Seagate Marathon 420sl User manual

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Marathon 420sl
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(ST9420A, ST9420AG)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AT Interface Drives
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Installation Guide
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

©1995 Seagate Technology, Inc. All rights reserved
Publication Number: 36305-101, Rev. A
August 1995
Seagate, Seagate Technology and the Seagate logo are regis-
tered trademarks of Seagate Technology, Inc. SeaFAX, Sea-
FONE, SeaBOARD and SeaTDD are trademarks of Seagate
Technology, Inc. Otherproduct namesareregistered trademarks
or trademarks of their owners.
Seagate reserves the right to change, without notice, product
offerings or specifications. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form without written permissionfrom Seagate
Technology, Inc.
Contents
Read before you begin ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Configuring the drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Attaching cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Mounting the drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Configuring your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Formatting and partitioning the drive . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Installation troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Compatibility notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Technical support services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Storing and shipping your drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Read before you begin ...
Application. This drive uses the ATA interface and is designed
for IBM AT and compatible personal computers. It is intended for
use with UL-listed computers or similar products.
Warning. Turn off the computer (and remove the battery if you
have a notebook or laptop computer) before you
open the case or touch any internal components.
Caution. Special training or tools may be needed to service
laptopandnotebookcomputers.Insomecases,open-
ing the case may void your warranty.
Static discharge. Observe the following precautions:
•Before handling any components, put on a grounded wrist strap.
•Use antistatic padding on all work surfaces.
•Avoid static-inducing carpeted areas.
•Keep the drive in its static-shielded bag until you are ready to
completethe installation.Donotattachanycables tothedrive
while it is in its static-shielded bag.
•Handle the drive by its edges or frame.
•Do not touch the I/O connector pins or the circuit board.
Drive handling. The drive is extremely fragile—handle it with
care. Do not attach labels to any part of the drive.
Inspection. After you are familiar with the handling precautions
listed above, inspect the drive. If it appears to be damaged, call
your distributor or dealer immediately.
Maintenance and repair. Seagate drives do not require main-
tenance.Thehead/discassemblyissealed;ifyoubreaktheseal,
you void the warranty. Seagate customer service centers are the
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 1

only facilities authorized to repair Seagate drives. Seagate does
not sanction any third-party repair facilities.
Warranty. See your authorized Seagate distributor or dealer.
Configuring the drive
1. Put on a grounded wrist strap. Wear the grounded wrist
strap throughout the installation procedure.
2. Installmaster/slavejumpers.Ina two-drive system, youneed
to designate one drive as the master, or drive 0, and the other
driveastheslave,ordrive1.Todothis,installthemaster/slave
jumpers as shown in Figure 1. In a one-drive system, configure
the drive as a master (no jumpers installed).
Alternatively, you can configure the drive as a master or
slave using the cable select option. Cable selection re-
quires a special daisy-chain cable that grounds pin 28
(CSEL) on one of its two drive connectors. If you attach the
drive to the grounded CSEL connector, it becomes a mas-
ter. If you attach the drive to the ungrounded CSEL con-
nector, it becomes a slave. To use this option, the host
system and both drives must support cable select, andboth
drives must be configured for cable select. To configure a
Marathon 420sl for cable select, install both master/slave
jumpers, as shown in Figure 1.
Attaching cables
This driveis designed for a host computer that supplies interface
signals and +5V power through a single 44-pin connector and
cable. If your computer has a fixed connector that attaches
directly to the drive, skip aheadto the following section, “Mount-
ing the drive.” Otherwise, attach the interface/power cable
as described on page 4.
2 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

Master/slave
configuration
jumpers
Pin 1 Pin 20 removed
for keying Circuit board
B D
A C
Drive is master; slave may be detected using DASP– signal
Drive is master; Seagate slave drive present
Drive is slave; Seagate master drive present
Use CSEL pin grounding to differentiate master from slave

Figure 1. ATA interface connector and master/slave
configuration jumpers
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 3

