Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel
Related Manuals for Gigabyte Promise RAID Function
Summary of Contents for Gigabyte Promise RAID Function
- Page 1 Promise RAID Function (Only For Chipset 20265/20276 Used) USER’S MANUAL 12ME-RAI276-001...
- Page 2 RAID Function Copyright Copyright by GIGA-BYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. (“GBT”) No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any from without the expressed, written permission of GBT. Trademarks Third-party brands and names are the property of their respective owners. Notice Due to rapid change in technology, some of the specifications might be out of date before publication of this booklet.
-
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Table of Content Table of Content 1. Introduction ....................5 1-1 What is the RAID ? ...................... 5 2. Getting Started ....................6 2-1 Installing The Hard Drives ..................6 2-2 Creating Your Disk Array ................... 7 3. Using FastBuild™ Configuration Utility ............12 3-1 Viewing MBFastTrak133 Lite BIOS Screen ............ - Page 4 RAID Function 6 UNDERSTANDING DISK ARRAY CONCEPTS ..........49 6-1 ABOUT MBFASTTRAK133 LITE DISK ARRAY ADAPTER ......... 49 6-2 ABOUT ADAPTER BIOS ..................49 6-3 FASTBUILD? AUTO MENU SETUP ..............49 6-4 RESERVED SECTOR ..................... 49 6-5 DISK ARRAY TERMS ....................50 6-6 ABOUT RAID LEVELS .....................
-
Page 5: Introduction
Introduction . Introduction 1-1 What is RAID? The RAID Fuction is designed to provide a cost-effective, high performance RAID technology that adds performance and/or reliability to PC desktops and/or servers using Ultra ATA/133, Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/66, or EIDE drives.(By Function) RAID Function of the mainboard supports striping (RAID 0) or mirroring (RAID 1) for master only. -
Page 6: Getting Started
RAID Function . Getting Started This section is designed to get you started for installation. 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. 2-1 Installing The Hard Drives WARNING: If you wish to include your current bootable drive using the Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 or Windows... -
Page 7: Creating Your Disk Array
Getting Started NOTE: Sometimes the Master drive with no slave attached is called “Single.” The master slave setting differentiates two drives chained on the same connector. Jumper Settings # of Drives IDE Channel 1 IDE Channel 2 ---- M = Master Install the hard drives into the hard drive bays of your system, including the power cables. - Page 8 RAID Function Boot your system. If this is the first time you have booted with the drives attached to RAID connectors, the onboard BIOS will display the following screen. MBFastTrak133 Lite (tm) BIOS Version 2.00.0.XX (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No array defined .
- Page 9 Getting Started Select how you will use your PC most under the Typical Application usage section The choices are A/V Editing, Server, and Desktop (the default). Press <Ctrl-Y> keys to Save and create the array. Reboot your system. Once the array has been created, you will need to FDISK and format the array as if it were a new single hard drive.
- Page 10 RAID Function 2-2-3 Creating a Security Array With An Existing Data Drive NOTE: RAID Function 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 11 Getting Started Source Disk Channel:ID Drive Model Capacity (MB) Target Disk Channel:ID Drive Model Capacity (MB) [Please Select A Source Disk] Channel:ID Drive Model Capacity (MB) 1 :Master QUANTUMCR8.4A 8063 2 :Master QUANTUMCR8.4A 8063 [ ] Up [ ] [ESC] Exit [Ctrl-Y] Save Use the arrow keys to choose which drive contains the existing data to be copied.
