Anyone else have this prob with Fasttrak 66?

[KRSESQ]

I've been using the Promise Fasttrak 66 with a pair of Maxtor 30 gig, 7200 rpm, UDMA66 hard drives (RAID 0 array) for a bit over a year. Recently my system stopped seeing the drives attached to the controller. Device Manager sees the Fasttrak and reports its functioning normally. The Fasttrak BIOS loads normally on boot, but the attached drives remain invisible even in DOS.

Attempts to format the array gives a "not ready, exiting format" error. In Fastbuild, under "define array", it reports "no available drives". But it also reports the array as functional.

Taking out the Fasttrak and plugging the drives into the secondary IDE controller gives me two perfectly functional 30 gig drives.

Flashing the Fasttrak BIOS and using new drivers didn't help.

The system:
AMD Athlon 1200 (NOT overclocked)
Abit KT7A Mobo
Maxtor 17 gig UDMA33 boot drive
Matrox Marvel G200 AGP
Soundblaster 16 ISA (TBSC PCI pending)
384 MB PC133 RAM
Windows Me

Particularly frustrating is Promise's glacially slow tech support email response and the lack of a toll free phone number.

Any insights?

Kevin

[Sciascia]

Delete the existing array and create a new one in the FT setup (ctrl+F). It will not destroy your data in 99% of the cases. There is a file sort of like a MBR or something that is corrupted. Deleting and recreating should fix it.

I don't think that the drives will ever show up in DOS connected to the Fasttrak. It needs drivers to work and they are loaded in the OS during boot up.

[KRSESQ]

Thanks. I'll give it a try. In fact, the array does show up in DOS, as it is supported by the Fasttrak BIOS.

You really like that Radeon? I'm looking at it to eventually replace my G200. Seen VERY good reviews and the price is 'prox' on a par with what I paid for my Marvel.

Kevin

[KRSESQ]

Success. Thanks. One more tip to add to the collection.

What a relief!

Kevin

[Sciascia]

I know I was scared when mine went and I had to do it. I had no real guidance (promise support, what can I say) and I had about 11G worth of irreplaceable stuff at stake. No real way to back it up either, especially since I couldn't even get to it. Luckily I figured it out and was quite delighted.

As for the 8500DV, I am very happy with it. It has been almost 99% trouble free since I got it installed (OpenGL issue fixed in latest drivers). The MPEG2 capture is amazing. I can't believe the quality. Therre are a few things that I have to straighten out with the 44kHz audio (no 48kHz capture setting), but it is really close to DVD spec and as soon as I find a good MPEG2 editor it may be time to buy that burner. I may just opt for PicVideo, since MJPEG is such a dream to edit with and is pretty nice quality. Just need Ulead to get that new MPEG encoder out on the streets.

The amount of new drivers (official and leaked) is a little too frequent if you can believe that. WinXP seems to be the OS of choice for the best support though, Win2k stuff comes along a lot less frequently. I am thinking about trying it out this weekend.

How does that product activation stuff work? I know that supposedly you have 30 days to register it or something. Maybe I'll borrow it from someone just to try it out. I think that 2 or 3 hours will be long enough to decide if I like it. $100 for the home version is cheap. It sounds like a 30 day demo or something, is that right?

[KRSESQ]

I just got done back-stepping to Win 98. Win Me was a joke. My impression of XP is that the product activation acts like a free-trial arrangement. At the end of 30 days it refuses to let you in until you activate or uninstall.

I have heard but cannot confirm that you are limited as to the number of times you can reinstall XP, especially if you like playing with different system configurations. This is one of the things that had power users upset when it came out. Hopefully someone with more experience with XP can clarify things a little.

Eventually I'll have to switch to XP, and I'll probably want to replace the Marvel when I do. The Radeon definitely looks like a prime contender. Not in any great hurry, though.

Kevin