1. Turn off the computer and remove the battery.
2. Put on a grounded wrist strap.
3. Open your computer case. See your system manual for
instructions.
Caution. Opening the case may void your computer’swarranty.
4. Connect the 44-pin interface/power cable. Match pin 1 of
the cable to pin 1 of the interface connectors on the drive and
on the computer. Pin 1 is usually denoted by a stripe along
one edge of the cable. The location of pin 1 on the drive
interface connector is shown in Figure 1 on page 3. The cable
should be no longer than 18 inches (0.457 meters).
Caution. The printed-circuit cables used in laptop computers
are very delicate. Be careful not to tear them.
Mounting the drive
Mount the drive securely in the computer using M3X0.5 metric
screws in the four bottom mounting holes or the four side mounting
holes. You can mount the drive in any orientation. Be careful not to
strain or crimp the interface/power cable.
Caution. To prevent damage to the drive:
•Be careful not to bend the drive connector pins, especially
when plugging the drive into a fixed connector.
•Use mounting screws of the correct size and length.
•Gently tighten the mounting screws—do not apply more than
3 inch-pounds of torque.
•Do not insert mounting screws more than 0.15 inch.
Note. This drive meets industry-standard MCC mountingspeci-
fications. When installing this drive in a fixed-mounting
4 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

application, you must use MCC-compatible connectors
and mounting hardware. If the mounting holes in your
computer do not line up with the mounting holes on the
drive, your computer may not be MCC-compatible.
Configuring your computer
Before your computer can recognize anew drive,you must enter
basic information about the drive into the computer’s long-term
memory (usually a battery-powered CMOS chip). The com-
puter’s basic input/output system(BIOS) uses this information to
control the flow of data to and from the drive.
Note. Some newer computers can automatically determine your
drive type andconfigurethemselves appropriately at startup.
Read your system manual to determine whether this applies
to your computer. If so, then skip ahead to “Formatting and
partitioning the drive,” on page 8.
If your computer cannot automatically determineyour drive type,
you must run a system setup program to specify the number of
cylinders, heads and sectors for each drive in your system. This
procedure is described on the following page. The table below
listscylinder, headandsectorinformationfortheMarathon420sl.
No. cylinders 988
No. read/write heads 16
No. sectors per track 52
Total no. sectors 822,016
Bytes per sector 512
Capacity (Mbytes):
BIOS calculated 400
Usable 420
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 5

To enter these drive specifications into your systemBIOS, follow
these steps:
1. Turn on your computer.
2. Run the system setup program. This program configures
the system BIOS to recognize your drive. In some computers
you run the system setup program by pressing special keys
while the computer is booting up. In other computers, you can
run the program from the DOS prompt. See your system
manual for more information.
3. Enter your drive specifications. Within the system setup
program, there are three possible ways that you can enter
your drive’s specifications. These are listed below in order of
increasing complexity.
•Select a predefined drive type. Most system setup pro-
grams provide a long list of predefined drive types. Select a
drive type with specifications that match those of your drive
(refer to the table on page 5).
•Specify a
custom or user-defined drive type. If the
system setup program doesn’t list a predefined drive type
that matches your drive specifications, you may be able to
define a custom or user-defined drive type. You can then
enter your drive specifications (from the table on page 5).
When you enter drive specifications for a custom or user-
defined drive type, the setup program should display a
drive capacity less than or equal to the
BIOS calculated
capacity
in the table onpage 5. This value is slightly lower
than the usable drive capacity.
•Allow your drive to emulate or
translate one of the
predefined drive types. If none of the predefined drive
types exactly matches your drive, and your system setup
6 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

programdoes not allow youto specify a custom drivetype,
your drive may be able to emulate one of the predefined
drive types. Select a predefined drive type that has a
capacity as close as possible to, but not greater than, the
BIOS calculated capacity of your drive (as shown in the
table on page 5).
Note. If you emulate a drive type with a lower storage capacity
than your drive, you limit the effective capacity of your
drive. For example, a 350-Mbyte drive emulating a
300-Mbyte drive will be limited to 300 Mbytes of storage
capacity.
If you are not sure which drive type to select, try running
the FINDTYPE.EXE utility program. This program is avail-
able from Seagate’s Technical Support services (on the
SeaBOARDcomputerbulletinboard).FindTypecompares
your drive’s geometry with all geometries supported by
your computer’s BIOS. FindType can also determine
whetheranexactmatchexistsbetweenthedrivegeometry
and the system BIOS. If there is no match, FindType
selectstheclosestdrivetypesupportedbyyourcomputer’s
BIOS.
Thesystemsetupprogrammayrequestinformation onthe
drive’s write precomp or landing zone. However, you do
not need to enter any values, since your Seagate drive
does not use these parameters.
Caution. Write down the drive type that you have selected and
any drive specifications that you have entered. Keep
this information in a safe place. You will have to
re-enter this data if your CMOS battery fails.
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 7

