Page 2 - All trademarks are the property of their respective holders.; Important data protection information
Copyright Copyright by Promise Technology, Inc. (“Promise”), 2000. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the expressed, written permission of Promise. Trademarks All trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Important data protection information Y...
Page 3 - FastTrak100 User Manual; Table of Contents; CMOS S
FastTrak100 User Manual Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 W HAT IS THE F AST T RAK 100 RAID C ARD ? ..........................................................1 K EYS F EATURES AND B ENEFITS .....................
Page 4 - RAID L
FastTrak100 User Manual D ISK A RRAY T ERMS ...................................................................................... 66 A BOUT RAID L EVELS ....................................................................................67 TROUBLESHOOTING & TIPS ...................................
Page 5 - Introduction; Getting Started; What is the FastTrak100 RAID Card?
FastTrak100 User Manual 1 Introduction Thank you for your recent purchase.The PC which you are using either already contains a Promise Technology FastTrak100 RAID card installed by a third -party or you have acquired a FastTrak100 retail box for your existing PC and will be installing the card you...
Page 6 - single
FastTrak100 User Manual 2 FastTrak100's bootable BIOS supports individual drives larger than 8.4GB. With FAT32 and NTFS partitioning, the array can be addressed as one large single volume.
Page 7 - Keys Features and Benefits; Advanced Hardware Design; coexists; automenu from the
FastTrak100 User Manual 3 Keys Features and Benefits The following information offers an overview of the major features of your new Promise FastTrak100. It is divided into two areas: Advanced Hardware Design, and Compatibility. Advanced Hardware Design Features Benefits Supports data striping (RAID ...
Page 9 - NOTES
Page 10 - Unpacking Your FastTrak100; FastTrak100 User’s Manual
FastTrak100 User Manual 6 Getting Started This section is designed to get you started for installation of your FastTrak100. Unpacking Your FastTrak100 When you receive the FastTrak100, the package should contain the items listed below: • FastTrak100 Ultra ATA/100 RAID Card • FastTrak100 User’s Manua...
Page 11 - Installing The Card; Figure 1
FastTrak100 User Manual 7 Installing The Card Installing the FastTrak100 controller card in a system is a simple process. The card fits into any available 32-bit PCI slot on the system’s motherboard (see figure below). 1. Remove the cover of your system. 2. Remove the inside slot cover of an availab...
Page 12 - Installing The Hard Drives; WARNING; Jumper Settings; IDE Channel 1
FastTrak100 User Manual 8 Installing The Hard Drives WARNING : If you wish to include your current bootable drive using the Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 operating system as part of a bootable Mirrored (RAID 1) array on your FastTrak100, do NOT connect the hard drive to the FastTrak100 controller y...
Page 13 - NOTE
FastTrak100 User Manual 9 4. Attach one Ultra ATA cable to each hard drive. Then attach one cable to each of the IDE connectors on the FastTrak100 controller card. The colored edge of the cable(s) indicates pin 1 (see below), and the blue cable connector must be attached to the FastTrak100 or Ultra1...
Page 14 - Checking CMOS Settings; automatically
FastTrak100 User Manual 10 Checking CMOS Settings No changes are necessary in the Mainboard CMOS Setup for resources or drive types. Since FastTrak100 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 FastTrak1...
Page 15 - Creating Your Disk Array
FastTrak100 User Manual 11 Creating Your Disk Array You will now use the onboard FastBuild BIOS utility to create your array using the attached drives. There are three different scenarios in creating this array. You can create an array for performance, you can create a Security array using new hard ...
Page 18 - Optimize Array for
FastTrak100 User Manual 14 Creating a Security Array With An Existing Data Drive NOTE: FastTrak100 permits only two drives to be used for a single Mirrored array in Auto Setup. If more drives are physically attached to the card, the Mirroring option will not be available. You would use this method i...
Page 19 - progress screen will appear.; Installing Driver; chapter on page 34 to install the FastTrak100
FastTrak100 User Manual 15 4. Use the arrow keys to choose which drive contains the existing data to be copied. 5. Press [Ctrl-Y] keys to Save selection and start duplication. The following progress screen will appear. Start to duplicate the image . . . Do you want to continue? (Yes/No) Y – Continue...
