Installation

3.6FOR SYSTEMS WITH AN ATA ADAPTER BOARD

To install the QuickView Serial ATA hard disk drive in an AT-compatible system without a Serial ATA connector, you need a third-party IDE-compatible adapter board.

To connect the QuickView Serial ATA drives, use the Serial ATA cable, 1 meter long or shorter. The Serial ATA cable connectors are keyed to ensure proper orientation.

3.6.1Adapter Board Installation

Carefully read the manual that accompanies your adapter board before installing it. Make sure that all the jumpers are set properly and that there are no address or signal conflicts. You must also investigate to see if your AT-compatible system contains a combination floppy and hard disk controller board. If it does, you must disable the hard disk drive controller functions on that controller board before proceeding.

Once you have disabled the hard disk drive controller functions on the floppy/hard drive controller, install the adapter board. Again, make sure that you have set all jumper straps on the adapter board to avoid addressing and signal conflicts.

3.7TECHNIQUES IN DRIVE CONFIGURATION

3.7.1Operating System Limitations

Most popular operating systems available today have additional limitations which affect the use of large capacity drives. However, these limitations can not be corrected on the BIOS and it is up to the operating system manufacturers to release improved versions to address these problems.

DOS and Windows 95 use a File Allocation Table (FAT) size of 16 bits which will only support partitions up to 2.1 GB. Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, and Windows ME use a FAT size of 32 bits, allowing partitions of up to 2.2 terrabytes. Windows NT, 2000, and XP use NTFS, which allows partition sizes up to 16 terrabytes.

3.8SYSTEM STARTUP AND OPERATION

Once you have installed the QuickView Serial ATA hard disk drive, and adapter board (if required) in the host system, you are ready to partition and format the drive for operation. To set up the drive correctly, follow these steps:

1.Power on the system.

2.Run the SETUP program. This is generally on a Diagnostics or Utilities disk, or within the system’s BIOS. Some system BIOS have an auto- detecting feature making SETUP unnecessary.

3.Enter the appropriate parameters.

3-12 Maxtor QuickView 400/500GB Serial ATA Hard Disk Drive