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Frequently Asked Questions: FastTrak100 Ultra ATA/100 RAID Card User's Guide
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Frequently Asked Questions: FastTrak100™ Ultra ATA/100
RAID Card User's Guide
Pre-Installation (Speed, Device Types, Capacity,
Cabling) • Drive Issues
• Installation Issues (Capacity, Booting) •
Post-Installation Issues (FDISK)
| Question |
Answer |
| What
kind of hard drives can I use for a FastTrak100 array? |
You can use any IDE/EIDE
hard drive(s) to create arrays on the FastTrak100. You should use matching
drives for multiple-drive arrays to maximize capacity usage as well
as performance. Ultra ATA/100 drives are recommended for highest performance.
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| Will
APM (Advanced Power Management) work with HDDs on the FastTrak100? |
APM
will not work with HDDs on the FastTrak100. This is because the system
sees the card as a SCSI card. |
| Can
I use ATAPI devices on the FastTrak100 controller? |
No.
There is no driver layer on the FastTrak100 controller which will support
ATAPI packet messages. |
| How
can I change the resources that the FastTrak uses? |
The
FastTrak100 is fully PnP. This means all the resources that it uses are
given to it by the PnP BIOS on the motherboard. The FastTrak100 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.
Otherwise, the only way you might be able to affect these assignments
is to switch the PCI slot that the card is in. |
| How
does the FastTrak100 RAID controller provide storage and/or data protection
with their arrays? |
FastTrak100 as supplied by
Dell implements two different types of RAID levels as follows:
RAID 0 (stripe)
For capacity -- The FastTrak100
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
-- Using FastTrak100, a RAID 0 array consisting of two HDDs will transfer
at about twice the speed of the slowest HDD in the array.
RAID 1 (mirror)
For capacity -- The FastTrak100
array will be as big as the smallest HDD in the array. The larger HDD
will simply be truncated. The truncated space on the bigger HDD will
then be unusable.
For sustained data transfers
-- The FastTrak100 array will write data at the rate of the slowest
HDD in the array. The FastTrak100 array will read data at twice the
rate of the slowest HDD in the array.
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| Question |
Answer |
| Can
I add a drive to a FastTrak100 RAID array via hot-swap and dynamically adjust
the array size/configuration? |
No. The FastTrak100 system
does not support dynamically adjustable RAID size/configurations.
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| Do
the HDDs on the FastTrak100 have to be the same size? |
The
HDDs that you use with the FastTrak100 do not have to be the same size.
If the sizes differ, the FastTrak100 will "adjust" the HDDs so that they
are compatible. Basically, it will truncate the bigger HDD so the sizes
match. Any unused space that results from this is unusable, so don't use
HDDs that differ too much. It'll work, but it's a waste. |
| Can
I take a set of drives which make up an array created on one FastTrak100
server and move it to another FastTrak100 server? |
Yes.
All FastTrak100 controllers read the arrays the same way. Once the drives
are all connected, you must restart the system for it to recognize the newly-inserted
array configuration. |
| Can
I take a drive used in a FastTrak100 array and access it directly with a
different controller, such as the one integrated on the motherboard? |
Yes,
but only under certain configurations. The following array configurations
will allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller:
mirror (RAID 0), single drive striped (RAID 1), or single drive spanned
(JBOD). Multiple drives striped or spanned will not work. Also, the controller
must address the drives as LBA, not CHS. |
| If
I have a problem with one of the drives on the FastTrak100, how can I low
level format it to correct the problem? |
Do
NOT do this. Low-level formatting IDE drives is unnecessary and generally
does not correct problems which might be experienced during use. Errors
such as bad sectors or ECC/CRC failure are best remedied by completely replacing
the drive. For this reason, drives attached to the FastTrak100 controller
should NOT be low level formatted. |
| Do
I have to install disk management software on my array in order to access
the full storage capacity of drives? |
No!
Disk management software would only complicate things. The array should
be fully addressable by your O/S as it is. Remember that some operating
systems have varying limits on the sizes of partitions and logical drives
that can be defined. Consult your O/S documentation about partitioning larger
drives. |
| What
system BIOS CMOS settings do I use for the drives on the FastTrak100 controller? |
None.
The drives on the FastTrak100 controller are supported by the FastTrak100
BIOS and/or an O/S drivers, not by your system BIOS. |
| How
do I partition/format my FastTrak100 RAID array? |
The
FastTrak100 "fools" the system into thinking that it's dealing with a single
HDD. Therefore, anything that you can do to a single HDD can also be done
to a FastTrak100 array. You can, and should, use the FDISK and FORMAT utilities
to partition/format the array. You can partition the array however you see
fit. You can format the array with whatever file system you wish. |
| Question |
Answer |
| Why
are some drives recognized by the FastTrak100 Array Setup utilities with
only partial capacity? |
Some hard drive models are
shipped with a jumper that reduces the addressable capacity of the drive
to prevent problems with older systems which won't support larger drives.
Consult the documentation accompanying the hard drive to set the jumper
appropriately in order to utilize the full capacity of the drive.
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| How
can I change the system boot sequence in order to boot from the FastTrak100
array? |
The
boot sequence is controlled by the Dell PC BIOS under "Hard-Disk Drive
Sequence". As far as the system BIOS is concerned, the FastTrak100
controller and defined arrays are categorized as a "SCSI" device (even though
the BIOS will not attempt to access the FastTrak100 as any type of SCSI
device). This allows you to set the boot sequence in your BIOS CMOS setup
utility to boot from "SCSI" (an add-in controller like the FastTrak100)
first, rather than "IDE" (an IDE controller built onto the motherboard or
one which effectively replaces it). If there are multiple SCSI add-in controllers
in the system, then the boot sequence among them will be determined exclusively
by their PCI slot priority. PCI slot #1 will be first, slot #2 second, etc.
Put the FastTrak100 controller in the PCI slot where it will be accessed
ahead of other SCSI controllers if you want to boot from the array. |
| How
can I change the boot sequence between a PCI SCSI card and the FastTrak100
RAID array? |
Since
all PCI devices are all PnP, it is difficult to determine which device is
addressed first. Some newer motherboard BIOSes may use advanced options
that identify devices and allow you to select which device will be assigned
resources first. Otherwise you may have to physically switch the device
cards on the PCI slots so that the boot device is in the highest priority
slot number (see previous question). If you do not require the FastTrak100
BIOS to boot from an array and it is only to be used through a driver under
the O/S, one simpler solution would be to disable the FastTrak100 BIOS so
that it does not affect the boot sequence at all. |
| Question |
Answer |
| Why
can't I see the drives on the FastTrak100 under FDISK? |
The FastTrak100 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. In order to access drives on the FastTrak100 from MSDOS at all,
you must first create a RAID array.
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