Formatting and partitioning the drive
Caution. Formatting or partitioning a drive that contains data
maydestroy alldata onthedrive. Before repartitioning
or reformatting a drive that contains data, make sure
all data on that drive has been safely backed up.
Seagate Technology assumes noliability for lost data.
Low-level formatting
Seagate ATA Interface drives are low-level formatted at the
factory and do not require additional low-level formatting before
use.
Note. If you are installing only a single drive in your computer,
youcanuse theDOSprogramSETUP.EXE(suppliedwith
MS-DOS 5.0 and above) to partitionand formatthe drive.
See your DOS manual for details. After you successfully
run SETUP.EXE, your drive will be readyto use, and you
can skip the partitioning and formatting steps below.
Partitioning
The partitioning process subdivides a single disc drive into
partitions that behave as separate logical drives (labeled C, D,
E, etc.). You can also set up the entire disc as a single partition.
1. Restart your computer. Boot up the computer using a
diskette that contains DOS system files.
2. Run the FDISK program. Insert a DOS program diskette
containing the FDISK program into your diskette drive. At the
DOS prompt, type fdisk and press ENTER. Then follow the
directions on the screen to create one or more partitions. See
yourDOSmanualfordetails.Ifyouarepartitioningadrivethat
will be used to boot the computer, make sure that the primary
partition is marked active.
8 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

High-level formatting
High-level formatting verifies the information written by the low-
level format andcreates file allocation tables used to catalogand
access files.
Caution. Makesurethatyouknowthecorrectdriveletterforthe
partition you wish to format. Formatting a drive that
contains data may destroy the data on that drive.
1. Run the FORMAT program. Insert a DOS program diskette
containing the FORMAT program into your diskette drive. At
the DOS prompt, type format, followed by the drive letter for
the first drive partition you want to format (for example,
format C:). Then, press ENTER. Repeat this procedure to
format each of the new drive partitions you have created.
Consult your DOS manual for FORMAT command options.
Note. If you are formatting the drive partition that will be used to
boot your computer (the “C” drive), copy the DOS system
files to this drive. To do this, type /s after the format
command (for example, format C: /s)
2. Verify the drive capacity. After high-level formatting a drive,
you can verify the usable drive capacity by running the DOS
CHKDSK utility program.
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 9

Installation troubleshooting
Before calling Seagate Technical Support, please read and con-
sider all the possibilities discussed on the following pages. The
suggestions presented here address the vast majority of instal-
lation problems.
General troubleshooting procedures
The following is a list of general troubleshooting procedures. Solu-
tions for specific problems are provided on subsequent pages.
Warning. Always turn off the computer before changing jump-
ers, moving cables or touching any internal compo-
nents.
•Verify hardware compatibility. Check the documentation
foryourdrive, hostadapterandcomputertoconfirmthatthese
components are compatible.
•Verify your hardware configuration. Check the documen-
tation for your drive, host adapter and computer to confirm
that all jumpers are set appropriately.
•Check all cables. Make sure that all cables are securely
connected. Printed circuit and ribbon cables are quite fragile.
Check to see that they are not crimped or damaged. Make
sure that pin 1 of the interface cable is connected to pin 1 of
the interface connector on the drive and on the computer.
Most ribbon cables have a stripe down one side to designate
pin 1. The location of pin 1 on the drive interface connector is
shown in Figure 1 on page 3.
•Check all cards. If your computer has expansion cards,
check to see that they are inserted completely into their slots
on the motherboard and are secured with appropriate mount-
10 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

