Seagate ST9300 Series User manual

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ST9300 Family:
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ST9300AG, ST9240AG
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ST9150AG
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AT Interface Drives
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Installation Guide
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© 1994 Seagate Technology, Inc. All rights reserved
Publication Number: 36271-001, Rev. A
June 1994
Seagate®
, Seagate Technology® and the Seagate logo are
registered trademarks of Seagate Technology, Inc. SeaFAX,
SeaFONE, SeaBOARDand SeaTDDare trademarks of
Seagate Technology, Inc. Other product names are registered
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 permission from 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 . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Installation troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Compatibility notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Technical support services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Shipping and storing your drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Read before you begin ...
Application. Your drive is designed for IBM AT and compatible
personal computers, particularly laptop and notebook models.
Warning. Turn off the computer(and, if you have a notebook or
laptopcomputer,removethebattery)beforeyouopen
the case or touch any internal components.
Caution. Special training or tools may be needed to service
laptop and notebook computers. Opening the case
may void your warranty. Review the terms and condi-
tions of your warranty before opening the case.
Static discharge. Observe the following precautions:
•Beforehandlinganycomponents,putonagroundedwriststrap.
•Use antistatic padding on all work surfaces.
•Avoid static-inducing carpeted areas.
•Keep the drivein its static-shielded bag until you are ready to
completetheinstallation.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.
Warranty. See your authorized Seagate®
distributor or dealer.
Maintenance and repair. Seagate drives do not require main-
tenance.Thehead/discassemblyissealed;ifyoubreaktheseal,
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 1

you voidthe warranty. Seagate customer servicecenters are the
only facilities authorized to repair Seagate drives. Seagate does
not sanction any third-party repair facilities.
Configuring the drive
1. Put on a grounded wrist strap. Wear the grounded wrist
strap throughout the installation procedure.
2. Install master/slave jumpers. In a two-drive system, you
need to designate one drive as the master, or drive 0, and
the other drive as the slave, or drive 1. To do this, install the
master/slave jumpers as shown in Figure 1. In a one-drive
system, configure the drive as a master (no jumpers in-
stalled).
Alternatively, you can configure the drive as a master or
slave using the cable select option. This requires a special
daisy-chain cable that grounds pin 28 (CSEL) on one of its
two drive connectors. If youattach the drivetothegrounded
CSEL connector, it becomes a master. If you attach the
drive to the ungrounded CSEL connector, it becomes a
slave. To use this option, the host system and both drives
must support cable select.
To configure an ST9300 family drive for cable select, install
both master/slave jumpers.
Attaching cables
This drive is 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 ahead to the following
2 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

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
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 3

section, “Mounting the drive.” Otherwise, perform the following
steps:
1. Turn off the computer and remove the battery.
2. Put on a grounded wrist strap.
3. Open the case of your computer. See your system manual
for instructions.
Caution. Openingthecasemayvoidyourcomputer’s warranty.
4. Connect the 44-pin interface/power cable. Match pin 1 of
the cableto 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 shownin Figure 1 on page 3. The cable
should be no longer than 18 inches (0.457 meters).
Caution. The printed circuit cables used in some laptop com-
puters are 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.
4 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

Note. This drive meets industry-standard MCC mounting speci-
fications. When installing this drive in a fixed-mounting
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 recognizeanewdrive,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
drivetypeandconfigurethemselvesappropriatelyatstartup.
Readyoursystemmanualtodeterminewhether thisapplies
to your computer. If so, then skip ahead to the following
section, “Formatting and partitioning the drive,” on page 7.
In most computers, you must enter the number of cylinders,
heads and sectors using the system setup program (see page
6). The table below lists data for the ST9300 family drives.
Drive specification ST9300AG ST9240AG ST9150AG
No. cylinders 569 988 419
No. read/write heads 15 8 13
No. sectors per track 60 52 47
Total no. sectors 512,100 411,008 256,009
Bytes per sector 512 512 512
Capacity (Mbytes)
BIOS calculated 249.9 200.6 124.9
Usable 262.1 210.4 131.0
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 5

To configure your system BIOS, follow these steps:
1. Turn on your computer.
2. Run the system setup program. This program configures
the system BIOS to recognize yourdrive. In some computers
you run the system setup program by pressing special keys
while the computer is booting up. In other computers, youcan
run the program from the DOS prompt. See your system
documentation 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 onpage 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 ableto
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 on page5. 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
program doesnot allowyouto specify a custom drivetype,
6 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

your drive may be able to emulate one of the predefined
drive types.
Selectapredefineddrivetypethatmeetsallofthefollowing
requirements:
•
Drive capacity ≤ BIOS calculated capacity *
•
Read/write heads ≤16
•
Sectors per track ≤63
•
Total sectors per drive
≤
(cylinders) × (read/write heads) × (sectors per track)*
* Drive-specific values for drive capacity, cylinders,
read/write heads and sectors per track are listed in the
table on page 5.
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
SeaBOARD computer bulletin board).
Caution. Write down the drive type that you have selected and
anydrivespecificationsthatyouhaveentered(usethe
Notes page at the end of this manual). Keep this
information in a safe place. You willneed it to retrieve
data from the drive if your CMOS battery fails.
Formatting and partitioning the drive
Caution. Formatting or partitioning a drive that contains data
destroys that data. Make sure all data has been safely
backedupbeforerepartitioningorreformattingadrive.
Seagate Technology assumes no liability forlost data.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 7