Page 21 - Using FastBuildTM Configuration Utility; The FastBuild; Configuration Utility offers several menu choices to create and; Viewing FastTrak100 BIOS Screen; The array status consists of three possible conditions:; Functional; Setup utility, and then replace the problem drive.; Offline
FastTrak100 User Manual 17 Using FastBuild™ Configuration Utility The FastBuild T M Configuration Utility offers several menu choices to create and manage the drive array on the Promise FastTrak100 adapter. For purposes of this manual, it is assumed you have already created an array in the previous ...
Page 22 - Navigating the FastBuildTM Setup Menu; Using the Main Menu; This is the first option screen when entering the FastBuild; To rebuild a mirrored array, see “Rebuilding an Array” on page 30.; : After installing the FastTrak100 card and configuring an array
FastTrak100 User Manual 18 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 men...
Page 23 - Auto Setup Options Menu; Optimize Array For
FastTrak100 User Manual 19 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 25 - Viewing Drive Assignments
FastTrak100 User Manual 21 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. Under the “Assignment” column, drives are labeled with their assigned disk array or shown as “Free” if unassigned...
Page 26 - Manually Creating an Array; disk array creation.
FastTrak100 User Manual 22 Manually Creating an Array The Define Array <3> option from the Main Menu allows users to begin the process of manually defining the drive elements and RAID levels for one or multiple disk arrays attached to FastTrak100. Users will commonly create one or two drive ar...
Page 27 - Selecting Stripe Block; drive to the disk array.
FastTrak100 User Manual 23 Selecting Array Type 1. Under the Definition section of this menu, highlight the Array # for which you want to assign a RAID level. 2. Use the [Space] key to cycle through three array types: Performance (RAID 0 Striping), Security (RAID 1 Mirroring, RAID 0+1 Striping/Mirro...
Page 28 - Press “N” for the Create Only option.; Adding Fault Tolerance to an Existing Drive
FastTrak100 User Manual 24 a) If choosing a Striping, Spanning, or Mirroring/Striping array, the initial Define Array Menu screen will appear with the arrays defined. From there you may ESC to exit and return to the Main Menu of FastBuild. b) If you selected a Mirroring array for two drives, there i...
Page 29 - your selection. The window below will appear.
FastTrak100 User Manual 25 1. After assigning the drives to a Mirroring array, press <Ctrl-Y> keys to Save your selection. The window below will appear. Do you want the disk image to be duplicated to another? (Yes/No) Y - Create and Duplicate N - Create Only 2. Press “Y” for the Create and Dup...
Page 30 - Array has been created.; Making a FastTrak100 Disk Array Bootable; system will now recognize this array as the first array seen; Creating a “Hot” Spare Drive for Mirrored Arrays
FastTrak100 User Manual 26 7. Once mirroring is complete, the following screen will appear confirming that your Security array has been created. Press any key to reboot the system Array has been created. <Press Any Key to Reboot> Making a FastTrak100 Disk Array Bootable WARNING : In order for ...
Page 31 - How FastTrak100 Saves Array Information
FastTrak100 User Manual 27 How FastTrak100 Orders Arrays During startup, the disk arrays on the FastTrak100 are recognized in this order: 1) The array set to bootable in the FastBuild T M Setup, and 2) the Array number (i.e. Array 0, Array 1…). This would be involved in determining which drive lette...
Page 32 - Deleting An Array; are assigned to this array.; continue array deletion:
FastTrak100 User Manual 28 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 recov...
Page 33 - Define Array menu from the FastBuild Main Menu.
FastTrak100 User Manual 29 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 34 - Rebuilding A Mirrored Array
FastTrak100 User Manual 30 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 physica...
Page 35 - Please Wait While Duplicating The Image
FastTrak100 User Manual 31 FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.xx (c) 1995-2000 Promise Technology, Inc. [ Rebuild Array Menu ] Array No RAID Mode Total Drv Status Array 2 Mirror 2 Critical Stripe Block: Not Available [ Select Drive for Rebuild ] Channel:ID Drive Model Capacity (MB) 1 : Slave QUANTUM CR8.4A 80...
