

    FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual System CMOS Issues Set Motherboard CMOS Boot sequence to boot to FastTrak S150 TX4 On some Motherboard BIOS, it is necessary to set the Boot sequence to SCSI, A:, C: since the Promise card is identified as a SCSI card.

  • Page 57: Drive-Related Errors

    (see below), there is a drive in the array that has failed or is not responding. FastTrak S150 TX4 will identify the failed drive by channel number. The mirrored array has lost its fault tolerance, but will still perform normal drive reads and writes.
  • Page 58 Unable to Partition or Format Array This condition may occur when the Reserve Sector of one of the drives has become corrupt or bad. Removing the Reserve Sector will remedy any issue related directly to a Bad Reserve Sector. Before removing the Reserve Sector of the drive(s), backup any existing data.
  • Page 59 Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips Array Constantly Goes Into Critical or Offline Mode During Reboot See Unable to Partition or Format array, above. Cannot Rebuild Mirrored (RAID 1) Array See Unable to Partition or Format array, above. Fatal Errors or Data Corruption Are Constantly Reported When Reading or Writing to Drive Array See Unable to Partition or Format array, above.

  • Page 60: Operating System-Related Issues

    FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual Operating System-Related Issues 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.
  • Page 61 Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips “No Hard Drives Found” Message Appears During CD-ROM Install of Windows NT, 2000, or XP 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…”...

  • Page 62: Performance Tips

    Use FastTrak S150 TX4 as D: or other non-bootable drive in a Striped Array For Audio/Video editing, keep the original system boot drive on the standard IDE controller as C: drive.
  • Page 63 Information View. At the bottom of the window is the PCI bus utilization slider. Move the slider to the left to reduce the time FastTrak S150 TX4 occupies the PCI bus. Then click the Commit button. Once a PCI bus setting has been selected, no reboot is required.
  • Page 64 FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual...

  • Page 65: Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions

    Pre-Installation (Speed, Device Types, Capacity, Cabling) Q: What kind of hard drives can I use for a FastTrak S150 TX4 array? You can use any Serial ATA hard drive(s) to create arrays on the FastTrak S150 TX4. You should use matching drives for multiple-drive arrays to maximize capacity usage as well as performance.

  • Page 66: Drive Issues

    RAID 0 (Stripe) For capacity – The FastTrak S150 TX4 array will be as big as the smallest HDD in the array times however many HDDs are in the array. Any larger HDDs will simply be truncated. The truncated space on the bigger HDDs will then be unusable.
  • Page 67 Q: Can I take a drive used in a FastTrak S150 TX4 array and access it directly with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the motherboard? Only Single-drive striped (RAID 0) and Mirrored (RAID 1) array configurations allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller.

  • Page 68: Installation Issues

    PCI slot priority. PCI slot #1 will be first, slot #2 second, etc. Put the FastTrak S150 TX4 controller in the PCI slot where it will be accessed ahead of other SCSI controllers if you want to boot from the array.

  • Page 69: Appendix B: Technical Support

    7:30-5:00pm M-F Pacific Standard Time Promise Technology, Inc. Attn: Technical Support 1745 McCandless Drive Milpitas, CA 95035, USA support@promise.nl +31 (0)40-256-9463 Attention: Technical Support +31 (0)40-235-2600 8:30-5:00pm The Netherlands Time Promise Technology Europe B.V. Attn: Technical Support Luchthavenweg 81-125 5657 EA Eindhoven, The Netherlands...
  • Page 70 If you wish to write us for support: support@promise.com.tw +886-3-578-2390 Attention: Technical Support +886-3-578-2395 (Ext. 8870) 9:00-6:00pm Taiwan Time Promise Technology, Inc. Attn: Technical Support 2F, No. 30, Industry E. Rd. IX Science-based Industrial Park Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C. support-china@promise.com +86 (0) 10-687-23940...

  • Page 71: Limited Warranty

    Limited Warranty Promise Technology, Inc. (“Promise”) warrants that for Three (3) years from the time of the delivery of the product to the original end user: the product will conform to Promise’s specifications; the product will be free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use and service.

  • Page 72: Your Responsibilities

    No other document, statement or representation may be relied on to vary the terms of this limited warranty. Promise’s sole responsibility with respect to any product is to do one of the following at its own discretion: replace the product with a conforming unit of the same or superior product;...

  • Page 73: Returning Product For Repair

    Promise will pay for standard return shipping charges only. You will be required to pay for any additional shipping options (such as express shipping). Appendix B: Technical Support Promise Technology, Inc. Customer Service Dept. Attn.: RMA # ______ 1745 McCandless Drive...
  • Page 74 FastTrak S150 TX4 User Manual...

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