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Albatron MBFastTrak133 “Lite” User Manual

Promise raid
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Summary of Contents for Albatron MBFastTrak133 “Lite”

  • Page 1 Promise RAID MBFastTrak133 “Lite” User’s Manual...
  • Page 2 Copyright Copyright © 2002 by Albatron. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the company.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ............................1 133 L RAID ? ................1 HAT IS THE CONTROLLER ........................2 EATURES AND ENEFITS GETTING STARTED ............................4 ........................4 NSTALLING RIVES CMOS S ..........................5 HECKING ETTINGS .........................5 REATING RRAY USING FASTBUILD™ CONFIGURATION UTILITY ..................9 133 L BIOS S ....................9...

  • Page 5: Introduction

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Introduction What is the MBFastTrak133 Lite RAID controller? Promise designed its MBFastTrak133 Lite to provide a cost-effective, high performance RAID solution that adds performance and/or reliability to PC desktops and/or servers using Ultra ATA/133, Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66.

  • Page 6: Keys Features And Benefits

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Keys Features and Benefits The following information offers an overview of the major features of your new Promise MBFastTrak133 Lite. It is divided into two areas: Advanced Hardware Design, and Compatibility. Advanced Hardware Design Features Benefits Supports data striping (RAID 0) or mirroring Provides dramatic...
  • Page 7 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Compatibility Features Benefits Complies with PCI v2.2 Local Bus standard Provides highest level hardware compatibility. Compliant with PCI IDE Bus Master Provides 32-bit I/O, IDE Bus Master, and standard. PCI IDE Bus Master support for Ultra ATA performance for optimal system Windows XP/2000/98/95, Windows NT performance.

  • Page 8: Getting Started

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Getting Started This section is designed to get you started for installation of your MBFastTrak133 Lite. WARNING: Before installing the driver into an existing system, backup any necessary data. Failure to follow this accepted PC practice could result in data loss. Installing The Hard Drives WARNING: If you wish to include your current bootable drive using the Windows NT 4.x or Windows 2000 operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored (RAID 1) array on your...

  • Page 9: Checking Cmos Settings

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Checking CMOS Settings No changes are necessary in the Mainboard CMOS Setup for resources or drive types. Since MBFastTrak133 Lite is a PCI Plug-n-Play (PnP) device, the Interrupt and Port address resources are automatically assigned by the Mainboard’s PCI PnP BIOS. The MBFastTrak133 Lite system resources including port address, interrupt, and BIOS address are automatically determined by the system PnP BIOS.
  • Page 10 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Press “1” to display the Auto Setup Menu below. This is the fastest and easiest method to creating your first array. FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. [Auto Setup Options Menu] Optimize Array for: Performance Typical Application usage: A/V Editing [ Auto Setup Configuration ]...
  • Page 11 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Creating a Security Array With An Existing Data Drive NOTE: MBFastTrak133 Lite permits only two drives to be used for a single Mirrored 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 13: Using Fastbuild™ Configuration Utility

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Using FastBuild™ Configuration Utility The FastBuild Configuration Utility offers several menu choices to create and manage the drive array on the Promise MBFastTrak133 Lite. For purposes of this manual, it is assumed you have already created an array in the previous chapter and now wish to make a change to the array or view other options.

  • Page 14: Navigating The Fastbuild™ Setup Menu

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Navigating the FastBuild™ Setup Menu When using the menus, these are some of the basic navigation tips: Arrow keys highlights through choices; [Space] bar key allows to cycle through options; [Enter] key selects an option; [ESC] key is used to abort or exit the current menu. Using the Main Menu This is the first option screen when entering the FastBuild Setup.

  • Page 15: Creating Arrays Automatically

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Creating Arrays Automatically The Auto Setup <1> selection from the Main Menu can intuitively help create your disk array. It will assign all available drives appropriate for the disk array you are creating. After making all selections, use Ctrl-Y to Save selections.

  • Page 16: Viewing Drive Assignments

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Viewing Drive Assignments The View Drive Assignments <2> option in the Main Menu displays whether drives are assigned to a disk arrays or are unassigned. The menu also displays the data transfer mode that relates to speed used by each drive (U6 refers to 133MB/sec transfers, U5 refers to 100MB/sec transfers, U4 refers to 66MB/sec transfers, etc...) FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc.

  • Page 17: Deleting An Array

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Deleting An Array The Delete Array <4> Menu option allows for deletion of disk array assignments. This is not the same as deleting data from the drives themselves. If you delete an array by accident (and before it has been used again), the array can normally be recovered by defining the array identically as the deleted array.

  • Page 18: Rebuildinga Mirrored Array

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Rebuilding A Mirrored Array The Rebuild Array <5> Menu option is necessary to recover from an error in a mirrored disk array. You will receive an error message when booting your system from the FastTrak BIOS. NOTE: Drives MUST be replaced if they contain any physical errors.

