TARGA 3000 Configuration Cookbook
11/25/2002
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7.8 Striping
We recommend that you use NT or W2K striping to configure the AV disk array. RAID controllers are not
required. It is important that all the drives in the stripe are the same make, model and firmware revision (note
this latter, problems can arise with apparently similar disks that have different firmware revisions).
7.9 Defragmentation
File fragmentation cannot be avoided. When files are written, deleted, and re-written to a disk drive, the drive
is writing the data in the form of blocks as defined by the file system allocation size. If there is not enough
contiguous space on the disk to accommodate the file, the file system breaks up the file into pieces, writing
as many contiguous blocks as it can in one spot then jumping to another location on the disk to complete the
write. As a disk becomes severely fragmented, performance can degrade severely.
There are two ways to eliminate or minimize fragmentation: periodically use defragmentation utilities such as
Executive Software's Diskeeper or temporarily move media files to another drive or array, clean or re-format
the AV drives, and move the files back. This will force files to be written in a contiguous manner.
7.10 EIDE and Ultra/DMA-66, 100 Drives
Not normally used for AV drives unless controlled by an EIDE array controller. Most motherboards
incorporate two Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) controllers as standard equipment. The EIDE or
Ultra/DMA-66 (also referred to as ATA) is a newer version of the IDE interface, and can return respectable
performance in systems where SCSI boot drives are not used. Be sure to apply the latest UltraDMA driver
from the motherboard manufacturer or Intel (...), as Windows NT 4.0 does not natively support UltraDMA.
8 Addendum
8.1 TARGA 3108 Update
As of June 2002, new TARGA 3000 cards that leave manufacturing are labeled “TARGA 3108”. This
hardware revision contained minimal component updates, and offers no functional enhancements. Over
extended periods of shelf life, hardware is subject to minor revisions, and this was a necessary
manufacturing change.
8.1.1 How do I determine which revision of TARGA card that I have?
If you have ordered a TARGA 3000 system in the past few months, you most likely have a TARGA 3108
card. In order to determine the hardware revision, close all applications on your desktop, and follow these
steps:
a. Click on the Windows start button
b. Select Programs->TARGA 3000-> Board Monitor
c. Once the Board Monitor is open, view the third line of text. It should read TARGA 3100,
3105, or 3108.
In the event of any incompatibility with your system using this card revision and the TARGA 3000 v1.5
drivers, please refer to the Pinnacle T3K Download section and follow the steps to download an updated .inf
file. If you are using the TARGA 3000 v1.5.1 drivers, this issue has been addressed in this release.
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