If you are using a different operating system, see its documentation for partitioning and formatting the hard drive. Do not perform a low-level format on an AST IDE drive; you might damage the format data. IDE drives sold by AST have been low-level formatted at the factory.

You do not need to perform FDISK or FORMAT on the hard drive that came with your computer. If you ever need to repartition or reformat this hard drive, back up its data first. Partitioning and formatting a hard drive deletes all of the data on it.

Adding System Memory

By installing SIMMs on the system board, you can increase the amount of system memory to a maximum 128 MB. This generally improves computer performance, especially for graphics- and computation-intensive programs.

Purchase SIMMs from your AST reseller. Use only the SIMMs that AST has specified for your computer. Otherwise, your computer may malfunction. Make sure the SIMMs meet the following specifications:

∙72 tin-plated pins

∙32 bits

∙Single- or double-sided

∙+5V

∙70 ns fast page mode or 60 ns EDO DRAM.

Memory Configurations

The system board has two banks of SIMMs, Bank 0 and Bank 1. You can use SIMMs of the following sizes:

∙4 MB (1M x 32)

∙8 MB (2M x 32)

∙16 MB (4M x 32)

∙32 MB (8M x 32).

34 Advantage! 9000 Series User’s Manual