  • Page 19: Viewing Controller Settings

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual 12. Press [Enter] and confirm that the data will be copied on to the selected drive. All data on the replacement drive will be written over with mirrored information from the array drive. A progress bar will appear as below.

  • Page 21: Installing Drivers

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Installing Drivers This section details the MBFastTrak133 Lite driver installation when used with various operating systems. The software includes the driver necessary to identify MBFastTrak133 Lite to the operating system. In the following text, we assume that your CD-ROM Drive letter to be Drive d: Check in BIOS, the “Onboard RAID Device”...

  • Page 22: Understanding Disk Array Concepts

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Understanding Disk Array Concepts About MBFastTrak133 Lite Disk Array Adapter MBFastTrak133 Lite is a high performance Ultra ATA RAID controller that features parallel data channel operation and an onboard BIOS. The two channels on the MBFastTrak133 Lite support parallel operation that allows for overlapped I/O under multi-tasking operating systems and sharing the workload between multiple drives.

  • Page 23: About Raid Levels

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual RAID Level Performance Capacity Drives RAID (Striping) Highest # Drives x Smallest Size 2 to 4 RAID (Mirroring) Normal 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.
  • Page 24 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Mirroring (RAID 1) Writes duplicate data on to a pair of drives while reads are performed in parallel. ATA RAID 1 is fault tolerant because each drive of a mirrored pair is installed on separate IDE channels. If one of the mirrored drives suffers a mechanical failure (e.g.

  • Page 25: Troubleshooting & Tips

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Troubleshooting & Tips This section is used to assist with troubleshooting conflicts and MBFastTrak133 Lite installation problems. Also refer to the “README.TXT” file on the MBFastTrak133 Lite driver and utility diskette for more recent information as well as the PromiseOnline TM services. The section is divided into the following categories: Motherboard Issues, System CMOS Issues, Drive Errors, Operating System Errors, and Audio/Video Editing Tips.
  • Page 26 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual failed drive by channel number and Master/Slave designation (if 2 drives exist on the same cable). The mirrored array has lost its fault tolerance, but will still perform normal drive reads and writes. Operation aborted because FastBuild encountered an error as follows: Location: Channel 2 - Master Drive Array Status: Critical...
  • Page 27 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual When finished, hit the "ESC" key twice to reboot. 10. After rebooting, use FastBuild to re-create the array. For mirrored arrays, rebuild the mirrored array. For striped arrays, use FDISK and FORMAT after setting up the array. Array Constantly Goes Into Critical or Offline Mode During Reboot (see “Unable to Partition or Format array”...
  • Page 28 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Your choices are as follows: Abort: Halts the synchronization process. You may elect to retry at a later date. Fix the Error Block : MBFastTrak133 Lite will take a good data block from either drive and copy it to the drive where the error was detected.

  • Page 29: Operating System-Related Errors

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Operating System-Related Errors Different drive lettering under Windows NT This may happen when using a SCSI card in addition to the Promise chip. Windows NT does not necessarily load the driver for the boot device controller first. This results in a drive that in MS-DOS is the C: drive being the D:, or E:, etc.
  • Page 30 MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Performance Tips Here are some tips that may optimize performance in a RAID 0 striped array. If you are using an audio/video editing card, we also recommend to review your card’s documentation for additional information. Use MBFastTrak133 Lite as D: or other non-bootable drive in a Striped Array For A/V editing, keep the original system boot drive on the standard IDE controller as C: drive.

  • Page 31: Frequently Asked Questions

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Frequently Asked Questions This section lists frequently asked questions involving pre-installation, drive issues, installation, and post- installation. Pre-Installation (Speed, Device Types, Capacity, Cabling) Q: What kind of hard drives can I use for a MBFastTrak133 Lite array? You can use any Ultra DMA IDE hard drive(s) to create arrays on the MBFastTrak133 Lite.

  • Page 32: Drive Issues

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Drive Issues Q: Can I add a drive to a MBFastTrak133 Lite RAID array via hot-swap and dynamically adjust the array size/configuration? No. The MBFastTrak133 Lite system does not support dynamically adjustable RAID size/configurations. Q: Do the HDDs on the MBFastTrak133 Lite have to be the same size? A: The HDDs that you use with the MBFastTrak133 Lite do not have to be the same size.

  • Page 33: Post-Installation

    MBFastTrak133 Lite User Manual Q: How can I change the system boot sequence in order to boot from the MBFastTrak133 Lite array? The boot sequence is controlled by the system BIOS. As far as the system BIOS is concerned, the MBFastTrak133 Lite controller and defined arrays are categorized as a “SCSI”...

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