Promise Technology UltraTrak100 TX8 - Manual (Page 53)

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Appendix B - Frequently Asked Questions
This section lists frequently asked questions involving pre-installation, drive
issues, installation, and post-installation.
Q. What kind of hard drives can I use for an UltraTrak100 array?
A. You can use any Ultra ATA/100, Ultra ATA/33/66, or EIDE hard drive(s) to
create arrays on the UltraTrak100. 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.
Q. Can I add a drive to an UltraTrak100 RAID array via hot-swap and
dynamically adjust the array size/configuration?
A. No. The UltraTrak100 does not support dynamically adjustable RAID
size/configurations.
Q. Can I take a set of drives that make up an array created on one
UltraTrak100 and move it to another UltraTrak100?
A. Yes. All UltraTrak100’s 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.
Q. Can I take a drive used in an UltraTrak100 array and access it directly
with a different controller, such as the one integrated on the
motherboard?
A. Yes, but only under certain configurations. The following array configurations
will allow the drive(s) to be accessed individually on another controller: mirror
(RAID 1), or single drive striped (RAID 0). Multiple drives striped will not
work.
Q. How can I be sure that write-back cache has flushed before I reboot
after partitioning and formatting an array?
A. A cache flush is always triggered immediately following any write from the int
13h BIOS. This level of array support is what FDISK and FORMAT use to
access the drive from MSDOS. With no delay in the write operation, there is
no cached data waiting to be written. If you are running from Windows
NT/2000 or other operating systems, as usual, make sure to shut down
Windows properly so that the operating system can trigger and flush the
cache as necessary. NOTE: powering off before a proper shutdown is
complete may result in the loss of unwritten data in the cache, possibly
causing problems in a subsequent boot or access to the data that was
unwritten.