Promise Technology FastTrak TX4000 User Manual
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Promise Technology FastTrak TX4000 User Manual

Promise technology fasttrak tx4000 user manual
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Summary of Contents for Promise Technology FastTrak TX4000

  • Page 1 TX4000 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

    Contents Chapter 1: Introduction... 1 What is the FastTrak TX4000 RAID Card? ... 1 Promise Array Management Utility (PAM)... 2 Keys Features and Benefits ... 3 Chapter 2: Quick Start... 5 Installing the FastTrak TX4000 Card... 6 Installing the Hard Drives ... 7 Creating Your Disk Array...
  • Page 4 Existing Windows 98 Installation ... 45 Confirming Driver Installation in Windows 98 ... 45 Chapter 5: Disk Array Concepts ... 47 About FastTrak TX4000 ... 47 About Adapter BIOS ... 47 FastBuild Auto Menu Setup ... 47 Reserved Sector ... 47 Disk Array Terms ...

  • Page 5: Chapter 1: Introduction

    Chapter 1: Introduction The PC which you are using either already contains a Promise Technology FastTrak TX4000 RAID card installed by a third-party or you have acquired a FastTrak TX4000 retail product for your existing PC and will be installing the card yourself.

  • Page 6: Promise Array Management Utility (Pam)

    (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 TX4000 uses the mirrored drive (which contains identical data) to assume all data handling.

  • Page 7: Keys Features And Benefits

    Easy to install; support four ATA drives on the FastTrak TX4000 while still supporting 4 devices on motherboard ATA controller. Drive workload is distributed in parallel between members of the array.
  • Page 8 Mirroring supports automatic background rebuilds Features Complies with PCI v2.2 Local Bus standard Compliant with PCI IDE Bus Master standard. PCI IDE Bus Master support for Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Server 2003 Tested compatibility to coexist with motherboards that have integrated IDE controllers Compatible with Ultra ATA/133, Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66...

  • Page 9: Chapter 2: Quick Start

    Chapter 2: Quick Start When you receive the FastTrak TX4000 Series Controller Card, the package should contain the items listed below: • FastTrak TX4000 Ultra ATA/133 RAID Controller Card Quick Start Guide • FastTrak TX4000 driver diskette • Two Y-cable power splitters.

  • Page 10: Installing The Fasttrak Tx4000 Card

    Installing the FastTrak TX4000 Card The FastTrak TX4000 Controller card fits into any available 32-bit PCI slot (must be PCI 2.1 or 2.2 compliant). It also fits the 32-bit portion of a 64-bit PCI slot, on the system’s motherboard (see figure below).

  • Page 11: Installing The Hard Drives

    The drives’ matched performance allows the array to function better as a single drive. Promise recommends using identical drives as part of a FastTrak TX4000 array. If striping for performance, use up to four new drives. If mirroring for protection, you can use two new drives OR use an existing drive and a new drive (the new drive must be the same size or larger than the existing drive).
  • Page 12 CMOS Setup for resources or drive types in most applications. • If you wish to boot from a FastTrak TX4000 drive array AND continue to use hard drives attached to your motherboard’s IDE controller, refer to your motherboard manual for the specific BIOS settings to use in order to establish their proper boot order.

  • Page 13: Creating Your Disk Array

    TX4000 card and drives installed, the Promise onboard BIOS will display the following screen. FastTrak TXx000 (tm) BIOS Version 1.xx (Build xxxx) (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No array defined . . . Press <Ctrl-F> to enter FastBuild (tm) Utility Or press <ESC>...

  • Page 14: Creating An Array For Performance

    See Using FastBuild Configuration Utility on page 15. Creating an Array for Performance FastTrak TX4000 allows users to create striped or mirrored arrays with 1, 2, 3, or 4 drives. To create an array for best performance, follow these steps: Using the Spacebar, choose Performance under the Optimize Array for section.

