Promise Technology FASTTRAK SX4300 - Manual (Page 63)

Chapter 7: Support
57
I already have an array on an older FastTrak controller. Can I move that
array to my new FastTrak SX4300 or SX8300 controller?
Yes. All FastTrak controllers read the arrays the same way and can be
moved from one controller to another.
Can I take a drive used in a FastTrak SX Series logical drive and access it
directly with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the
motherboard?
Yes, but only under certain configurations. First, the other controller must
address the drives as LBA, not CHS.
Second, only the following configurations allow the drive(s) to be accessed
individually on another controller:
• Single-drive RAID 0 (stripe)
• One drive from a RAID 1 (mirror) logical drive
• JBOD
Other array configurations will not work for this purpose.
If I have a problem with one of the drives on the FastTrak SX Series, how
can I low-level format it to correct the problem?
Do NOT do this! Low-level formatting hard disk drives is not only
unnecessary but it generally does not correct problems commonly
experienced during use.
Errors such as bad sectors or ECC/CRC failure are best remedied by
completely replacing the drive. For this reason, do NOT low-level format the
drives attached to the FastTrak Controller.
Do I have to install disk management software on my logical drive in order
to access the full storage capacity of drives?
No! Disk management software will only complicate things. The logical drive
should be fully addressable by your OS 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 OS documentation about
partitioning larger drives. Also see “Ranges of Disk Array Expansion” on
page 48.
What system BIOS setup settings do I use for the drives on the FastTrak SX
Series controller?
A BIOS setting is required only if you want to boot your system from the
logical drive on the FastTrak controller. After your logical drive is created,
partitioned and formatted, make the change in your BIOS boot order setting.