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Acard AEC-6896 User Manual - Copyright and Trademarks

Manual is about: PCI-to-SATA RAID Controller

Summary of AEC-6896

  • Page 1

    Pci-to-sata raid controller aec-6896s/6896 user’s manual copyright © 2003 acard technology corp. Release: april 2003 version 1.0

  • Page 2: Copyright and Trademarks

    Copyright and trademarks the information of the product in this manual is subject to change without prior notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the vendor, who as- sumes no liability or responsibility for any errors that may appear in this manual. Acard and scside are the tradema...

  • Page 3: Table of Contents

    Table of contents chapter 1 introduction ....................................... 5 1.1 overview ................................................................ 5 1.2 features ................................................................. 5 1.3 specifications ........................................

  • Page 4

    4.3.1 install the driver ............................................................ 22 4.3.2 boot from aec-6896 ..................................................... 22 4.4 in linux ................................................................ 22 chapter 5 the aec-68x5 utility ....................

  • Page 5: Chapter 1  Introduction

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 5 chapter 1 introduction 1.1 overview aec-6896s is a 64-bit, 33mhz pci-to-sata raid controller while aec-6896 a 66mhz one. They all have 4 serial ata channels, and support raid 0, 1, 0+1, jbod and normal modes. Their high performance and scalability are fit for servers and work...

  • Page 6

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 6 1.4 package when you open the package, please examine the following items. N aec-6896s or aec-6896 × 1 n serial ata cable × 4 n user’s manual n acard support cd × 1 n power cord for serial ata hard drive (optional).

  • Page 7

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 7 chapter 2 hardware installation 2.1 quick installation 2.2 the board layout the layout of aec-6896 board is shown as follows. From this chapter on we simply take aec-6896 to explain installation, etc. (1). Be sure that the system power has been off. (2). Open the housing of p...

  • Page 8

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 8 2.3 connection of cable and power cord connect the serial ata cable and the power cord to an ide hard drive as follows. (1). Connect aec-6896 and an ide-to-sata converter with the serial ata cable. (2). Connect the converter to the ide hard drive. (3). Connect the large 4-pin...

  • Page 9

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 9 figure 2-3 notice: the serial ata cable is used to transfer data of very high frequency. It is suggested not to connect and disconnect it too often, because the connectors are easily damaged. 2.4 compatibility aec-6896is particularly designed for dma hard drive, and has been ...

  • Page 10: Chapter 3  Bios Setup

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 10 chapter 3 bios setup after installing aec-6896 and booting the system, you will see the following figure appear immediately behind the figure of motherboard. The figure indicates your bios version, hard drive information, raid status, etc. Figure 3-1 please press ctrl + or s...

  • Page 11

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 11 3.1 description of functions on bios screen use á >, â > to change items, press to select and con- firm, and press to cancel or exit (return to previous screen). Meanwhile at the bottom of the screen, you can see the model numbers of hard drives connected to the channels, th...

  • Page 12

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 12 3.1.2 build mirror disk when replacing a mirrored hard drive, you can rebuild the hard drive’s data by “build mirror disk” according to the prompt upon booting. Please see 3.2.2. 3.1.3 quick erase disk this function allows you to quickly erase the data on a selected hard dri...

  • Page 13

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 13 figure 3-4 select any array in “set raid modes”, then press to select a raid mode. After selection, the screen will prompt “please select disks to create array”, and the cursor will move to the display area of hard drive at the bottom of the screen. Use á >, â > to select ha...

  • Page 14

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 14 figure 3-7 3.2.2 mirror mode this mode needs a pair of hard drives for each array. If the two hard drives you have chosen contain the same data, or different data that you don’t want to keep, you can select “create only”. But if not, please choose one of them as the source h...

  • Page 15

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 15 3.2.3 stripe + mirror mode this mode needs four hard drives. If your hard drives are ata ones, you are sug- gested to set the disk jumper as cs. Besides, you have to select stripe block size, too. 3.2.4 jbod mode this mode means to add all selected hard drives and make them ...

  • Page 16

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 16 chapter 4 system & driver installation driver installation varies somewhat in different operating systems. You can install the driver of aec-6896 in an existing os, or install a new os to the hard drive connected to aec-6896. The second method is to boot from aec-6896. 4.1 i...

  • Page 17

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 17 (3). Follow the wizard. Windows xp will require the driver’s location. Select “include this location in the search”. (4). Select “browse” to find the driver’s directory of aec6896.Inf such as a:\winxp. Figure 4-2 (5). After the wizard finds the driver, click “next” to instal...