Page 36 - Viewing Controller Settings; Halting FastTrak BIOS On Bootup Errors
FastTrak100 User Manual 32 Viewing Controller Settings The Controller Configuration <6> menu selection allows you to enable or disable the FastTrak100 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 F...
Page 38 - Installing Drivers; Installing Driver During New Windows 2000 Installation; Press “O” to select “Other” and press the “Enter” key.
FastTrak100 User Manual 34 Installing Drivers This section details the FastTrak100 driver installation when used with various operating systems. The software includes the driver necessary to identify FastTrak100 to the operating system. • For Windows 2000, see below. • For Microsoft Millennium, see ...
Page 39 - Confirming Windows 2000 Installation; Choose the “Hardware” tab, then click the “Device Manager” tab.
FastTrak100 User Manual 35 Installing Driver in Existing Windows 2000 System WARNING : If you will be moving the boot drive contai ning the existing Windows 2000 operating system to a mirrored RAID 1 array on the FastTrak100 card, the FastTrak100 driver MUST be loaded to the hard drive while it is s...
Page 40 - Microsoft Millennium; Installing Drivers During Millennium Installation
FastTrak100 User Manual 36 Microsoft Millennium Installing Drivers During Millennium Installation The following details the installation of the FastTrak100 drivers while installing Microsoft’s Millennium (with the FastTrak100 controller card already in place). If you’re installing the FastTrak100 dr...
Page 41 - Confirming Driver Installation in Millennium
FastTrak100 User Manual 37 Installing Drivers with Existing Millennium System The following section details the installation of FastTrak100 drivers on a system that has Millennium already installed and running. If you’re installing the FastTrak100 T M drivers on a system during an installation of Mi...
Page 43 - Choose the “Driver” tab in the “P roperties” window, and then press the
FastTrak100 User Manual 39 7. In the hierarchical display under “Other Devices” is a listing for “PCI Mass Storage Controller.” Choose it and then press the “Properties” button. 8. Choose the “Driver” tab in the “P roperties” window, and then press the “Update Driver” button. 9. When asked if you wa...
Page 45 - Choose “Settings” from the “Start” menu.
FastTrak100 User Manual 41 Confirming Driver Installation in Windows 98/95 To confirm that the driver has been properly loaded in Win 95/98, perform the following steps: 1. Choose “Settings” from the “Start” menu. 2. Choose “Control Panel,” and then double-click on the “System” icon. 3. Choose the “...
Page 47 - Removing the Driver from Windows NT 4.0
FastTrak100 User Manual 43 Installing Driver with Existing Windows NT 4.0 WARNING : If you plan to move your boot drive to a mirrored RAID 1 FastTrak array, hard drives should NOT be connected to the FastTrak100 controller card before performing the following procedure. The FastTrak100 drivers must ...
Page 48 - Using The FastCheckTM Monitoring Utility; Installing FastCheck; From the Start Button on the Windows Taskbar, choose Run.
FastTrak100 User Manual 44 Using The FastCheck™ Monitoring Utility You can monitor the operating status of all arrays and drives configured on the FastTrak100 using the supplied FastCheck monitoring utility for Windows -based operating systems. FastCheck generates visual and audible messages alertin...
Page 49 - Running FastCheck
FastTrak100 User Manual 45 Running FastCheck As described in the Installation section, the default option for FastCheck is to load during startup of Win95/98/NT/2000. It appears minimized on the taskbar under Win 95/98/NT4.0/2000/Millennium (see below). To start FastCheck, double-click on the FastCh...
Page 50 - Using FastC heck Array Window; Viewing Array Information; heads, and sectors of the array’s “virtual” drive as seen by the system
FastTrak100 User Manual 46 Using FastC heck 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 activ...
Page 54 - Synchronizing An Array
FastTrak100 User Manual 50 Synchronizing An Array Synchronization is a periodic maintenance procedure for Mirroring (RAID 1, RAID 0+1) arrays to maintain data consistency on all mirrored drives. In operation, array synchronization compares data on the mirrored drives for any differences. If there ar...
