Frequently Asked Questions; Pre-Installation - Gigabyte Promise RAID Function User Manual

RAID Function
8.

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. You should use matching drives for multiple-drive arrays to maximize
capacity usage as well as performance. Ultra ATA/133 drives are recommended for
highest performance.
Q: Can I use ATAPI devices on the RAID Function controller?
A: No. There is no driver layer on the RAID Function controller which will support
ATAPI packet messages.
Q: Will the RAID Function work with a 37Mhz or 41Mhz PCI bus speed?
A: The current PCI 2.2 specification is for a 33Mhz PCI bus speed. The RAID
Function is designed around the specification. In most cases, a higher PCI bus speed
will result in a variety of different errors. While some people have been able to get these
higher speeds to work, since it is out of specification we cannot support it.
Q: How can I change the resources that the FastTrak uses?
A: The RAID Function is fully PnP. This means all the resources that it uses are
given to it by the PnP BIOS on the motherboard. The RAID Function does
support IRQ sharing, but this will not work unless ALL the concerned devices support
the feature. If your motherboard allows you to control the assignment of these
resources, you may be able to remedy the problem by "playing around" with them.
You can also try resetting the configuration data in your CMOS. This is usually an
option in the PnP section of your CMOS.
Q: How does the RAID controller provide storage and/or data protection with
their arrays?
A: RAID Function implements two different types of RAID levels as follows:
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