WiebeTech SDGB User manual

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UltraGB™
User Manual
Revised July 2, 2007.
Thanks for purchasing UltraGB!
The Power Switch on the UltraGB is 3-position: AC power / Off / FireWire bus power. The AC
power is active when turned towards the external power connector; the FireWire bus power is
active when turned towards the FireWire ports. When attaching UltraGB to a powered FireWire
port, please ensure that the switch is in the center (off) position before connecting the FireWire
cable. After 10 seconds, turn the unit to FireWire bus power. This allows time for the internal
power storage capacitors to charge up, resulting in a successful spin up of the drive.
1) SOFTWARE DRIVERS.
FIREWIRE usage under all major recent operating systems does not require drivers. The following rules
apply:
•FireWire usage with Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Mac OS 9.1, OS9.2, or Mac OSX. You do not
need to install any drivers.
•FireWire usage with Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS 9.0.4. Third party FireWire drivers are available
from InTech, FWB, Charismac and other companies.
USB driver requirement is as follows:
•USB1.1 or USB2 usage with Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000. Place the DRIVERS CD into your
computer. Plug the USB cable into your drive. (Ensure the drive is AC powered, as bus power does
not function in USB mode.) Windows will find the new hardware. When windows ask for a driver,
navigate to the ISD/USB directory on the CD and install. For USB2 functionality, you must have a
USB2 hardware port on your computer.
•USB1.1 or USB2 usage with WinXP. No drivers are required. For USB2 functionality, you must have
a USB2 hardware port on your computer.
•USB1.1 usage with Macs. No driver is required for USB 1.1 usage. The operating system must be
OS 8.6 or higher.
•USB2 usage on a Mac. Your Mac must have a third party USB2 card installed, which may have its
own drivers. The “Install ISD Storage Driver” on the CD must be installed. It is found in the USB /
MACOS / 2.0 subdirectory.
2) DRIVE FORMATTING. Our drives are shipped preformatted with FAT-32 for compatibility reasons.
However, reformatting a drive is occasionally necessary. Formatting is also required for new drives installed
in the enclosure by the user. The following rules apply for unformatted drives:
•WiebeTech installed drives are preformatted with DOS. DOS is readable by virtually all operating
systems, including Mac OS 9 and X, and all recent versions of Windows (98SE, ME, 2K, XP). (DOS is
called FAT32 on Windows). All you need to do is power the unit up and plug it in via FireWire.
Win98SE and WinME will require that the disk drive be checked as “removable” before it will be seen on
the desktop. This is done by navigating to the disk drives settings window in the device manager. See
below for instructions.
•Macintosh usage under OS 8.6 – OS 9.2.2. When an unformatted drive is attached to a FireWire port
on the Mac, the Mac OS will ask you if you want to format the drive. Respond by supplying a volume
name and by selecting the formatting methodology. HFS+ (Macintosh Extended) will provide the
highest possible performance on the Mac; DOS format will provide cross platform compatibility.
Warning: the Mac OS occasionally will not reliably place a DOS format onto the disk drive, especially