-
Page 12: Using Fastbuild™ Configuration Utility
RAID Function .Using FastBuild™ Configuration Utility (Picture below are shown in ATA 133 RAID Function) The FastBuild Configuration Utility offers several menu choices to create and manage the drive array on the RAID connectors. For purposes of this user’s guide, 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 13: Navigating The Fastbuild™ Setup Menu
Using FastBuid Configuration Utility the problem drive. Offline - A striped array has 1 drive that has failed or been disconnected. When the array condition is “offline,” the user must replace the failed drive(s), then restore data from a backup source. 3-2 Navigating the FastBuild™... -
Page 14: Creating Arrays Automatically
RAID Function 3-3 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. The RAID FastBuild will automatically build the array. -
Page 15: Viewing Drive Assignments
Using FastBuid Configuration Utility enhance performance. Your choice will determine the block size used. You may choose from: A/V Editing (for audio/video applications, or any similar application that requires large file transfers), Server (for numerous small file transfers), or Desktop (a combination of large and small file sizes). NOTE: If you wish to customize the settings of individual disk arrays (such as block size), you must manually create disk arrays with the Define Array <3>... - Page 16 RAID Function Another feature of the RAID Function disk array system is to recognize drive members even if drives are moved between different RAID Function connectors. Since each drive’s array data identifies itself to the array, it is possible to move or swap drives without modifying the array setup.
-
Page 17: Deleting An Array
Using FastBuid Configuration Utility 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: Rebuilding A Mirrored Array
RAID Function 3. Confirm yes to the following warning message with the <Ctrl-Y> key to continue array deletion: Are you sure you want to delete this array? Press Ctrl-Y to Delete, others to Abort 4. After deleting the array, you should create a new array using Auto Setup or the Define Array menu from the FastBuild Main Menu. - Page 19 Using FastBuid Configuration Utility FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. [ Rebuild Array Menu ] Array No RAID ModeTotal Drv Status Array 2 Mirror Critical Stripe Block: Not Available [ Select Drive for Rebuild ] Channel:ID Drive Model Capacity (MB) 1 : Slave QUANTUMCR8.4A...
-
Page 20: Viewing Controller Settings
RAID Function Viewing Controller Settings The Controller Configuration <6> menu selection allows you to enable or disable the RAID Function BIOS from halting (the default) if it detects an error on boot up. You may also view the system resources (Interrupt and I/O port address) of RAID Fiunction’s data channels. -
Page 21: Installing Drivers
Installing Driver . Installing Drivers This section details the RAID Function driver installation when used with various operat- ing systems. The software includes the driver necessary to identify RAID Function Lite to the operating system. · For Windows 2000/XP, see below. ·... -
Page 22: Windows 2000/Xp
RAID Function 4-1-2 Installing Driver in Existing Windows 2000/XP System WARNING: If you will be moving the boot drive containing the existing Windows 2000/XP operating system to a mirrored RAID 1 array on the RAID Function , the RAID Function driver MUST be loaded to the hard drive while it is still attached to your existing hard drive controller. -
Page 23: Windows 95/98/Me
Installing Driver 4-2 Windows 95/98/Me 4-2-1 Installing Drivers During Windows 95/98/Me Installation The following three sections detail the installation of the RAID Function drivers while installing Windows 95/98. If you’re installing the RAID Function drivers on a system with Windows 95/98 already installed, see “Installing Drivers with Existing Windows 95/98”... - Page 24 RAID Function 4-2-2 Windows 95 After installing the RAID Function controller and configuring the hard drives, partition and format your hard drive(s), if necessary. Install Windows 95 normally. After installation, go to the “Start” menu and choose “Settings.” From the “Settings” menu, choose “Control Panel.” In the “Control Panel”...
- Page 25 Installing Driver 4-2-3 Installing Drivers with Existing Windows 95/98/Me The following three sections detail the installation of RAID Function drivers on a system that has Windows 95/98 already installed. If you’re installing the RAID Function drivers on a system during a Windows 95/98 installation, see “Installing Drivers During Windows 95/98 Installation”...
