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Manual EN
05-08-1999 11:30
Pagina 45
Chapter 6
Understanding Disk Array Concepts
Disk Array Adapter
FastTrak66 is a high performance Ultra ATA/EIDE RAID controller card that
features parallel data channel operation and an onboard BIOS. The two chan-
nels on the FastTrak66 support parallel operation that allows for overlapped
I/O under multi-tasking operating systems and sharing the workload between
multiple drives.
Adapter BIOS
The FastTrak66 card contains a BIOS code that extends the standard disk ser-
vice routine provided through Int13. The BIOS is bootable for DOS and other
operating systems that rely on the system BIOS for drive operation. FastTrak66
can support drives and disk arrays with capacities exceeding 8.4 GB using
Extended Interrupt13 support. When the FastTrak66 BIOS appears during
bootup, users can press <F2> to enter the FastBuildTM setup to select from
menu settings.
FastBuildª Auto Menu Setup
This setup utility is used to build and manage FastTrak66 disk arrays. The uti-
lity 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 con-
figuration 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 FastTrak66 connectors or cards within
the system without reconfiguring or rebuilding.
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