The original HP RAID controller that is, sometimes refer to as the NetRAID 0, was called the HPDA PCI or EISA (rebranded Mylex DAC960PL) RAID controller C3609A and C3610A. This one had REAL problems and is probably the one that causes most of our problems. Our first recommendation is always replace it. But if it has always worked well for you and you want to keep it, here are a few tips to keep you up to date.

The Mylex controller is the only HP RAID controller that requires all drives be the same size, exactly or they will not work. And it may not recognize non-HP drives. This means you can not replace your 4GB drives with new 18 GB, one at a time, as you can with the more modern controllers.
”..the original HP Disk Array Controllers (HP Mylex DAC Product numbers C3609A and C3610A). Any configurations using the HP Disk Array require the exact capacity hard disk drive for replacement. These HP Disk Arrays Controllers were last sold in August 1997.”
Users are forced to perform a complete backup and replace all the drives on the controller, restoring the data when one drive fails. The exact replacements are no longer available.

"...HP supports the use of the 18GB 10K RPM hard disk drives to replace defective 4GB and 9GB hard disk drives, except for array configurations based on the original HP Disk Array Controllers (HP Mylex DAC Product numbers C3609A and C3610A)."  Actually this is because the Fireware was written so specifically that the largest drive the controller will recognize is the HP D5039-0001 18GB Hard Drive with HP Firmware.

There is a 30 GB limit on the mylex controller for logical drive capacity so you'll be ok with 4x9gb hdds with 27gb total capacity but you won't be able to add any more capacity to that logical hdd. At the time the Mylex was made it wasn't possible to excede 30gb!

Lastest Hewlett Packard Firmware / BIOS :

(NetRAID) HPDA PCI Firmware 2.47 3-Oct-01 English hpdapcifw.exe   [0.17 MB] ,

HPDA Eisa Dual Channel Firmware 1.99 21-Jan-00 English hpdae2fw.exe   [0.27 MB] ,

HPDA Single Channel Firmware 2.14 21-Jan-00 English hpdae1fw.exe   [0.02 MB]

An option that has been proven to work is to download the firmware for the Mylex DAC960PL PCI, which is this card and flashed the eeprom. The card will now report as true mylex and run fine. You should not have to replace any chips in the card. Just flash to a Mylex firmware. For EISA Firmware go here.

As with next generation NetRAID cards, Win2000 “is not supported”. And too this is only because it is not up to HCL snuff. This is there are limitations and complecation. You are limited to the partition size that the OS will boot on when installation is complete (1.2 GB or smaller). Try creating a Partition with DOS and fdisk first. And since there is no support, HP does not list there Driver on their support page, but other users seem to beable to use the on-disk Mylex DAC960PL driver and have success.

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