Expressraid Provides Hard Disk Utilities; Configure Mode Pages; Erase A Drive; Low-Level Format - ATTO Technology R30F Installation And Operation Manual

5 ExpressRAID Provides Hard Disk Utilities

Hard disk utilities for the Macintosh OS include configuring mode pages and formatting and erasing
drives.

Configure Mode Pages

Mode pages are device-specific parameters stored
on the hard drive which control a variety of
functions, including drive cache management,
error detection and error recovery. ATTO has
determined the best settings for these mode pages
when working with digital video and prepress.
To optimize a new volume for digital video or
prepress
1 Select Configure Mode Pages
2 Click Optimize for Digital Video or Optimize for
Prepress.
3 ExpressRAID examines your drive and
selects the optimum mode page settings for
digital video capture and playback or
prepress applications. If your application is
not digital video or prepress, you can
choose to set the drive's mode pages to
their factory defaults or leave the mode
pages as they are.

Erase a Drive

Erasing a drive removes all data and volume
information from a disk drive, allowing you to
create all new volumes on a drive. Erasing a drive
affects all volumes on that disk. Clicking on a
drive in the device window highlights volumes
which use space on that drive.
To erase a drive
1 Highlight the drive in the device window
2 Select Erase Disk from the Utilities Menu.
Erase Disk provides an optional Erase with
Security Overwrite which writes a random
pattern of data on the whole drive, making
the data unrecoverable. Erase a Disk with
Security Overwrite may take several hours to
complete on larger disk drives.

Low-Level Format

Most hard drives are shipped from the vendor pre-
formatted so low-level formatting is not
necessary. However, sometimes drives are
shipped unformatted.
9 ATTO Technology ExpressRAID for Macintosh
If your drive is unformatted, or you suspect the
drive contains bad sectors, you can format the
drive by selecting Low-Level Format.
Note: Formatting a drive is time consuming
and erases all data on that drive.
ExpressRAID supports asynchronous formatting,
allowing several drives to be formatted
simultaneously, while still allowing you to run
other applications on your computer. It typically
takes 20 to 30 minutes per Gigabyte.
If you try to communicate with a drive being
formatted, there will be a delay during which you
will have no control of the system. Control will
return after the formatting operation is complete.

Scanning Busses

ATTO ExpressRAID may not see drives at start-
up. For example, a drive may not be powered up
or a drive module may be plugged into a dockable
drive bay after starting ATTO ExpressRAID. If
you believe drives on a bus are not visible in the
ATTO ExpressRAID device window, rescan the
busses so that ATTO ExpressRAID checks every
ID of every bus for devices. Located devices are
displayed in the device window. To re-scan the
bus, select the Rescan Bus option from the
Utilities Menu or click the Rescan Bus button in
the Main Window.

Spin Drive Down

Spins down a hard drive so it can safely be
removed but it does not unmount any volumes on
the drive.
To use the drive again
❖Remove and reinsert it.
❖Cycle power to the drive or
❖Use the Drive Spin Up command.

Spin Drive Up

Spins drive up if it has previously been spun
down.