-
Page 26: Dos/Windows 3.1X
RAID Function Choose “Yes” when asked whether you want to start your computer. Be sure to remove the diskette from drive A Confirming Driver Installation in Windows 98/95 To confirm that the driver has been properly loaded in Win 95/98, perform the follow- steps: Choose “Settings”... -
Page 27: Windows Nt4
Installing Driver 4-4 Windows NT4 Installing Drivers During Windows NT 4.0 Installation Start the system installation by booting from the Windows NT disk: a) Floppy install: boot the system with the Windows NT installation diskettes. b) Floppyless install: boot from floppy and type “WINNT /B”. After files have been copied, the system will reboot. - Page 28 RAID Function Installing Driver with Existing Windows NT 4.0 WARNING: If you plan to move your boot drive to a mirrored RAID 1 RAID Function array, hard drives should NOT be connected to the RAID Function controller before performing the following procedure. The RAID Function drivers must be loaded on the system hard drive (running under the existing hard drive controller) before any hard drives are connected to the RAID Function controller.
-
Page 29: Using The Fastcheck™ Monitoring Utility
Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility Using The FastCheck™ Monitoring Utility You can monitor the operating status of all arrays and drives configured on the RAID Function using the supplied FastCheck monitoring utility for Windows-based operating systems. FastCheck generates visual and audible messages alerting you of possible problems with the disk array or controller. -
Page 30: Running Fastcheck
RAID Function 5-2 Running FastCheck As described in the Installation section, the default option for FastCheck is to load during startup of Win95/98/NT/2000/XP. It appears minimized on the taskbar under Win 95/98/NT4/2000/Millennium/XP (see below). To start FastCheck, double-click on the FastCheck icon on the taskbar (above) or you may also use the Taskbar Start/Promise/FastTrak/FastCheck menus shown below. -
Page 31: Using Fastcheck Array Window
Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility 5-4 Using FastCheck Array Window Once FastCheck is selected, the FastCheck Monitoring Utility window will appear. The main pane has three information window tabs: Array, Controller, and Options. The user can switch screens by clicking on the tab. The Array Window is the active screen by default as shown below: The Array Window (see above) displays information about the arrays configured on your RAID Function through the FastBuild BIOS. - Page 32 RAID Function Status: (Functional, Critical, Offline) Functional: Means the array is providing full functionality Critical: Used only in reference to a Mirroring array (RAID 1). A problem has been detected in one of the drives of the array and the drive has been taken “offline.” However, a “critical”...
- Page 33 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility S.M.A.R.T. Status: Indicates whether attached hard drive implements Self-Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology to predict drive failure Size: Indicates capacity of individual drive. Location: Shows physical location of drive. Indicates on which IDE channel (1 or 2), and whether drive is Master or Slave on cable.
-
Page 34: Synchronizing An Array
RAID Function 5-5 Synchronizing An Array Synchronization is a periodic maintenance procedure for Mirroring arrays to maintain data consistency on all mirrored drives. In operation, array synchronization compares data on the mirrored drives for any differences. If there are differences detected, data from the primary drive(s) is automatically copied to the secondary drive(s). - Page 35 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility NOTE: During Array Synchronization, users may continue to access the working array and perform normal PC functions. However, system performance will be slightly degraded and the process will take longer. 5. A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the FastCheck Monitoring window showing synchronization in progress and the percentage that has been completed..
-
Page 36: Rebuilding An Array
RAID Function 5-6 Rebuilding An Array This command effectively copies or overwrites data from an existing data drive in the array on to a blank drive. The operation will be typically used when a failed drive has been replaced with a new drive as part of a mirrored array. 1. - Page 37 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility 3. Click the Next button to proceed to Rebuild Wizard Step 2 (see next page) or Cancel button to stop. 4. Rebuild Wizard Step 2 confirms the Target or “Rebuild” disk by Array # and drive 5.
- Page 38 RAID Function 6. Click “Yes” to initiate Rebuild. To cancel this option, click the No button. WARNING: Once initiated, Array Rebuild can NOT be halted in order to prevent data errors. NOTE: During Array Rebuild, users may continue to access the array and perform normal PC functions however the array will NOT provide data redundancy until Rebuild is completed.
-
Page 39: Using Controller Window
Bus Master Base: Shows base address in hex numbering for board’s bus master Input/Output function ROM Base Address: Shows base address in hex numbering for FastTrak’s Flash ROM chip Driver Version: Identifies which version of the Promise RAID Function driver you have installed. Hardware Type: Identifies which FastTrak product is installed.. - Page 40 RAID Function Viewing IDE Channel Information Left-clicking on a given Channel icon or # in the left pane, will show the Base IO addresses of the channel in the right pane (used for troubleshooting)..