  • Page 15: Creating A Security Array With New Drives

    Creating a Security Array with New Drives Under the Security setting, FastTrak TX4000 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. 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

    Creating a Security Array with an Existing Data Drive Under the Security setting, FastTrak TX4000 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. You would use this method if you wish to use a drive that already contains data and/or is the bootable system drive in your system.
  • Page 17 Security array has been created. Press any key to reboot the system. Array has been created. <Press Any Key to Reboot> Proceed to Chapter 4: Installing Drivers to install the FastTrak TX4000 driver and/or operating system. Source Disk Drive Model...
  • Page 18 FastTrak TX4000 User Manual...

  • Page 19: Chapter 3: Using Fastbuild Configuration Utility

    Viewing FastTrak TX4000 BIOS Screen When you boot your system with the FastTrak TX4000 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 29. To rebuild a mirrored array, see Rebuilding an Array on page 31. After you install the FastTrak TX4000 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 1.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Optimize Array for: Typical Application usage: A/V Editing Mode...

  • Page 22: Optimize Array For

    RAID 0 (Striping) supports the high performance. The storage capacity equals the number of drives times the capacity of the smallest drive in the disk array. FastTrak TX4000 permits striped arrays using 1, 2, 3, or 4 drives attached in Auto Setup mode.

  • 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 TX4000 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

    (U5 refers to 100MB/sec transfers, U4 refers to 66MB/sec transfers, etc...) FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Channel: Drive ID [ ] Up [ ] Down [ESC] Exit Mode (U=UDMA, P=PIO, D=DMA)

  • Page 25: Manually Creating An Array

    You may use a single drive in striping mode with FastTrak TX4000. 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, 256 MB). The size selected affects how FastTrak TX4000 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 TX4000 will NOT permit the use of a replacement drive that is slightly smaller than the remaining working drive.

  • Page 28: Creating A Mirrored Array Using New Drives

    Creating a Mirrored Array Using New Drives As described in the Drive Assignments Option section above, if you selected a mirroring array and wish to use two new assigned drives, follow the directions here. Assign new drives to a Mirroring array Save the information by pressing Ctrl-Y, the window below will appear.

  • Page 29: Adding Fault Tolerance To An Existing Drive

    Adding Fault Tolerance to an Existing Drive FastTrak TX4000 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: Drive ID Channel: Drive ID [Please Select A Source Disk] Channel: Drive ID [ ] 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: Making A Fasttrak Tx4000 Disk Array Bootable

    Making a FastTrak TX4000 Disk Array Bootable If you plan to boot from an array on the FastTrak TX4000, you must configure the system BIOS Setup to use the FastTrak TX4000 as a bootable device (rather than the onboard controller or another add-in card).

  • Page 32: Creating A Hot Spare Drive For Mirrored Arrays

    How FastTrak TX4000 Orders Arrays During startup, the disk arrays on the FastTrak TX4000 are recognized in this order: The array set to bootable in the FastBuild Setup.

  • Page 33: 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 1.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 1...
  • Page 34 FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 1 Stripe Stripe Block: 64 KB Channel: Drive ID QUANTUMCR8.4A QUANTUMCR8.4A Press Ctrl-Y to confirm Yes to the following warning message and continue array deletion: Are you sure you want to delete this array?

  • Page 35: 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 boot up, the FastTrak TX4000 Startup BIOS will display an error message identifying which drive has failed. Press Ctrl-F to enter FastBuild Main Menu.
  • Page 36 FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. Array No RAID Mode Array 2 Mirror Stripe Block: Not Available Channel: Drive ID [ ] Up [ ] Down [ESC] Exit Under Select Drive for Rebuild, highlight the replacement drive.

  • 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 TX4000 Controller. The FastTrak TX4000 software drivers for Windows are included on the driver diskette. Drivers and installation instructions for Linux and Novell operating systems are downloadable from the Promise website at www.promise.com.

  • Page 38: New Windows Server 2003 Installation

    New Windows Server 2003 Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4000 drivers while installing Windows Server 2003. Start the installation: • Floppy Install: Boot the computer with the Windows Server 2003 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 Server 2003 Installation

    Existing Windows Server 2003 Installation After installing the FastTrak TX4000 card and rebooting your system, Windows Server 2003 setup will show a “Found New Hardware” dialog box. Insert the FastTrak TX4000 driver diskette into the A:\ drive. Choose Install the software automatically and press the Enter key.

  • Page 40: New Windows Xp Installation

    When the Windows XP Text Setup is generated, press S to specify an Additional Device(s). Insert the FastTrak TX4000 driver diskette into drive A: and press Enter. Choose WinXP Promise FastTrak TX4000 Controller from the list that appears on screen, and then press the Enter.

  • Page 41: Existing Windows Xp Installation

    Existing Windows XP Installation After installing the FastTrak TX4000 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 TX4000 driver diskette into the A:\ drive.

  • Page 42: New Windows 2000 Installation

    When the Windows 2000 Setup window is generated, press S to specify an Additional Device(s). Insert the FastTrak TX4000 driver diskette into drive A: and press Enter. Choose Win2000 Promise FastTrak TX4000 Controller from the list that appears on screen then press Enter.

  • Page 43: Existing Windows 2000

    Existing Windows 2000 After installing the FastTrak TX4000 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 44: New Windows Me Installation

    New Windows ME Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak TX4000 drivers while installing Windows ME. Install the FastTrak TX4000 controller card into your system. Install Windows ME fully. After installation, go to the Start menu and choose Settings.

  • Page 45: Existing Windows Me Installation

    Existing Windows ME Installation The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4000 drivers on a system that has Windows ME already installed and running. After installing the FastTrak TX4000 controller card and configuring the hard drives, power up the system and boot.

  • Page 46: New Windows Nt4.X Installation

    When the Windows NT Setup window is generated, press S to Specify an Additional Device(s). Insert the FastTrak TX4000 driver diskette into drive A: and press Enter. Choose WinNT Promise FastTrak TX4000 Controller from the list that appears on screen then press Enter.

  • Page 47: Existing Windows Nt4.X Installation

    Existing Windows NT4.x Installation The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4000 drivers on a system that has Windows NT4.x already installed and running. NOTE: Do not attach the boot drive or any other hard drive to the FastTrak TX4000 controller card before completing this step.

  • Page 48: New Windows 98 Installation

    New Windows 98 Installation The following section details the installation of the FastTrak TX4000 drivers while installing Windows 98. Install the FastTrak TX4000 controller card and configure the hard drive(s), partition and format your hard drive(s), if necessary. Install Windows 98 normally.

  • Page 49: Existing Windows 98 Installation

    Existing Windows 98 Installation The following section details the installation of FastTrak TX4000 drivers on a system that has Windows 98 already installed and running. After installing the FastTrak TX4000 controller card and configuring the hard drives, power up the system and boot Windows.
  • Page 50 FastTrak TX4000 User Manual...

  • Page 51: 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 TX4000 disk arrays. The utility is menu driven and features the Auto Setup (1) option that uses a simple, interactive setup process.

  • Page 52: Disk Array Terms

    There are three disk array types in two categories that can be installed on the FastTrak TX4000 card. Striping is in the Performance category while Mirroring, Striping/Mirroring are in the Fault Tolerance category. Disk arrays within the Performance and Fault Tolerance categories conform to the Redundant Array of Independent Disks technology, or RAID.

  • Page 53: 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 54: Mirroring (Raid 1)

    Using a Spare Drive – Under a RAID 1, you can attach a third drive to the FastTrak TX4000 as a hot spare without assigning it to the array. Such a drive will be activated to replace a failed drive in the array. A rebuild takes place automatically in the background to mirror the good drive data onto the spare.

  • Page 55: Striping / Mirror (Raid 0+1)

    Striping / Mirror (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 56: About Dual Data Redundancy

    • 1/2 indicates which part of stripe data. • IDE 1 Drive A1 Note that FastTrak TX4000 card does not use Master/Slave drive settings. Under RAID 0+1, the array maintains data integrity if any A, B combination survives. Failed Event...