Page 55 - Click OK button or close the window to proceed.
FastTrak100 User Manual 51 4. Once Synchronization is confirmed, the following information screen appears. Click OK button or close the window to proceed. NOTE : During Array Synchronization, users may continue to access the working array and perform normal PC functions. However, system performance ...
Page 56 - Rebuilding An Array; Using Rebuild Wizard
FastTrak100 User Manual 52 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. To perform a Reb...
Page 58 - Once Array Rebuild has begun, users are returned to the FastCheck
FastTrak100 User Manual 54 6. Once Array Rebuild has begun, users are returned to the FastCheck Monitoring window. A progress bar showing the rebuild progress in percentage will appear at the bottom of the FastCheck Monitoring window. NOTE : When a “spare” unassigned drive is present on the FastTrak...
Page 59 - Using Controller Window; Viewing Controller Card Information
FastTrak100 User Manual 55 Using Controller Window Clicking on the Controller tab, will reveal the Controller Window. This displays physical information about the location of FastTrak100, data channels on the card, and the attached drives. Viewing Controller Card Information By left-clicking on the ...
Page 62 - on type of drive and cable used.; Using Options Window
FastTrak100 User Manual 58 Timing : Shows selection of drive timing (directly related to burst speed) based on type of drive and cable used. Using Options Window Clicking on the Options tab reveals the Options Window. Array administrators can customize the FastCheck Monitoring Utility in four major ...
Page 66 - Enable Write Cache; checkbox allows user to enable/disable write caching for
FastTrak100 User Manual 62 Setting PCI Bus Utilization Option NOTE : In most cases, a user does not need to change this setting since FastTrak100’s data handling ra rely conflicts with another PCI device. However, certain brands of video capture cards can produce a “glitch” on play back of A/V files...
Page 67 - checkbox allows user to have FastChec k appear on the; Always on Top; checkbox tells the Utility to appear above all programs until; Enable Password; checkbox in the Preferences section turns on/off use of a
FastTrak100 User Manual 63 Setting Screen Preferences This section controls how the FastCheck utility screen is displayed and sets the security password to protect the administrative settings. Start Minimized checkbox allows user to have FastChec k appear on the toolbar only on startup. Click on the...
Page 68 - Changing Password
FastTrak100 User Manual 64 Creating Password 1. To create a password, check the Enable Password checkbox in the Preferences section.The “Set Password” window will appear. 2. Type the password you want to use. Press the Tab key or click to retype the same password in the “Confirm New Password” sectio...
Page 69 - Understanding Disk Array Concepts; About FastTrak100 Disk Array Adapter; setup to select from menu; FastBuild
FastTrak100 User Manual 65 Understanding Disk Array Concepts About FastTrak100 Disk Array Adapter FastTrak100 is a high performance Ultra ATA/EIDE RAID controller card that features parallel data channel operation and an onboard BIOS. The two channels on the FastTrak100 support parallel operation th...
Page 70 - Disk Array Terms; matched performance
FastTrak100 User Manual 66 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. Better performance is acc...
Page 71 - About RAID Levels; Stripe Size
FastTrak100 User Manual 67 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...
Page 72 - Fault Tolerance; utility will display an error in the array and
FastTrak100 User Manual 68 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 73 - About Dual Data Redundancy
FastTrak100 User Manual 69 Striping/Mirror (RAID 0+1) A combination of both above array types. It can increase performance by reading and writing data in parallel while protecting data with duplicat ion. A minimum of four drives needs to be installed. With a four-drive disk array, two pairs of drive...
Page 75 - Troubleshooting & Tips; PromiseOnline; services listed in Appendix A.; Motherboard Issues; Freeing additional IRQ resources
FastTrak100 User Manual 71 Troubleshooting & Tips This section is used to assist with troubleshooting conflicts and FastTrak100 installation problems. Also refer to the “README.TXT” file on the FastTrak100 driver and utility diskette for more recent information as well as the PromiseOnline T M s...
Page 79 - Your choices are as follows:; Fix the Error Block; : FastTrak100 will take a good data block from either; Skip the Error Block; : FastTrak100 will log the event error and continue the
FastTrak100 User Manual 75 errors, but do not want to fix these errors at the time. You may then decide what to do about the error(s) detected. ECC Error Reported on Synchronize The following screen will appear if a data error is detected on either source or target drive during Synchronize if you ha...
Page 80 - Operating System-Related Errors; Different drive lettering under Windows NT
FastTrak100 User Manual 76 Operating System-Related Errors Different drive lettering under Windows NT This may happen when using a SCSI card in addition to the Promise card. Windows NT does not necessarily load the driver for the boot device controller first. This results in a drive that in MS -DOS ...
Page 85 - Frequently Asked Questions; Q: What kind of hard drives can I use for a FastTrak100 array?; can; Q: Can I use ATAPI devices on the FastTrak100 controller?; ATAPI packet messages.; Q: Will the FastTrak/100 work with a 37Mhz or 41Mhz PCI bus speed?; A: The current PCI 2.1 specification is for a 33Mhz PCI bus speed. The; Q: How can I change the resources that the FastTrak uses?
FastTrak100 User Manual 81 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 FastTrak100 array?...
Page 87 - Drive Issues
FastTrak100 User Manual 83 Drive Issues Q: Can I add a drive to a FastTrak100 RAID array via hot-swap and dynamically adjust the array size/configuration? A: No. The FastTrak100 system does not support dynamically adjustable RAID size/configurations. Q: Do the HDDs on the FastTrak100 have to be the ...
Page 88 - Installation Issues; A: Some hard drive models are shipped with a jumper that reduces the
FastTrak100 User Manual 84 Q: What system BIOS CMOS settings do I use for the drives on the FastTrak100 controller? A: None. The drives on the FastTrak100 controller are supported by the FastTrak100 BIOS and/or an O/S drivers, not by your system BIOS. Q: How do I partition/format my FastTrak100 RAID...
Page 91 - Appendix A; Contacting Promise Support; Technical Support Services
Appendix A A1 Contacting Promise Support Promise Technical Support provides several support options for Promise users to access information and updates. We encourage you to use one of our electronic services, which provide product information updates for the most efficient service and support. If yo...
Page 93 - Appendix B; Limited Warranty; under normal use and service.; Disclaimer of other warranties
Appendix B B1 Limited Warranty Promise Technology, Inc. (“Promise”) warrants that for two(2) years from the time of the delivery of the product to the original end user: a) the product will conform to Promise’s specifications; b) the product will be free from defects in material and workmanship unde...
Page 95 - Appendix C; Returning Product For Repair
Appendix C C1 Returning Product For Repair If you suspect a product is not working properly, or if you have any questions about your product, contact our Technical Support Staff through one of our Technical Services, making sure to provide the following information: • Product model and serial number...
Page 96 - Your Responsibilities
Appendix C C2 Your Responsibilities You are responsible for determining whether the product is appropriate for your use and will interface with your equipment without malfunction or damage. You are also responsible for backing up your data before installing any product and for regularly backing up y...
Page 97 - INDEX; Defining; Drive status
INDEX A Alarms Setting, 54, 55 APM Usage, 77 Arrays "Hot" Spare, 64 Concepts, 61 Creating multiple, 18 Critical, 15, 43 Defining , 20 Definitions, 62 Deleting, 26 Drive members, 62 Drive status , 44 Dual R edundancy, 65 Functional, 15, 43 Mirroring , 63 Creating w/ existing drive, 22 Creatin...
Page 98 - Reserved Sectors, 61
INDEX P PCI Bus speed, 77 Q QEMM Stealth, 81 R Reserved Sectors, 61 S System resources, 77 T Troubleshooting Can't form array, 67 CMOS Booting, 67 Co-exist with IDE, 67 Critical error on boot, 68 Drive failure, 67 Interm ittent data problems, 68 IRQ resources, 67 Master/Slave issues, 67 No appearanc...
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