Question : Problem: Upgrade fromPromise  FastTrak Lite 100 on MotherBoard to Promise FastTrak S150 TX2 PCI Raid card

I have an elite group p4vxad motherboard that came with Promise RAID FastTrak 100 Lite software and I running XP Pro with SP2.

I have been running a mirrored array Raid(1) for a few years and it works fine. I've been getting kind of nervous about what could happen if the board goes one day.

So I bought a FastTrak S150 TX2 PCI Raid board so I don't have to worry about the controller on the Mother Board. In the documentation for the card it says that you can transfer the drives but it does not tell you how to do it.

I've been on the Promise website and can't seem to find anything there either. So maybe someone can help me with this install.

The driver for the controller that I have now is FastTrak.sys Ver. 2.0.2.18 Build# 2.00.0 (build18).

Thanks in advance

Answer : Problem: Upgrade fromPromise  FastTrak Lite 100 on MotherBoard to Promise FastTrak S150 TX2 PCI Raid card

Fixer32

How is your concern for the controller going out on the motherboard any different than the controller going out on the PCI card--two sides of the same coin--no?

No documentation with the PCI card as to how to install--on driver CD or floppy disks--readme.txt or usermanual.pdf?

Anyway--you should backup important data or the whole system for safey.

Install the PCI card according to directions and install the necessary WinXP drivers so WinXP sees the controller in the Device Manager without any warning messages (no HDD's hooked up to it yet).

You will have to read up on how your system sees the boot device order.  You may have make changes in the boot order in the BIOS and/or disable the onboard controller to allow the PCI card controller to take the primary position.

Power down and disconnect both HDD's from the motherboard controller.  Hook up just one drive (i.e. protect that second HDD from any possible problems with compatibilty during the initial re-boot using the new PCI card) to the new PCI controller and boot.  If the new PCI card is working properly (and is compatible with the old RAID array), it should report during initial loading and status check of the RAID array that you are missing one member of the mirror array.  It should give you the option to boot with the remaining HDD of the array, or suggest you power down and replace the 'bad' or 'missing' HDD for the array.  

That tells you if the new PCI card controller recognizes the HDD as having been in a RAID array that it recognizes, and probably the two controllers are compatible.

You can then power down, hook up the second HDD and re-boot.  The status check during boot should say either that the array is 'functional' or 'okay' or whatever.

Or, if the method used to check if the mirror HDD is identical to the source HDD is different under the new PCI card, then it may report that it has to 'rebuild' the mirror array.  In which case you will have to select the source drive and the mirror drive and let the rebuild process take place.