- Page 41 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility Viewing Drive Information Left-clicking on a given Drive icon or ID in the left pane, will show similar information categories as the Array Window Drive Information in the right pane. Status (also shown under the Array Window) can be Functional, Critical, or Offline. The meanings are shown below.
-
Page 42: Using Options Window
RAID Function Mapping: Indicates physical parameters of drive (cylinders, heads, sectors) Timing: Shows selection of drive timing (directly related to burst speed) based on type of drive and cable used. 5-8 Using Options Window Clicking on the Options tab reveals the Options Window. Array administrators can customize the FastCheck Monitoring Utility in four major areas: Notification, Array Synchronization Scheduling, setting Password, Desktop Appearance. - Page 43 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility Selecting Notification Options This section of the Options windows allows users to select how they are notified of a system event. A System Event includes driver-initiated Rebuilds user-initiated manual Rebuilds or manual Synchronization, and Error-Handling reporting for these processes. Enable audible prompt checkbox turns on/off an audible alarm of an event (typically a drive failure, or completion of rebuild or synchronization).
- Page 44 RAID Function errors thatRAID Function detects — a data mismatch between the primary and secondary drive, a physical media error on source or target drive, or a total disk failure. The options for handling Errors are as follows: Abort: stops any Synchronization or Rebuild process if an error is encountered. Fix: in most cases, RAID Function automatically can correct errors.
- Page 45 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility On Errors section offers four radio button choices for the user to select what procedure they would like to perform if an Error is detected during a scheduled Synchronization. There are three types of errors that RAID Function detects —...
- Page 46 RAID Function mirroring data from one drive to another in the background. A “high” setting assigns most of RAID Function ’s resources to the rebuild process at the expense of responding to ongoing read/write data requests by the operating system. A “low” setting gives priority to ongoing read/write data requests by the operating system at the expense of the rebuild process and will typically result in longer rebuild times.
- Page 47 Using The FastCheck Monitoring Utility Enable S.M.A.R.T. Check checkbox tells FastCheck to regularly monitor each drive to assure that drive failure prediction is functioning. The default is unchecked, meaning FastCheck will not monitor this function. Setting Screen Preferences This section controls how the FastCheck utility screen is displayed and sets the security password to protect the administrative settings.
- Page 48 RAID Function 3. A confirmation screen will appear saying that “Password Checking is Enabled”. Click the OK button. 4. Once the password feature is enabled, the following menu will appear before the FastCheck window can be opened.is enabled, the following menu will appear on each use of FastCheck.
-
Page 49: Understanding Disk Array Concepts
Understanding Disk Arry Concepts Understanding Disk Array Concepts 6-1 About RAID Function Disk Array Adapter RAID Function is a high performance Ultra ATA RAID controller that features parallel data channel operation and an onboard BIOS. The two channels on the RAID Function support parallel operation that allows for overlapped I/O under multi- tasking operating systems and sharing the workload between multiple drives. -
Page 50: Disk Array Terms
RAID Function 6-5 Disk Array Terms Disk Array Description A “disk array” is formed from a group of 2 or more disk drives which appear to the system as a single drive. The advantage of an array is to provide better throughput performance and/or data fault tolerance. -
Page 51: About Raid Levels
Understanding Disk Arry Concepts 6-6 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 RAID Function 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. spindle failure) or does not respond, the remaining drive will continue to function.