  • Page 18

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 18 (6). Click “continue anyway” to continue the installation. Figure 4-4 (7). Follow the directions. The system will complete the setup automatically. Figure 4-5.

  • Page 19

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 19 (8). After setup, please boot the system again, and click “my computer”. Figure 4-6 (9). Find “view system information”, and double click it. Figure 4-7.

  • Page 20

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 20 (10). In “system properties”, click “hardware” and then “device manager”. (11). Under “scsi and raid controllers”, double click “acard aec-6896 pci raid controller” to see if the card has been installed successfully. Figure 4-8 figure 4-9.

  • Page 21

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 21 4.1.2 boot from aec-6896 please follow the steps given below to install a new os to the hard drives con- nected to aec-6896. Thus, you can boot from aec-6896. (1). Find the support cd containing the driver of aec-6896 from the package. Copy the driver into a formatted floppy...

  • Page 22

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 22 (3) follow the wizard to complete. After execution, boot the system again. 4.2.2 boot from aec-6896 please refer to 4.1.2. 4.3 in win 9x/me 4.3.1 install the driver (1). The procedures are similar to those in 4.1.1. Follow the wizard to complete. (2). After installation, boo...

  • Page 23

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 23 instructions, we take aec-68x5 to represent aec-6885/6895/6896. Copy all contents of the files into a formatted floppy disk and label it as “aec-68x5 redhat driver”. (1). Install aec-68x5 driver into an existing system (both red hat 7.3 and 8.0): a. Boot linux system and log...

  • Page 24

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 24 please visit http://www.Acard.Com to download the latest driver and installation guide. The installation guide is in readme.Txt file. B. On the first installation screen you will see a prompt “boot:” at the bottom of the screen. Please press f2 to enter “installer boot optio...

  • Page 25

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 25 chapter 5 the aec-68x5 utility acard has designed a program called aec-68x5 utility for you to use the ide card effectively. The utility will execute automatically after installation, setting and booting anew. 5.1 install the utility please follow the three steps to install ...

  • Page 26

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 26 figure 5-2 5.2.1 file click “file” to find “exit”. It is used to leave the utility. But if you don’t like to end the program, you can click on the upper right of the window to minimize it. 5.2.2 action click “action” to find “rescan bus”. It is used to refresh the screen; th...

  • Page 27

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 27 5.2.5 system info click “system info” to find the information and status of your raid and hard drives. 5.2.6 event log click “event log” to find all important things about raid such as the damage, re- moval, and adding of hard drives. However, in the beginning there is no re...

  • Page 28: Chapter 6  Troubleshooting

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 28 chapter 6 troubleshooting after installing aec-6896, if it cannot work normally, please follow the checklist given below to solve the problems. (1). Inspect if the power cord’s connectors are loose, or if the watt of power supply is not sufficient. (2). Inspect if the jumper...

  • Page 29: Appendix A  About Raid

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 29 appendix a about raid raid (redundant array of independent disks) is a system composed of many hard drives; that is, a pair of hard drives or more unite into a whole drive or an array. For the system only one hard drive is revealed. The advantages of raid technology are incr...

  • Page 30

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 30 it is suggested to compose raid 1 with hard drives of the same capacity. Because the capacity of mirrored disk array is that of the smallest hard drive. For example, a 100gb hard drive and a 120gb one unite into raid 1. The capacity is 100gb. A-3 raid 0+1 (striping/mirroring...

  • Page 31

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 31 appendix b make an installation disk for installing an os like windows 2000/nt/xp into a hard drive with acard con- troller, you need a floppy disk containing the controller’s driver to boot the hard drive. Please follow the steps below to make an acard controller’s driver d...

  • Page 32

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 32 3. Under the “driver” folder find your controller’s model number. For example, aec- 6880’s driver is driver>ide>aec6880v1.3..

  • Page 33

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 33 4. Choose the driver folder, and right-click “send to 3.5” floppy”. Meanwhile insert an empty disk into floppy drive. 5. Now use the driver disk to boot the hard drive and install the os..

  • Page 34

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 34 appendix c aspitool32 manager the aspitool32 managerprogram has many functions aimed at making the hard drives work properly under the windows os while they are connected with the acard scsi or ide controller. The aspitool32 manager program is proudly de- veloped by acard. Y...

  • Page 35

    Aec-6896s/6896 manual 35 technical support form email: support@acard.Com http://www.Acard.Com model aec-6896/6896s f/w version system configuration motherboard bios version scsi adapter chipset memory display card other i/o card os version hard disk configuration hard disk model/type capacity firmwa...