Seagate ST9655 Family User manual

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ST9655 Family
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ST9655AG, ST9550AG
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ST9385AG
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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: 36286-001, Rev. A
October 1994
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 namesareregisteredtrademarks
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Formatting and partitioning the drive . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Installation troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Compatibility notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Technical support services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Storing and shipping your drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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 laptop computer, remove the battery) before you
open 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-shieldedbag until you are ready to
completetheinstallation.Donotattachanycablestothedrive
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,
ST9655 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. To use this option, the
host system and both drives must support cable select.
Cable selection requires 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 master. If you attach the drive to the un-
grounded CSEL connector, it becomes a slave.
To configure an ST9655 family drive for cable select, install
both master/slave jumpers, as shown in Figure 1.
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
section, “Mounting the drive.” Otherwise, perform the steps
listed on page 4.
2 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

Master/slave
configuration jumpers
Circuit board
Pin 1
Pin 20 removed for keying
Note. Drive is shown with
circuit board up.
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
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 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. Openingthecase may voidyourcomputer’swarranty.
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 page3. 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 thefour bottom mounting holes or thefour sidemounting
holesshowninFigure2.Youcanmountthedriveinanyorientation.
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 applymore than
3 inch-pounds of torque.
•Do not insert mounting screws more than 0.15 inch.
Note. This drive meets industry-standard MCC mounting speci-
fications. When installing this drive in a fixed-mounting
4 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

0.747 ± 0.007 (18.97 ± 0.18)
4X 3 mm × 0.5 mm
× 0.15 in. (3.81 mm) deep
min. full thread
(2 each side)
1.375 ± 0.015
(34.93 ± 0.38)
0.118 ± 0.010
(3.00 ± 0.25)
4.020 (102.11) max
(head/disc assembly
to tip of pins)
1.500 ± 0.010
(38.10 ± 0.25) 0.000
1.227 ± 0.020
(31.17 ± 0.51)
0.155 ± 0.020
(3.94 ± 0.51)
0.239 ± 0.035
(6.07 ± 0.89)
0.000
0.000
2.760 (70.10) max
2.430 ± 0.010
(61.72 ± 0.25)
0.157 ± 0.015
(3.99 ± 0.38)
Pin 1
0.079 (2.00)
Pin 20 removed
for keying
0.152 ± 0.005
(3.86 ± 0.13)
0.079 (2.00)
1.659 (42.14)
Dimensions are in inches (mm)
4X 3 mm × 0.5 mm
× 0.15 in. (3.81 mm) deep
min. full thread
4.010 (101.85) max.
(head/disc assembly)
Figure 2. Mounting dimensions for the ST9655 family drives
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 5

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 recognizeanew 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
drivetypeandconfigurethemselvesappropriatelyatstartup.
Readyoursystemmanualtodeterminewhetherthisapplies
to your computer. If so, then skip ahead to “Formatting and
partitioning the drive,” on page 9.
If your computer cannot automaticallydetermineyour drivetype,
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
lists cylinder, head and sector information for the ST9655family
drives.
Drive specification ST9655AG ST9550AG ST9385AG
No. cylinders 1,016 942 934
No. read/write heads 16 16 14
No. sectors per track 63 59 51
Total no. sectors 1,024,128 889,248 666,876
Bytes per sector 512 512 512
Capacity (Mbytes)
BIOS calculated 499 434 325
Usable 524 455 341
6 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

To enter these drive specifications into your system BIOS, follow
these steps:
1. Turn on your computer.
2. Run the system setup program. This program configures
the system BIOS to recognizeyour drive. 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
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 onpage 6).
•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 6).
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 page6. 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
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 7

program doesnot allowyouto specify a custom drive type,
your drive may be able to emulate any of the predefined
drivetypes. Select a predefined drive type that hasa BIOS
calculated capacity less than or equal to that of your drive
(as shown in the table on page 6).
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 available
from Seagate’s Technical Support services (on the Sea-
BOARD computer bulletin board). FindType compares your
drive’s geometry with all geometries supported by your com-
puter’sBIOS.FindTypecanalsodeterminewhetheranexact
match exists between the drive geometry and the system
BIOS.Ifthereisnomatch,FindType selectstheclosestdrive
type supported by yourcomputer’sBIOS.
Thesystemsetupprogrammayrequestinformationonthe
drive’s write precomp or landing zone. Your Seagate drive
does not use theseparameters.Foreach parameter, enter
the number of cylinders plus 1 (for example, enter 935 for
the ST9385AG).
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.
8 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

Formatting and partitioning the drive
Caution. Formatting or partitioning a drive that contains data
destroys that data. Make sure all data has been safely
backed up before repartitioningor reformattinga drive
that contains data. Seagate Technology assumes no
liability 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,
youcanusetheDOSprogramSETUP.EXE(suppliedwith
DOS5.0 and above)to partition and format the drive.See
your DOS manual for details. After you successfully run
SETUP.EXE,your drive will be ready to 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 oneor more partitions. See
yourDOSmanualfordetails.Ifyouarepartitioningadrivethat
will be used to bootthe computer, make sure that theprimary
partition is marked active.
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 9

High-level formatting
High-level formatting verifies the information written by the low-
levelformat and creates file allocation tablesusedto catalog 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 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 willbe used to
boot your computer (the “C” drive), copythe DOSsystem
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.
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.
10 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

•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 havea 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 6. 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, installthe otherperipherals,one at
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 11

a time,until theconflict reappears. After you have 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
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 allphasesof buildingand configuringyour
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.Makesure the video card cables (if any) are
securely attached.
12 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

•Powerdownthecomputerandremovethedrive hostadapter.
If the screencomes on after you reboot, thehost 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.
•Try a warm boot. Press CTRL, ALT and DELETE simultaneously
torebootthecomputerwithoutturningoffthepower.Ifawarm
boot causes a previously unrecognizeddrive to become rec-
ognized,theremaybeatimingprobleminwhichthedrivefails
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.
At startup, the message, “HDD controller failure” appears.
•Check jumper settings on all drives.
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 13

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
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.
14 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

•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.
•Try another drive type or translation geometry. Sometimes the
hostBIOSdoesnotacceptaparticulartranslationgeometryeven
thoughthat geometryis listed as anoptionduring systemsetup.
•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. . .”
•ThisisnormalwithDOSVersion4.0orlater.Thedrivewillformat
normally. However, after formatting the drive, you may want to
runa third-partysurface-scanprogramtocheck forbad 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
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 15

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. If you are
using a version of DOS prior to Version 4.0, make the drive
partitions smaller than 32 Mbytes.
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).
•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 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A

Compatibility notes
•The ST9655 family drivesconform to the ATAinterfacespeci-
fications. Thehost 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 ST9655 Family Product Manual
and the Seagate ATA
Interface Reference Manual
.
•Inaccordance withATAspecifications,thesystemBIOSmust
reset any emulation/translation parameters after a hardreset.
•In some configurations, a ST9655 family drive may supply up
to16bytesoferrorcorrectioncode(ECC)with the ReadLong
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 an ST9655 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.
ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A 17

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 Telephone number
United States 408-438-2620
England 44-62-847-7080
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 5:00 P.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
access these recordings 24 hours daily. Before calling, note
your computer configuration and drive model number
(ST
xxxx ).
18 ST9655 Family Installation Guide, Rev. A