NL35.2 Series Serial ATA Installation Guide
ST3500841NS and ST3500641NS
Serial ATA (SATA) Interface Disc Drives
Publication Number: 100390106, Rev. A, January 2006
Serial ATA (SATA) interface disc drives are designed for easy installation. It is normally not necessary to set any jumpers, terminators, or other settings on this drive for proper operation.
With a SATA interface, each disc drive has its own cable that connects directly to a SATA host adapter or a SATA port on your motherboard. Unlike Parallel ATA, there is no master-slave relationship between drives that use a SATA interface.
You can use a SATA drive in the same system with Parallel ATA drives as long as both interfaces are supported on the motherboard or with a host adapter. This makes it easy to add SATA capability to your existing system without removing existing Parallel ATA disc drives.
What you need
•A Phillips screwdriver and four 6-32 UNC drive mounting screws.
•A SATA interface cable (sold separately). Maximum length is 39 inches (1 meter).
•A SATA-compatible power cable or adapter (sold separately).
•A system with a SATA connector on it, or a SATA host adapter and avail- able PCI slot in which to install the adapter.
Refer to your computer system documentation to see if your system sup- ports SATA on the motherboard and locate the SATA connector. If your system does not have a SATA connector on the motherboard, you must purchase a SATA host adapter that is compatible with your computer and operating system and install it with the appropriate device driver according to the host adapter manufacturer’s installation instructions.
Note. See www.seagate.com/support/disc/sata/ for a list of companies that sell SATA components.
Handling precautions/electrostatic discharge protection
•Disc drives are fragile. Do not drop or jar the drive. Handle the drive only by the edges or frame.
•Drive electronics are extremely sensitive to static electricity. While installing the drive, wear a wrist strap and cable connected to ground.
•Turn off the power to the host system during installation.
•Do not disassemble the drive. Doing so voids the warranty. See the Warranty information on page 2.
•Do not apply pressure or attach labels to the circuit board or to the top of the drive.
The easiest way to install your drive in a Windows system
To successfully install and obtain the maximum capacity from the drive, use DiscWizard for Windows disc drive installation software utility. This util- ity is available exclusively from Seagate. You can download this free disc drive installation software from our web site at www.seagate.com/support or run the program directly from your web browser.
Note. Older versions of DiscWizard do not recognize Serial ATA model numbers. Make sure that you use DiscWizard for Windows or later when installing a NL35.2 Series Serial ATA disc drive.
Follow the instructions on the downloadpage at www.seagate.com to cre- ate a diskette and complete the installation.
If you cannot run DiscWizard, follow the instructions on this installation sheet to install and configure your drive.
Breather filter hole precaution
Breather Hole
Do not cover
or seal.
Caution. Do not cover, seal, or insert any object into this hole. If this hole is covered, sealed, or penetrated by any object, the drive reliabil- ity may be compromised and could lead to permanent damage and voids the warranty.
Attaching cables and mounting the drive
1.Attach one end of the drive interface cable to the SATA interface con- nector on your computer’s motherboard or SATA host adapter (see your computer manual for connector locations).
Note: Each drive requires its own cable.
Attach the SATA interface cable to the motherboard or SATA host adapter
Jumper block 
(for troubleshooting)
| SATA | power |
| Interface cable |
| adapter |
| | cable |
Note: The drive is inverted in this illustration to show the connectors.
Note. Serial ATA connectors are keyed to ensure correct orientation.
2.Attach the interface and power cables to the drive.
3.Secure the drive using four 6-32 UNC mounting screws in either the side-mounting or bottom-mounting holes. Insert the screws no more than 0.20 inches (5.08 mm) into the bottom-mounting holes and no more than 0.14 inches (3.55 mm) into the side-mounting holes.
Note. Do not overtighten the screws or use metric screws. This may dam- age the drive.
Configuring the BIOS
Close your computer case and restart your computer. Your computer may automatically detect your new drive. If your computer does not automati- cally detect your new drive, follow the steps below.
1.Restart your computer. While the computer restarts, run the system setup program (sometimes called BIOS or CMOS setup). This is usu- ally done by pressing a special key, such as DELETE, ESC, or F1 dur- ing the startup process. See your system documentation for details about your particular system.
2.Within the system setup program, instruct the system to auto detect your new drive.
3.Save the settings and exit the setup program.
When your computer restarts, it should recognize your new drive. If your system still doesn’t recognize your new drive, see the troubleshooting sec- tion on the back of this sheet.
Note. Some systems may see the drive and classify it as a SCSI device. This is normal even though this is not a SCSI disc drive. This does not affect performance or capacity.
Microsoft operating system installation instructions
For detailed information about installing a Microsoft operating system on your new Seagate drive, refer to the Microsoft Knowledgebase Article ref- erences below. To locate an article, go to http://support.microsoft.com and enter the article number in any search box on the Microsoft web site. For
