Seagate MARATHON ST9420A User Manual

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Marathon 420sl  
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(ST9420A, ST9420AG)  
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AT Interface Drives  
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Installation Guide  
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Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
1
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  
laptop and notebookcomputers. In somecases, 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  
complete the installation. Do not attach any cables to the drive  
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. The head/disc assembly is sealed; if you break the seal,  
you void the warranty. Seagate customer service centers are the  
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Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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/slave jumpers.In a two-drive system, you need  
to designate one drive as the master, or drive 0, and the other  
drive asthe slave, or drive1. Todothis, install the master/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, and both  
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 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, “Mount-  
ing the drive.” Otherwise, attach the interface/power cable  
as described on page 4.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
3
Master/slave  
configuration  
jumpers  
Pin 1  
Pin 20 removed  
Circuit board  
for keying  
B
A
D
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  
4
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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’s warranty.  
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 mounting speci-  
fications. When installing this drive in a fixed-mounting  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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 recognize a new 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 and configure themselves 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 determine your 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  
lists cylinder, head and sector information for the Marathon420sl.  
No. cylinders  
988  
16  
No. read/write heads  
No. sectors per track  
Total no. sectors  
Bytes per sector  
Capacity (Mbytes):  
BIOS calculated  
Usable  
52  
822,016  
512  
400  
420  
6
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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 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 on page 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  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
7
program does not allow you to specify a custom drive type,  
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  
SeaBOARD computer bulletin board). FindType compares  
your drive’s geometry with all geometries supported by  
your computer’s BIOS. FindType can also determine  
whetheran exact match exists between the drive geometry  
and the system BIOS. If there is no match, FindType  
selectsthe closestdrivetypesupportedbyyour computer’s  
BIOS.  
The system setup program may request information on the  
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.  
8
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
Formatting and partitioning the drive  
Caution. Formatting or partitioning a drive that contains data  
may destroy all data on the drive. Before repartitioning  
or reformatting a drive that contains data, make sure  
all data on that drive has been safely backed up.  
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,  
you can use the DOS program SETUP.EXE (supplied with  
MS-DOS 5.0 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 one or more partitions. See  
your DOS manual fordetails. Ifyou are partitioning a drive that  
will be used to boot the computer, make sure that the primary  
partition is marked active.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
9
High-level formatting  
High-level formatting verifies the information written by the low-  
level format and creates file allocation tables used to catalog and  
access files.  
Caution. Make sure that you know the correct drive letter for the  
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.  
10  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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  
for yourdrive, hostadapterand computer to confirm thatthese  
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-  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
11  
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-  
patible with your system by disconnecting all otherperipherals  
except the video card. Then install the drive and host adapter,  
and test the system. Next, install the other peripherals, one at  
a time, until the conflict 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 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  
12  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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.  
The screenremains blank whenyou powerup the computer.  
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.  
Power down the computer and remove the drive host adapter.  
If the screen comes on after you reboot, 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.  
Reboot the computerand make sure the drive spinsup. 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. Ifthe drive doesnotspinup, check thedrive cablesagain.  
Verify the BIOS drive type.  
Check for I/O address conflicts.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
13  
Try a warm boot. Press CTRL, ALT and DELETE simultaneously  
to reboot the computer without turning off the power. If a warm  
boot causes a previously unrecognized drive to become rec-  
ognized, there may be a timing problem in which the drive fails  
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-level formatted 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  
DOS version the dealer used to partition and high-level format  
the drive is the same as the version you have installed on your  
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.  
14  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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  
thesystem setupprogram andturnoff thevirus-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  
host BIOSdoesnot accept aparticular translationgeometryeven  
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.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
15  
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.  
At startup,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).  
16  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
17  
Compatibility notes  
The Marathon 420sl conforms to the ATA interface specifica-  
tions. The host systemBIOS mustprovide support forthe ATA  
interface command set. For a detailed description of the ATA  
commands implemented by this drive, see theSeagate Mara-  
thon 420sl Product Manual and the Draft Proposed ATA-2  
Standard.  
In accordance with ATA specifications, the system BIOS must  
reset any emulation/translation parameters 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  
and Write Long commands. Depending on the drive type, your  
system BIOS may look for 4 bytes of ECC. If your system  
BIOSexpects4 bytes ofECCandthedrivesuppliesa 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 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.  
18  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
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.  
Ifyou need additional assistance with yourSeagate drive or 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-  
fications and jumper settings for Seagate’s entire product line.  
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  
United States  
England  
France  
Modem number  
408-438-8771  
44-1-62-847-8011  
(+33 1) 48 25 35 95  
49-89-140-9331  
65-292-6973  
Germany  
Singapore  
Thailand  
Australia  
Korea  
662-531-8111  
61-2-756-2359  
82-2-556-7294  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
19  
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  
England  
408-438-2620  
44-1-62-847-7080  
Seagate Technical Support FAX. 408/438-8137  
You can FAX questions or comments to technical support  
specialists 24 hours daily. Responses are sent between  
8:00 A.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), Monday through 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  
(STxxxx).  
SeaTDD. 408/438-5382  
Using a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you  
cansendquestionsor comments24hoursdailyandexchange  
messages with a technical support specialist between 8:00  
A.M. and 5:00 P.M. (Pacific time), Monday through Friday.  
Seagate CompuServe forum  
Online technical support for Seagate products is available on  
CompuServe. To access our technical support forum, typego  
Seagate. This forum provides information similar to that found  
on SeaBOARD.  
20  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
Seagate’s internet connections  
Technical information for Seagate drives is available through  
the internet from Seagate’s World Wide Web home page  
similar to that found on SeaBOARD.  
Marathon 420sl Installation Guide, August 1995  
21  
Storing and shipping your drive  
Keep your original box and packing materials for storing or  
shipping your drive. The box has a Seagate Approved Package  
label. Shipping a drive in an unapproved container voids the  
warranty. Call your authorized Seagate distributor to purchase  
additional boxes. Figure 2 shows a drive in an approved single-  
pack box with all necessary packing materials.  
Foam  
Antistatic bag  
Drive  
Foam  
Figure 2. Seagate 2.5-inch drive and approved packing  
materials  
Seagate Technology, Inc.  
920 Disc Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066, USA  
Publication Number: 36305-101, Rev. A, Printed in USA  

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