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for capacities of 80GB and higher. This is determined by observing the indicated capacity after the
format is complete.
•Macintosh usage under OS X. OS X will also ask to format the unformatted drive when it is first
attached to the computer. OS X also includes a disk utility appropriately entitled: “Disk Utility”. This
utility has several different features, including a drive integrity tester, a formatter and a drive erase
menu.
•Windows 98SE, ME. Windows will find and load the default driver automatically. Upon first access to
the drive, Windows will ask to format the drive. You may need to check the “removable drive” in the
disk drive settings in order to allow Windows to mount the drive on the desktop in Win98SE and WinME.
This checkbox is found in the device manager. (Right Click on My ComputerLeft Click on
PropertiesLeft Click on Disk ManagerClick on Disk DrivesClick on your new driveClick on
SettingsCheck removableClosereboot when instructed.)
•Windows 2000. A similar process is necessary for win2K, if the drive is unformatted. Right Click on
My ComputerLeft Click on ManageLeft Click on Disk Management. The drive should now appear in
a list on the right hand side of the window. If a red bar circle appears, Right Click on it and select write
a signature. Then right click on the “unallocated” box and create a partition.
•Windows XP. If the drive is already formatted, it will automatically be available under “My Computer” in
XP. In order to format an unformatted drive under XP, you will need to be logged in as administrator to
your computer. The FireWire drive needs to be powered up and attached to your computer. The task
bar will show the presence of the FireWire drive through a small green arrow remove icon in the lower
right hand portion of your screen. Once these requirements are met, you are ready to format the drive,
as follows: Click START. Click CONTROL PANEL. Click PERFORMANCE AND
MAINTENANCE. Click ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS. Double Click COMPUTER MANAGEMENT.
Click DISK MANAGEMENT. If your new disk is uninitialized, it will appear as red circle bar within
the list of disk drives. Right click on the red circle bar and select INITIALIZE DISK. Initialization just
takes a few seconds. Once your disk has been initialized, it will appear as “Unallocated” within the
drive descriptor list. Right click over the box that says “Unallocated” and select NEW PARTITION. 
Follow the steps which Windows provides for creating a new partition. Select either FAT32 or NTFS
format at the appropriate time. FAT32 is appropriate for exchange with other Windows computers and
with Macs. NTFS is appropriate if you will use the disk drive only with Win2K and WinXP systems.
Select the volume label of your choice. Choose QUICK FORMAT if you are in a hurry. Allow the drive
to finish formatting. Click COMPUTER MANAGEMENT closed (red X). Click ADMINISTRATIVE
TOOLS closed. Your new drive will now be available for use. It will appear under MY COMPUTER,
under sub heading of HARD DISK DRIVES. It may be accessed like any other drive.
3) MACINTOSH DRIVE USE – GAINING HIGHER PERFORMANCE. If you plan to use
the drive exclusively on a Macintosh, you may wish to reformat it to HFS or HFS+. PERFORMANCE OF
THE DRIVE WILL BE FASTER USING HFS+ instead of DOS format. Mounting times of the drive,
especially under OSX, may be improved using HFS+. WiebeTech strongly recommends reformatting the
drive using the “Partition” tab of the disk utility in OSX.
4) FIREWIRE BOOTING (MAC). Many Apple users want to know if FireWire drives are bootable.
The answer is yes on most Macs. But, there are exceptions. In particular, Blue and White G3 machines
and also the certain early G4 machines are not FireWire bootable. Other machines may require a
ROM/BIOS update. Apple’s knowledge base on their website offers definitive information. Your Apple
computer may require such an update; check their website.
FIREWIRE BOOTING (PC). Windows XP claims to support this feature. An additional
requirement is that the computer manufacturer (for instance, Dell or Compaq) must provide BIOS level
support for FireWire booting. Please contact WiebeTech if you are able to FireWire boot your drive on a PC;
we’d like to know more.

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5) Drive Installation. For users who need to install a 3.5 inch hard drive inside DesktopGB+
Step 1. Step 2.
Remove two screws holding the back bezel to
the carriage.
Slide the carriage out from the enclosure.
Step 3. Step 4.
Connect the IDE ribbon cable and power
connector to the drive and place n the carriage.
Secure the drive to the carriage with screws
included.
Step 5. Step 6.
Slide the carriage and drive back into the
enclosure.
Attach the back bezel to the carriage with the
screws removed in step 1.
6) FCC COMPLIANCE STATEMENT.“This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules.
Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and
(2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired
operation.”
Many FireWire cables are poorly shielded and as a result are very powerful emitters of Radio Frequency
Interference (RFI). In the event you suspect RFI, we recommend emission suppression ferrites over your
FireWire Cable, using a loop of cable through a ferrite at each end of the FireWire cable. (The cable
receives two ferrites, one at each end of the cable. Each ferrite receives a loop.) Emission ferrites are
available from Radio Shack, with a part number of 273-105.
7) BUS POWERING. UltraGB will utilize FireWire bus power, if adequate FireWire bus power is
available. In our testing the 80GB and 120GB 5400RPM drives will operate from all computers, including
Apple iBook laptop computers. Please note: Higher speed 7200RPM drives may be bus powered only
from Apple desktop computers, due to the large power requirements of the drives.
The Power Switch on the UltraGB is 3-position: AC power / Off / FireWire bus power. When attaching
UltraGB to a powered FireWire port, please ensure that the switch is in the center (off) position. After 10
seconds, turn the unit on. This allows time for the internal power storage capacitors to charge up, resulting
in a successful spin up of the drive.
For technical support please contact supp[email protected].