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Acard AEC-6885 User Manual

Pci-to-ide ata-133 raid controller
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PCI-to-IDE ATA-133 RAID
Controller AEC-6885
User's Manual
Version:1.0
Copyright © 2002 ACARD Technology Corp.
Release: December 2002

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Summary of Contents for Acard AEC-6885

  • Page 1 PCI-to-IDE ATA-133 RAID Controller AEC-6885 User’s Manual Version:1.0 Copyright © 2002 ACARD Technology Corp. Release: December 2002...

  • Page 2: Copyright And Trademarks

    ACARD and SCSIDE are the trademarks of ACARD Technology Corp. Microsoft and the Windows Logo are the registered trademarks, and Windows is the trade- mark of Microsoft Corporation.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Chapter 4 System & Driver Installation ..16 4.1 In Win 2000/XP............. 16 4.1.1 Install the Driver ............16 4.1.2 Boot from AEC-6885 ............. 21 4.2 In Win NT .............. 21 4.2.1 Install the Driver ............21 4.2.2 Boot from AEC-6885 ............. 22...
  • Page 4 4.3.1 Install the Driver ............22 4.3.2 Boot from AEC-6885 ............. 22 4.4 In Linux ..............22 Chapter 5 The AEC-6885 Utility ....... 24 5.1 Install the Utility ..........24 5.2 Operate the Utility ..........24 5.2.1 File .................. 25 5.2.2 Action ................

  • Page 5: Chapter 1 Introduction

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview ACARD AEC-6885 is a PCI 64-bit, 4-channel, high-performance PCI PnP ATA 133 RAID card. It supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD as well as Hot Swap, and is fit for servers and high-class workstations.

  • Page 6: Package

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual 1.4 Package When you open the package, please examine the following items. × AEC-6885 × Internal ATA 133 Cable × Y-Splitter Power Cord User’s Manual × ACARD Support CD...

  • Page 7: Chapter 2 Hardware Installation

    (3). Insert AEC-6885 into an available PCI slot firmly. (4). Screw AEC-6885 onto the housing. (5). Connect AEC-6885 to the hard drives with an ATA 133 cable. (6). Connect a 4-pin power cord to the hard drives. (7). Screw the housing and power on the system.

  • Page 8: Connection Of Cable And Power Cord

    Power Cable Slave Master Slave IDE hard drive Master NOTICE: The ATA 133 cable has three connectors. The blue connector is connected to AEC-6885, the middle one to HDD set as Slave and the remaining one to HDD set as Master.

  • Page 9: Compatibility

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual 2.4 Compatibility AEC-6885 is particularly designed for DMA hard drive, and has been fully tested with the hard drives available in laboratory. AEC-6885 supports various ATA 66/ 100/133 hard drives as listed below. Quantum Seagate Maxtor Fujitsu Western Digital For the newest compatibility, please visit http://www.acard.com...

  • Page 10: Chapter 3 Bios Setup

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Chapter 3 BIOS Setup After installing AEC-6885 and booting the system, you will see the following figure appear immediately behind the figure of motherboard. The figure indicates your BIOS version, hard drive information, RAID status, etc. Figure 3-1 NOTICE: If a hard drive has been set as boot disk, there will be a * appearing before its model number.

  • Page 11: Description Of Functions

    Ultra 5 ATA100 hard drive. 3.1.1 Set RAID Modes There are 8 arrays built in AEC-6885. You can build or change your RAID mode on any array. Move cursor to “Set RAID Modes”, then press <Enter>, and Array 0 to Array 7 will appear.

  • Page 12: Build Mirror Disk

    AEC-6885 supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD modes. The hardware setting re- lated to each RAID mode is briefly described below. Yet, you are suggested to use the AEC-6885 RAID Utility to set RAID. Please refer to Chapter 5 and Appendix A.

  • Page 13: Stripe Mode

    “Set RAID Modes” and continue. Figure 3-4 NOTICE: AEC-6885 supports Hot Swap. In Mirroring (RAID 1 and 0+1), when one of the hard drives is damaged, you can directly replace it with a new one without powering off. The data of another hard drive in the array will be completely copied into the new one.

  • Page 14: Mirror Mode

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Figure 3-5 3.2.2 Mirror Mode This mode needs a pair of hard drives for each array. If the two hard drives you have chosen contain the same data, or different data that you don’t want to keep, you can select “Create Only”.

  • Page 15: Stripe + Mirror Mode

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Figure 3-7 3.2.3 Stripe + Mirror Mode This mode needs four hard drives. You can connect four hard drives to four chan- nels that are all set as Master or Slave. Besides, you have to select stripe block size, too.

