Fast Trak S150TX2plus: Rebuilding two HDD JBOD array

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  • Last Post 29 March 2021
Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021

Nothing in this card's manual nor in the PAM array management manual for how to do it, and I don't recall how I therefore built the array in the first place. Probably a Promise support member walked me through it over the phone, though I presume they won't do so now with legacy products like this. 

I have the Promise S150 TX2 SATA controller card in an old Windows XP desktop that I use for file backup. It was working fine to control two storage hard drives in JBOD mode. But at some point I had moved those drives to another desktop some years ago. Now I reinstalled and connected those same drives to the card in this desktop but set up reports that the array needs to be rebuilt.

I went into setup by hitting Ctrl +A before Windows boots where the Promise utility gives 5 options:

1.) Auto Setup: But there it only gives the Mirrored and Striped options; but I want JBOD.

2.) View Drive Assignments: Shows the two Seagate hard drives.

3.) Define/Migrate Array: Shows Array 1 and Array 2 undefined. When I hit enter again the options are only Striped and Mirrored but no option for JBOD.

 4.) Delete Array: Shows Array 1 and Array 2 undefined.

 5.) Rebuild Array/Resume Migration: Shows Array 1 and Array 2 undefined. And when I hit enter to rebuild array it says Recovery Not Applicable.

 So how do I configure the card to control the two drives in JBOD mode-AND without losing any data on those drives?

 

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R P posted this 29 March 2021

Hi Gregory,

According to the product manual....

https://www.promise.com/DownloadFile.aspx?DownloadFileUID=3044

The FastTrak S150 TX2plus does not offer JBOD mode.

--------------------

FastTrak S150 TX2plus has three independent data channels to support a
maximum of two Serial ATA drives and two Ultra ATA/133 drives. FastTrak S150
TX2plus supports:
• Striping (RAID 0) – Identical drives can read and write data in parallel to
increase performance.
• Mirroring (RAID 1) – Mirroring increases read performance through load
balancing and elevator sorting while creating a complete backup of your
files.
• Striping / Mirroring (RAID 0+1) – Combining striping with mirroring offers
both high read/write performance and fault tolerance

Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021

 But I was sure that this card was NOT used in any striping or mirrored array of any pair of HDDs of mine. Are you sure there's not any other software interface for this card which allows a JBOD configuration?

If not, can you recommend an inexpensive solution for connecting two JBODed HDDs to a Windows XP Pro desktop?

Ideally, the solution would connect one storage HDD and one optical drive. Please advise.

R P posted this 29 March 2021

But I was sure that this card was NOT used in any striping or mirrored array of any pair of HDDs of mine. Are you sure there's not any other software interface for this card which allows a JBOD configuration?

It's possible that the configuration was (2) single drive RAID0 arrays. But apparently the DDF was lost while used in the other computer.

I double checked just in case they were calling it passthru mode, but the product manual makes no mention of passthru mode or JBOD mode.

Your best bet would be to buy a cheap 2-port SATA2 HBA. There are some SATA2 cards still available at various online retailers.

Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021

I thought about this one because it's cheap and I can't use a pci-e card. https://www.amazon.com/2-Port-Controller-Silicon-Chipset-SD-SATA150R/dp/B000BU7XNG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=SYBA+SD-SATA150R&qid=1617043402&s=pc&sr=1-1

https://www.newegg.com/syba-sd-sata150r/p/N82E16815124006?item=N82E16815124006&nm_mc=knc-googleadwords&cm_mmc=knc-googleadwords-_-hard%20drive%20controllers%20%2F%20raid%20cards-_-syba-_-15124006&source=region

But many users here say it's not the most problem free install. One said it works in newer systems but not old ones, and mine is Windows XP Pro.

Any specific product suggestions for an easy plug and play install?

 

 

R P posted this 29 March 2021

Hi Gregory,

When Windows 95 came out and promised plug and play, it was not really there yet. I even found interrupt conflicts that required futzing around. Things had improved when Windoes XP came out but there were still some problems. They seemed to have finally gotten plug and play working when PCIe came out.

I suspect that the more experienced the purchaser was with computers the fewer the install issues. But you can still rerurn the card if it does not work.

I have a SATA2 card installed in my Sandy Bridge computer. It was easy enough to install and has done what I expected. Found the box, it's Silicon Image and PCIe and cost $24.95. So this tells nothing about the current crop of PCI SATA cards.

Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021

This Dell Dimenion 8300 Pentium 4's motherboard's too old to take PCI-e cards. So it will have to be one of these PCI cards.

Might this one be less problematic?

https://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=162

R P posted this 29 March 2021

Hi Gregory,

Might this one be less problematic?

I'm not sure why it would be. They also don't sell direct, so you'll need to find a reseller.

There's no way to be 100% sure, so we all take our best guess and hope for the best. I don't automatically believe bad reviews, but the verified owner reviews carry more weight.

And unfortunarly, there are few sources today for SATA1 or SATA2 PCI cards.

Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021

All true. The last Syba card I used (firewire ports) worked fine so I guess try theirs.

Gregory Battaglia posted this 29 March 2021
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