ing screws. Make sure that full-size (16-bit) cards are not
plugged into half-size (8-bit) slots.
•Verify the BIOS drive type. Make sure that you entered the
correct drive type or translation geometry in the BIOS setup
program. The drive capacity and number of sectors specified
in the BIOS must not exceed the specifications shown in the
table on page 5. If the drive type is incorrect, you must rerun
the system setup program. Then partition and high-level
format the drive again.
•Check for I/O address conflicts. To isolate an address
conflict, first verify that the drive and host adapter are com-
patiblewithyoursystem bydisconnectingallotherperipherals
exceptthevideocard.Then install thedriveandhost adapter,
and test the system. Next, install the other peripherals, one at
a time,until theconflict reappears. After you haveisolated the
source of the address conflicts, you can resolve the conflict
by changingthe I/O address of the peripheral that appears to
cause the conflict.
•Check the power supply. The output of your power supply
may not be sufficient to meet the power requirements of the
new devices you have installed. If you are not sure whether
your power supply meets your system requirements, consult
your computer dealer or distributor.
•Check your DOS version. You must use the same version
of DOS (we recommend MS-DOS version 5.0 or later)
throughout all phases of building and configuring your com-
puter system.
•Check for viruses.
Use the latest version of a reliable virus-
checking program to scan your computer’s memory, hard
discs and any suspect diskettes for viruses. Run the virus-
checking program if you encounter inexplicable disc errors or
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 11

damage to disc partitions. Also, before installing any new
software, scan the installation diskettes for viruses.
Specific Troubleshooting Procedures
Methods for resolving specific drive installation problems are
listed on the following pages. These methods incorporate many
of the general troubleshooting techniques described in the pre-
vious section.
Thescreenremainsblankwhenyoupowerupthecomputer.
•Make sure the monitor is plugged in and turned on.
•Check all cards. Make sure the video card is seated in its slot
and secured with mounting screws.
•Check all cables. Make sure the video card cables (if any) are
securely attached.
•Powerdownthecomputerandremovethedrivehostadapter.
If the screencomes on after youreboot, the host adapter may
be incompatible or defective. If so, see your dealer.
At startup, the computer does not recognize the presence
of the drive.
•Check all cables.
•Check jumper settings on all drives.
•Check the power supply.
•Rebootthecomputerandmakesurethedrivespinsup.Ifyour
drive is very quiet, you may not be able to hear it spin up. In
this case, check the drive activity LED if your computer has
one.Ifthedrivedoesnotspinup,checkthedrivecablesagain.
•Verify the BIOS drive type.
•Check for I/O address conflicts.
12 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

•Try a warm boot. Press CTRL, ALT and DELETE simultaneously
toreboot the computerwithoutturningoffthepower.Ifawarm
boot causes a previously unrecognized drive to become rec-
ognized,there may be a timingproblem inwhichthedrivefails
to become ready before the host completes its power-on
self-test.
One possible solution is to power up your computer with its
processor set at low speed (see your computer manual for
details on setting processor speed). After the computer is up
and running, return your processor to high speed or turbo
mode. Another option is to warm-boot your computer after
every power-on. You may also be able to solve this problem
by upgrading your system BIOS.
At startup, the message “HDD controller failure” appears.
•Check jumper settings on all drives.
•Check all cards and cables
The dealer partitioned and high-levelformatted the drive for
you in the store. Later, you installed the drive and it does
not work.
•Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up.
•Check all cables.
•Check the power supply.
•Check your DOS version. Call your dealer to make sure the
DOSversionthedealerusedtopartition andhigh-levelformat
thedriveisthesameastheversionyouhaveinstalledonyour
computer.
•Verify the BIOS drive type. When you run the system setup
program on your computer, you must specify the same BIOS
drive type or translation geometry that the dealer used.
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 13

•Check for memory conflicts.
•Check for viruses.
During the FDISK program, you get an error message warn-
ing of an attempt to write to track 0 or to the boot sector; the
message may also suggest that a virus is present.
•This occurs in systems having a virus-protection scheme that
does not allow programs to modify the boot sector of the disc.
See your system manual for details. To avoid the problem, run
thesystemsetupprogramandturnoffthevirus-protectionoption.
Then exit system setup and run the FDISK and FORMAT
programs. After all drive partitions are formatted, use the system
setup program to turn virus protection on again.
During the FDISK program, the computer hangs or fails to
create or save the partition record.
•Check all cables.
•The FDISK program on your DOS utilities diskette may be
corrupted. Try running the program from a different diskette.
•Check to see if you are using a version of MS-DOS prior to
version 4.0. If so, upgrade to MS-DOS version 5.0 or later.
•Try another drive type or translation geometry. Sometimes the
hostBIOSdoesnotacceptaparticulartranslationgeometryeven
though that geometry is listed as an option during system setup.
•Make sure that the host adapter is not assigned an interrupt
that is already in use by another device. Modify the interrupt
jumpers if necessary.
During the FDISK program, the error message, “No Fixed
Disk Present,” appears.
•Check all cables.
14 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