Low-level formatting
SeagateATInterfacedrivesarelow-levelformattedatthefactory
and do not require additional low-level formatting before use.
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.
Note. If you are using a version of DOS prior to Version 4.0, the
operating system cannot access more than 32 Mbytes in
a single partition. Therefore, you must divide a drive with
a capacity of over 32 Mbytes into several smaller parti-
tions. We do not recommend using ST9300 family drives
with DOS versions prior to Version 3.3.
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, typeFDISK, press ENTER, then followthe direc-
tions on the screen to create one ormorepartitions.Seeyour
DOS manual fordetails. If you arepartitioning a drive thatwill
be used to boot the computer, make sure that the primary
partition is marked active.
High-level formatting
High-level formatting verifies the information written by the low-
levelformat and creates file allocation tablesusedtocatalog and
access files.
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
8 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

for the first drive partition (for example, FORMAT C:); then
pressENTER. Repeat this procedure to format eachof the new
drive partitions you have created. Consult your DOS manual
for FORMAT command options.
Note. If you are formatting the drive partition that willbe used to
boot your computer (the “C” drive), copythe 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 formattinga drive,
you can verify the usable drive capacity by running the DOS
CHKDSK utility program.
Installation troubleshooting
Before calling Seagate Technical Support, please read and con-
sider all the possibilities discussed below. The suggestions pre-
sented here address the vast majority of installation problems.
General troubleshooting procedures
The following is a list of general troubleshooting procedures.
Solutions 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.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 9

•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 cableshave 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 appropriatemount-
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-
patiblewithyoursystembydisconnectingallotherperipherals
except the video card. Then install the drive and host adapter,
and test the system.Next, installtheotherperipherals,one at
a time,until theconflict reappears. After youhave isolated the
source of the address conflicts, you can resolve the conflict
by changing the 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
10 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

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 DOSthroughout allphases of building andconfiguringyour
computer 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
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 followingpages. 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 you reboot, thehost adapter may
be incompatible or defective. If so, see your dealer.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 11

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.
•Try a warm boot. Press CTRL, ALT and DELETE simultaneously
torebootthecomputerwithoutturningoff thepower.Ifawarm
boot causes a previously unrecognized drive to become rec-
ognized,theremay beatimingprobleminwhichthedrivefails
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 onsetting 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.
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.
12 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

•Check the power supply.
•Check your DOS version. Call your dealer to make sure the
DOSversionthedealerusedtopartitionandhigh-levelformat
thedriveisthe sameastheversionyouhave installedonyour
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.
•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 theboot 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.Afteralldrivepartitionsareformatted,usethesystem
setupprogram 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.
•If you are using a version of DOS prior to Version 4.0, make
the drive partitions smaller than 32 Mbytes.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 13

•Try another drive type or translation geometry. Sometimes the
hostBIOSdoesnotacceptaparticulartranslationgeometryeven
thoughthat geometryislistedas an optionduringsystemsetup.
•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.
•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 DOS Version 4.0 or later. The drive will
formatnormally.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 partitioningutility.
14 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

•Run FDISK again and make the partitions smaller. If you are
using a version of DOS prior to Version 4.0, make the drive
partitions smaller than 32 Mbytes.
At startup, the DOS messages, “Disk Boot Failure,” “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).
•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.
Compatibility notes
•The ST9300 family drivesconform to the ATAinterface speci-
fications. The host system BIOS must providesupport for the
ATA interface command set. For a detailed description of the
ATA commands implemented by these drives, see the
Sea-
gate ST9300 Family Product Manual
and the Seagate ATA
Interface Reference Manual
.
•Inaccordancewith ATAspecifications,thesystemBIOSmust
reset any emulation/translation parameters after a hardreset.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 15

•In some configurations, the ST9300 family drives may supply
up to 16 bytes of error correction code (ECC) with the Read
Long and Write Long commands. Depending on the drive
type, your system BIOS may look for 4 bytes of ECC. If your
system BIOS expects 4 bytes of ECC and the drive supplies
a different 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 an ST9300 family
drive. 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.
Technical support services
Always consult your disc drive or computer dealer first for tech-
nical support. Your dealer has first-hand experience with a wide
variety of system configurations.
Technical support is availablefor all Seagate products by calling
the SeaFAX, Seagate Technical Support FAX, SeaFONE,
SeaBOARDand SeaTDDservices.
SeaFAX
You can use a touch-tone telephone to access Seagate’s
automated FAX system to receive technical support informa-
tion by return FAX. This service is available 24 hours daily.
Location FAX number
United States 408-438-8771
England 44-62-847-7080
16 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

Seagate Technical Support FAX. [phone]
You can FAX questions or comments to technical support
specialists 24 hours daily. Responses are sent between
8:00A.M. and 5:00P.M. (Pacific time), Monday through Friday.
SeaFONE. 408/438-8222
You can talk to a technical support specialist between
8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. (Pacific time), Mondaythrough Friday.
SeaFONE provides recorded technical information on se-
lected Seagate products while you are on hold. You can
accesstherecordings24hoursdaily.Beforecalling,noteyour
computer configuration and drive model number (ST
xxxx ).
SeaBOARD
Using a modem, you can:
•Access documentation, drive specifications and jumper
settings for Seagate’s entire product line.
•Download software for installing and analyzingyour drive.
•Request a return phone call from the technical support
staff.
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 table on page 18.
ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 17

SeaBOARD phone numbers:
Location Modem number
United States 408-438-8771
Canada 416-856-5581
England 44-62-847-8011
France 33-1 40 67 10 34
Germany 49-89-140-9331
Singapore 65-292-6973
Australia 61-2-756-2359
Korea 82-2-556-7294
SeaTDD. 408/438-5382
Using a telecommunications devicefor the deaf (TDD), you can
send questions or comments 24 hours daily and exchange
messages with a technical support specialist between 8:00 A.M.
and 5:00 P.M. (Pacific time), Monday through Friday.
18 ST9300 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A