  • Page 16: Chapter 4 System & Driver Installation

    Driver installation varies somewhat in different operating systems. You can install the driver of AEC-6885 in an existing OS, or install a new OS to the hard drives connected to AEC-6885. The second method can be said to boot from AEC-6885.
  • Page 17 AEC-6885 User’s Manual (3). Follow the wizard. Windows XP will require the driver’s location. Select “Include this location in the search”. (4). Select “Browse” to find the driver’s directory of AEC6885.inf such as A:\WinXP. Figure 4-2 (5). After the wizard finds the driver, click “Next” to install it.
  • Page 18 AEC-6885 User’s Manual (6). Click “Continue Anyway” to continue the installation. Figure 4-4 (7). Follow the directions. The system will complete the setup automatically. Figure 4-5...
  • Page 19 AEC-6885 User’s Manual (8). After setup, please boot the system again, and click “My Computer”. Figure 4-6 (9). Find “View system information”, and double click it. Figure 4-7...
  • Page 20 AEC-6885 User’s Manual (10). In “System Properties” click “Hardware” and then “Device Manager”. Figure 4-8 (11). Under “SCSI and RAID Controllers” double click “ACARD AEC-6885 PCI Ultra ATA 133 RAID Controller” to see if the card has been installed successfully. Figure 4-9...

  • Page 21: Boot From Aec-6885

    Please follow the steps given below to install a new OS to the hard drives con- nected to AEC-6885. Thus you can boot from AEC-6885. (1). Find the support CD containing the driver of AEC-6885 from the package. Copy the driver into a formatted floppy disk, and label it. Please refer to Appendix B.

  • Page 22: Boot From Aec-6885

    4.4 In Linux There is a variety in Linux version, but the installation is similar. Here we take Red Hat Linux 7.3 for example. Extract all contents of the zip file into a formatted floppy disk, and label it “AEC-6885...
  • Page 23 Please type [linux dd] to install Linux to a specific device. c. Press “Yes”. We have drivers for Linux at the “Devices” dialog box. d. Inser the AEC-6885 driver disk into the floppy drive, and click “OK” to continue.

  • Page 24: Chapter 5 The Aec-6885 Utility

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Chapter 5 The AEC-6885 Utility ACARD has designed a program called AEC-6885 Utility for you to use the IDE card effectively. The utility will execute automatically after installation, setting and booting anew. 5.1 Install the Utility Please follow the three steps to install the utility.

  • Page 25: File

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Figure 5-2 5.2.1 File Click “File” to find “Exit”. It is used to leave the utility. But if you don’t like to end the program, you can click < -- > on the upper right of the window to minimize it.

  • Page 26: System Info

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual 5.2.5 System Info Click “System Info” to find the information and status of your RAID and hard drives. 5.2.6 Event Log Click “Event Log” to find all important things about RAID such as the damage, re- moval, and adding of hard drives. However, in the beginning there is no record.

  • Page 27: Chapter 6 Troubleshooting

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Chapter 6 Troubleshooting After installing AEC-6885, if it cannot work normally, please follow the checklist given below to solve the problems. (1). Inspect if the power cord’s connectors are loose, or if the watt of power supply is not sufficient.

  • Page 28: Appendix A About Raid

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Appendix A About RAID RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a system composed of many hard drives; that is, a pair of hard drives or more unite into a whole drive or an array. For the system only one hard drive is revealed. The advantages of RAID technology are increasing the read/write speed of a hard drive, achieving better data protection, and enlarging the capacity of a single drive like Drive C, Drive D, etc.

  • Page 29: Raid 0+1 (Striping/Mirroring)

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual It is suggested to compose RAID 1 with hard drives of the same capacity. Because the capacity of mirrored disk array is that of the smallest hard drive. For example, a 100GB hard drive and a 120GB one unite into RAID 1. The capacity is 100GB.

  • Page 30: Appendix B Make An Installation Disk

    AEC-6885 User’s Manual Appendix B Make An Installation Disk For installing an OS like Windows 2000/NT/XP into a hard drive with ACARD adapter, you need a floppy disk containing the adapter’s driver to boot the hard drive. Please follow the steps below to make an ACARD adapter’s driver disk.
  • Page 31 AEC-6885 User’s Manual 3. Under the “Driver” folder find your adapter’s model number. For example, AEC- 6880’s driver is Driver>IDE>AEC6880V1.3.
  • Page 32 AEC-6885 User’s Manual 4. Choose the driver folder, and right-click “Send to 3.5” floppy”. Meanwhile insert an empty disk into floppy drive. 5. Now use the driver disk to boot the hard drive and install the OS.

  • Page 33: Appendix C Aspitool32 Manager

    Windows OS while they are connected with the ACARD SCSI or IDE adapter. The ASPITool32 Manager program is proudly devel- oped by ACARD. You may get the setup program from the ACARD Driver CD. ASPITool32 Manager Functions 1.FDsik: Create a partition on the hard drive.
  • Page 34 AEC-6885 User’s Manual Technical Support Form Email: support@acard.com http://www.acard.com Model F/W Version AEC-6885 System Configuration Motherboard BIOS version SCSI adapter Chipset Memory Display card Other I/O card OS version Hard Disk Configuration Hard Disk Model/type Capacity Firmware version Others Problem Description...

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