•Check the power supply.
•Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up.
•Verify the BIOS drive type.
•Check for I/O address conflicts.
During high-level formatting, the drive keeps finding hard
errors and reporting the following message: “Attempting to
recover allocation units. . .”
•This is normal with some versions of DOS. The drive will format
normally. However, after formatting the drive, you may want to
run a third-party surface-scan program to check for bad sectors.
During high-level formatting, the drive does not format to
full usable capacity.
•Verify the BIOS drive type. Your drive’s formatted capacity is
limited to the capacity of the BIOS geometry you selected. If
your BIOS does not offer a geometry that takes advantage of
the full capacity of the drive, and a user-defined drive type is
not available, use a third-party partitioning utility.
•Run FDISK again and make the partitions smaller. Make sure
you are using MS-DOS version 5.0 or later or equivalent.
Atstartup,themessages,“DiskBootFailure,”“Non-System
Disk,” or “No ROM Basic - SYSTEM HALTED,” appear.
•Run the FDISK program and make sure the primary partition
is marked active.
•Check all cables.
•Check your DOS version.
•Reinstall the DOS system files onto the hard disc using the
SYS command (see your DOS manual).
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 15

•Check for viruses.
During operation, the system error message, “Drive not
Ready,” appears.
•Check all cables.
•Check the power supply.
•Reboot the computer and make sure the drive spins up.
16 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995

Compatibility notes
•The Marathon 420sl conforms to the ATA interface specifica-
tions.ThehostsystemBIOSmustprovidesupport fortheATA
interface command set. For a detailed description of the ATA
commandsimplementedbythisdrive,seethe
SeagateMara-
thon 420sl Product Manual
and the Draft Proposed ATA-2
Standard
.
•InaccordancewithATAspecifications,thesystem BIOSmust
reset any emulation/translationparameters after a hard reset.
•In some configurations, a Marathon 420sl may supply up to
16 bytes of error correction code (ECC) with the Read Long
andWriteLongcommands.Dependingonthedrivetype,your
system BIOS may look for 4 bytes of ECC. If your system
BIOSexpects4bytesofECCandthedrivesuppliesadifferent
number of bytes, some drive diagnostic programs may fail,
typically resulting in time-out errors. Consult your computer
documentation or call your computer dealer or manufacturer
for information on configuring your computer to receive more
than 4 bytes of ECC.
•Some older drive diagnostic programs may incorrectly report
an ECC-detection failure when analyzing a Marathon 420sl.
This occurs because the drive hardware corrects the data
automatically, avoiding the error rather than reporting it. Such
a report does not indicate a drive malfunction.
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995 17

Technical support services
If you need assistance installing your drive, consult your dealer.
Your dealer is familiar with system configurations and can help
you with system conflicts and other technical issues.
IfyouneedadditionalassistancewithyourSeagatedriveor other
Seagate products, you can call SeaBOARD, SeaFAX, Sea-
gate Technical Support FAX, SeaFONE, or SeaTDD. Sea-
gate technical support is also available on CompuServe and
through the internet.
SeaBOARD
Using a modem, you can access documentation, drive speci-
ficationsandjumpersettingsforSeagate’sentireproductline.
You can also download software for installing and analyzing
your drive.
SeaBOARD is available 24 hours daily. It supports communi-
cations up to 9,600 baud. Set your communications software
to eight data bits, no parity and one stop bit (8-N-1). Sea-
BOARD phone numbers are listed in the following table.
Location Modem number
United States 408-438-8771
England 44-1-62-847-8011
France ([phone]
Germany 49-89-140-9331
Singapore 65-292-6973
Thailand 662-531-8111
Australia 61-2-756-2359
Korea 82-2-556-7294
18 Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995