  • Page 57: Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips

    This section is used to assist with troubleshooting conflicts and FastTrak TX4000 installation problems. Also refer to the README.TXT file on the FastTrak TX4000 driver and utility diskette for more recent information as well as the PromiseOnline services listed in Appendix A.

  • Page 58: System Cmos Issues

    • Slow data transfer rates • Move the FastTrak TX4000 card to a different PCI slot. Intermittent data problems Overclocking the PCI bus may cause the system to hang or data corruption. If you experience either of these problems and you are overclocking the PCI bus, set the PCI bus back to its normal setting to see if this is causing the errors.

  • Page 59: Drive-Related Errors

    Drive-Related Errors Critical Array Status Error Reported during Boot If a critical status error message appears on the FastTrak TX4000 BIOS startup screen for a mirrored array (see below), there is a drive in the array that has failed or is not responding. FastTrak TX4000 will identify the failed drive by channel number.
  • Page 60 Unable to partition or format array There are two possible causes: The FastTrak TX4000 controller is the bootable device but the array is not • set to be bootable. The Reserve Sector of one of the drives has become corrupt or bad.
  • Page 61 To remove the Reserve Sector, follow these steps: During boot up, press Ctrl-F to enter the FastBuild BIOS utility. Choose option 2, View Drive Assignments. Press arrow keys to highlight the drive where you wish to remove the reserve sector. Press Alt-F1.

  • Page 62: Operating System-Related Issues

    FastTrak TX4000 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 63 Chapter 6: Troubleshooting & Tips “No Hard Drives Found” Message Appears During CD-ROM Install of Windows NT, 2000, XP or Server 2003 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 64: Performance Tips

    Use FastTrak TX4000 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 65 Change Setting of PCI Bus Utilization Certain brands of video capture cards can produce a glitch on play back of .AVI files. A setting of Less for PCI Bus utilization reduces the time which FastTrak TX4000 occupies on the PCI bus and frees that time for use by other PCI devices and will eliminate the glitch dropout effect on playback.
  • Page 66 FastTrak TX4000 User Manual...

  • Page 67: Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions

    The FastTrak TX4000 is fully PnP. This means all the resources that it uses are given to it by the PnP BIOS on the motherboard. The FastTrak TX4000 does support IRQ sharing, but this will not work unless ALL the concerned devices support the feature.

  • Page 68: Drive Issues

    FastTrak TX4000 implements three different RAID levels as follows: RAID 0 (Stripe) For capacity – The FastTrak TX4000 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.
  • Page 69 Mirrored (RAID 1) Multiple drives striped or spanned will not work. Q: If I have a problem with one of the drives on the FastTrak TX4000, how can I low-level format it to correct the problem? Do NOT do this. Low-level formatting IDE drives is unnecessary and generally does not correct problems commonly experienced during use.

  • Page 70: Installation Issues

    PCI slot priority. PCI slot #1 will be first, slot #2 second, etc. Put the FastTrak TX4000 controller in the PCI slot where it will be accessed ahead of other SCSI controllers if you want to boot from the array.

  • Page 71: Appendix B: Technical Support

    If you wish to write us for support: http://www.promise.com (tech documents, drivers, utilities, etc.) support@promise.com (408) 228-6401 Attention: Technical Support (408) 228-6402 7:30-5:00pm M-F Pacific Standard Time Promise Technology, Inc. Attn: Technical Support 1745 McCandless Drive Milpitas, CA 95035, USA...
  • Page 72 If you wish to write us for support: 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 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.

  • Page 73: 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 74: Your Responsibility

    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: replace the product with a conforming unit of the same or superior product;...

  • Page 75: 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 Milpitas, CA 95035 Return the product to your dealer or retailer.
  • Page 76 FastTrak TX4000 User Manual...

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