-
Page 53: Troubleshooting & Tips
Troubleshooting & Tips Troubleshooting & Tips This section is used to assist with troubleshooting conflicts and RAID Function installation problems. The section is divided into the following categories: Motherboard Issues, System CMOS Issues, Drive Errors, Operating System Errors, and Audio/Video Editing Tips. 7-1 Motherboard Issues Freeing additional IRQ resources Since the RAID Function controller supports PCI Interrupt sharing, it is possible to... -
Page 54: System Cmos Issues
RAID Function Intermittent data problems Do not exceed the 33Mhz PCI Bus speed. Pentiums set to higher than default settings or AMD K6 and Cyrix CPUs can exceed these limitations and cause intermittent boot and data problems. 7-2 System CMOS Issues Set Mainboard CMOS Boot sequence to boot to RAID Function On some Mainboard BIOS, it is necessary to set the Boot sequence to “SCSI, A:, C:”... - Page 55 Troubleshooting & Tips Try powering the system off and on to reset the drive. Also confirm that cables are properly attached and the drive is receiving power. If the drive still appears to have failed, proceed to “Rebuild Array” option of FastCheck detailed on page 35. Drive cannot be formed into an array Drives must support Ultra DMA or Multi-word DMA and be free of media defects to be added into an array.
- Page 56 RAID Function To remove the Reserve Sector, follow these steps: 1.When the RAID Function BIOS comes up, press Crtl-F to enter the FastBuild 2.Press 2 to “View Drive Assignments”. 3. Using the arrow keys, highlight the drive where you wish to remove the reserve sector.
- Page 57 Troubleshooting & Tips Your choices are as follows: Abort: Halts the rebuild process. You may elect to retry at a later date. Break ECC on Target Drive: If the error is detected on the source drive, “Break ECC on Target Drive” means that FastTrak will copy the bad data sector on to the target drive to assure that both drives are identical.
- Page 58 RAID Function Your choices are as follows: Abort: Halts the synchronization process. You may elect to retry at a later date. Fix the Error Block: RAID Function will take a good data block from either drive and copy it to the drive where the error was detected. Skip the Error Block: RAID Function will log the event error and continue the synchronization process.
-
Page 59: Operating System-Related Errors
Troubleshooting & Tips 7-4 Operating System-Related Errors Different drive lettering under Windows NT This may happen when using a SCSI card in addition to the RAID Function . 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 60 RAID Function the “F6” key when the message “Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration…” appears in Windows NT4 or the message “Press F6 if you need to install third party SCSI or RAID driver” appears in Windows 2000. “No Hard Drives Found” Message Appears During CD-ROM Install of Windows NT or 2000 The “F6”...
- Page 61 Troubleshooting & Tips FastTrak (tm) / MBFastTrak133 Lite (tm) BIOS Version 2.00.0.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved. [ Auto Setup Options Menu ] Optimize Array for: Performance Typical Application usage: A/V Editing [ Auto Setup Configuration ] Mode ..........Stripe Stripe Block Size......
-
Page 62: Frequently Asked Questions
RAID Function Frequently Asked Questions This section lists frequently asked questions involving pre-installation, drive issues, installation, and post-installation. 8-1 Pre-Installation (Speed, Device Types, Capacity, Cabling) Q: What kind of hard drives can I use for a RAID Function array? A: You can use any Ultra DMA IDE hard drive(s) to create arrays on the RAID Function. -
Page 63: Drive Issues
Frequently Asked Questions RAID 0 (stripe) For capacity — The RAID Function 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. For sustained data transfers —... -
Page 64: Installation Issues
RAID Function allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller: mirror (RAID 1), single drive striped (RAID 0). Multiple drives striped will not work. Also, the control- ler must address the drives as LBA, not CHS. Q: If I have a problem with one of the drives on the RAID Function , how can I low level format it to correct the problem? A: Do NOT do this. - Page 65 Frequently Asked Questions Q: How can I change the system boot sequence in order to boot from the RAID Function array? A: The boot sequence is controlled by the system BIOS. As far as the system BIOS is concerned, the RAID Function controller and defined arrays are categorized as a “SCSI”...
- Page 66 RAID Function Q: Why can’t I see the drives on the RAID Function under FDISK? A: The RAID Function controller is dedicated to RAID array management and does not provide any means of addressing individual hard drives through the Int 13h interface used by FDISK.
Need help?
Do you have a question about the Promise RAID Function and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers