Fantom Drives DataDock II User manual

QuickStart

Installation Guide

Windows & Mac

Thank you for choosing Fantom Drives! Your Fantom Drives DataDock

II has been built to the highest standard of quality and workmanship,

is compatible with all USB, FireWire400, FireWire 800, or eSATA

capable Apple Macintosh computers running MacOS 10.3 (or greater)

and PC-Compatible computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP,

Windows 2003, and Windows Vista. We at Fantom Drives take great

pride in bringing personal satisfaction to each of our customers; When

used according to the instructions in this guide, your Fantom Drives

DataDock II will provide years of trouble-free operation.

DataDockII

Contents

Introduction ............................................................ 3

System Requirements ............................................. 3

Parts & Accessories List.......................................... 4

Precautions............................................................. 4

Fantom Drives External Hard Drive at a Glance.......... 5

Status Indicator Lights ............................................ 6

Connecting the Drive to Your Computer..................... 6

Setting the RAID operating mode.............................. 7

RAID Modes Descriptions ........................................ 8

RAID 1 (Mirror) ....................................................... 8

Span ...................................................................... 8

RAID 0 (Striping) ...................................................... 9

Hot Plug Disk Replacement ....................................... 9

Formatting Your DataDock II................................... 10

Formatting the Drive in Mac OS X ............................ 10

Formatting the Drive in Windows ............................. 11

Optimizing Windows Caching Algorithm .................. 12

How to safely dismount and turn off your

Fantom Drives External Hard Drive ......................... 13

Troubleshooting /

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ........................ 14

General Questions ................................................. 14

FAQs for Mac Users .............................................. 15

FAQs for PC Users ................................................ 16

One Year Limited Warranty .................................. 18

Contact Information ..............................................20

Introduction

Welcome, and thank you for purchasing DataDock II eSATA+USB

High Capacity Hard Disk from Fantom Drives.

In photos and illustrations in this guide, The following alert symbols

are used in this guide:

This signifies important

information for ALL users.

This signifies important infor-

mation for USB 2.0 users.

This signifies important infor-

mation for eSATA users.

This signifies important infor-

mation for FireWire users.

The DataDock II Hard Disk can only sustain one connection type

at any given time; the drive will appear as an eSATA device when

connected via eSATA, a FireWire device when connected via

FireWire, and as a USB device if the USB cable is connected.

USB 2.0 compatibility with USB 1.x

USB 2.0 ports are backward compatible with USB 1.x. However,

if you connect the Drive to a USB 1.x port, it will operate at

USB 1.x speeds.

System Requirements

• Power Macintosh G4 or newer running Mac OS X 10.4 or newer

• 733 MHz Pentium 3 class PC or faster CPU running Windows XP

SP2, 2003, or Vista

• An available eSATA Port or

• An available USB 1.1 or 2.0 port or

• An available FireWire 400 port or

• An available FireWire 800 port

Parts &

Accessories List

The package contains the following items:

• Fantom Drives DataDock II Hard Disk

• Quick Start Installation Guide

• FireWire 400 cable • FireWire 800 cable

• eSATA cable • USB cable

• Disk Stand • AC Adapter

If you are missing any items listed above, please fill out the customer

support form at http://www.FantomDrives.com/help

Please retain a copy of your receipt. You will need it if

warranty repair service is required in the future.

Precautions

Please follow the precautions described below to avoid damage to

your DataDock II and void the warranty.

• DO NOT open the case. Doing so will void the warranty.

• DO NOT use a third-party AC adapter or power cord. Doing so

may damage the Drive and void the warranty.

• DO NOT bump, jar or drop the Drive as this may damage it or

result in loss of data.

• DO NOT disconnect any cables while the Drive is powered on

without first properly dismounting the device via your operating

system; doing so can result in data loss and possible damage.

• DO NOT set any liquids or beverages on the Drive as they may

damage the internal electronics.

• Fantom Drives highly recommends that you regularly back-up the

files stored on your Fantom Drives External Hard Drive. Fantom

Drives is not responsible for any data loss, nor will Fantom Drives

perform any recovery on lost data or files.

Fantom Drives

DataDock II Hard Disk

at a Glance

AC adapter port

Vent (Do not block)

USB 2.0 port

eSATA port

Security

Lock Slot

Power Switch

FireWire 800 Ports

FireWire 400

Port

Power/Rebuild

Status Light (blue)

Activity Status

Light (red)

Removable Disk

Modules

Disk Module Latches

Top Disk Fault

Bottom Disk Fault

Rebuild Status

Indicator Lights

The DataDock II provide information on its operation through the

indicator lights. There are two disk fault lights (one for each disk)

along with Rebuild Status light. Each module has a "Power/Rebuild

Status Light" (Blue) and a "Activity Status Light" (Red.) The following

is a description of the light functions:

1. Normal Operation: During normal operation the Power/Rebuild

light will glow solid blue on each disk module. The Activity light will

either be off or blinking on activity. The disk fault lights and rebuild

status lights are dark.

2. Disk fault: Disk fault light for the respective disk will glow red.

Power/Rebuild light is OFF for the disk module.

3. RAID 1 data rebuild: Rebuild Status light blinks orange. Survivor

power/rebuild light will blink, replacement module power/rebuild

light glows solid.

Connecting the drive

1. Plug the AC adapter cord into the power port on the back of the

Drive. The plug should not require much effort to insert. If the plug

will not go in, do not force it; the plug is probably upside down.

Rotate the plug and try again. Incorrectly inserting the plug could

damage the Drive and void the warranty.

2. Plug the power cord into the cord socket in the AC adapter. Plug

the other end into a three-prong outlet.

3. Plug in the eSATA, FireWire, or the USB 2.0 data cables.

The DataDock can only use one connection at a time. eSATA,

USB, and FireWire plugs are shaped so they can only be

properly inserted one way. Be sure to insert the plugs

properly or you may damage the Drive and void the warranty.

The GForce Megadisk Combo Hard Disk has two FireWire ports

for connecting additional FireWire device in a daisy chain.

4. Press the power switch located on the back of the DataDock

II Hard Disk. Once the Drive is powered up, your computer should

recognize it and the Drive will be ready to use.

Setting the RAID

Operation Mode

The DataDock II is preconfigured from the factory for Mirrored

operation (RAID 1.) If you wish to reconfigure it for a different

operation mode, please follow the instructions below.

You can configure your DataDock II to use different RAID modes to map

the physical hard drives to a virtual drive, or "volume", that is visible to

the host computer. The host operating system treats this volume as if

it's a single physical drive, overcoming restrictions that are imposed by

physical hard drives such as speed, storage capacity or data storage

reliability. To select a RAID mode, make sure that the unit is powered

off and refer to the following instructions:

1. Set the rotary switch on the back of the DataDock II with a small

flathead screwdriver to the desired storage policy. Please refer

to page 5 for the locations of the

storage policy mode switch and

commit button.

2. Turn on the DataDock II.

3. The Power/Rebuild lights will

begin to blink. Press and hold the

recessed "Mode Change Commit" button with a pin

or paperclip for about 5 seconds until the Power/Rebuild lights

stop blinking.

Please exercise care before pressing the "Commit" button.

Creating new virtual volumes will destroy any existing data

that existed on the previous volume!

When changing RAID modes to an existing volume, it is necessary

to remove the existing disk partition prior to changing the RAID

mode, or the new volume may appear to have a partition with

the wrong size or will be unformattable. You may use your

computer's disk utility (Mac: /applications/disk utilty, Windows: \

Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) to remove the partition(s) on

the DataDock II. Please consult your OS help or visit http://www.

fantomdrives.com/support/faqs for additional information.

RAID 0

SPAN

RAID 1

RAID Modes

RAID 1

The RAID 1 storage policy stores all data in duplicate on each drives

to protect against data loss due to drive failure, and is the default

configuration of the DataDock II. One drive mirrors the other at

all times, which means every write operation goes to both drives.

RAID 1 provides the highest level of data fault tolerance, but halves

the amount of storage capacity because all data must be stored

twice. The resulting storage capacity of the virtual volume will be

equivalent to the size of one hard drive. If one drive fails, the volume

is still usable, but it is in a vulnerable state because its mirrored

hard drive is inaccessible. When the offline drive is replaced, the

DataDock II will begins a rebuild process immediately to restore data

redundancy.

Although the volume remains available during the rebuild

process, the volume is susceptible to data loss through

damage to the remaining drive until redundancy is restored

at the end of the rebuild and verification process.

Host access takes precedence over the rebuild process. If you

continue to use the volume during the rebuild, the rebuild process

will take a longer time to complete, and the host data transfer

performance will also be affected.

Span

The Span storage policy concatenates the two physical hard drives

as a single large volume, resulting in a seamless expansion. Hard

drive A and B are concatenated into a single virtual volume with a

storage capacity that is equal to the sum of each of the physical

hard drives A and B. In the event of disk failure the surviving

member of the span is likely recoverable, but because the data is

written sequentially to one disk and then the other the data available

for recovery may vary depending on which member failed.

RAID 0

The RAID 0 (striping) storage policy presents the best data speed by

using both disks in parallel. Hard drive data segments are written

to different disks simultaneously which increases performance, but

at an increased fault sensitivity (two drive's worth of data may be

lost at a single disk fault.) The FAST storage policy creates a single

virtual volume that is striped across both hard drives, with a storage

capacity that is equal to the sum of both hard disk drives.

RAID 0 has no fault tolerance. A single disk failure will cause

loss of ALL data, and is very difficult to recover. RAID 0

should only be used when speed is required and the data can

be recovered from backup.

Hot Plug Drive Replacement

In the event of a disk failure, the DataDock II supports the ability to

hot-swap drives without powering down the system. A data module

can be removed and replaced without powering off the unit or

taking the system off line. In RAID1 configuration, the rebuilding will

proceed automatically in the background. A failed drive will have a

dark "Power/Rebuild" light. To replace a drive, please follow these

steps:

1. Gently press the drive release latch (see page 6, “The DataDock II

Interface components”) to release the drive tray.

2. Gently pull out the disk drive tray handle and slide out

the drive tray.

3. To replace: Slide in the

replacement drive tray with the

tray handle open. When the tray

is slid all the way into the DataDock

II, push the tray handle closed.

Replacing a disk module may interrupt the host connection

momentarily. Please make sure that there are no open files

on the DataDock volume before replacing a disk module.

NEVER remove a drive tray without replacing it. Operating

the RAID with a drive tray missing will disrupt airflow and

may cause the DataDock II to fail.

Formatting Your Drive

Your DataDock II comes preformatted at the factory with the FAT32 file

system, which will mount on most modern operating systems. FAT32

has some limitations, and we recommend you reformat the volume to a

file system format more compatible with your particular computer and

operating system environment.

Formatting a hard drive erases all data contained on it. Please

be sure to create a copy of the files you wish to keep to another

location before reformatting.

Formatting the drive in Mac OS X

1. Launch the “Disk Utility” application located under Applications/

Utilities folder.

2. Highlight your new drive and select the “Partition” tab

3. Select the new partition map type.

4. For each partition in the volume scheme, select the desired file

system format and volume name (optional)

Although it is possible to format a hard drive on Mac OS X

using the DOS file system, we do not recommend this, as

an artificial capacity limit may be imposed on the drive and

performance will be unpredictable.

5. Click the “Options” button. Select “Apple Partition Map” in the

dialog box and click “OK”.

6. Click “Apply.” Your DataDock II is ready to use!

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