Maxtor VL 17 manual Handling and Installation, Pre-formatted Drive, Important Notice

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Handling and Installation

Pre-formatted Drive

This Maxtor hard drive has been formatted at the factory. Do not use a low-level formatting program.

Important Notice

There are a number of system BIOS’s currently in use which do not support hard drives with more than 4095 cylinders (2.1 gigabytes). This section contains information describing the conditions which may identify this limitation. In order to obtain the full capacity of your Maxtor drive, you will need to follow the recommended installation instructions.

Hard Drive Handling Precautions

◆During handling, NEVER drop, jar, or bump a drive. Handle the drive by its sides and avoid touching the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).

◆Hard drives are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage. Use proper ESD practices by grounding yourself and the computer system the hard drive will be installed in.

◆Allow the hard drive to reach room temperature BEFORE installing it in your computer system.

◆NEVER switch DC power onto the drive by plugging an electrically live DC source cable into the drive's connector. NEVER connect a live connector to the hard drive's IDE interface connector.

Electro-Static Discharge (ESD)

To avoid some of the problems associated with ESD, Maxtor advises that anyone handling a disk drive use a wrist strap with an attached wire connected to an earth ground. Failure to observe these precautions voids the product warranty.

Manufacturers frequently experience “unsolved” component/hardware malfunctions often caused by ESD. To reduce the incidence of ESD-related problems, Maxtor recommends that any electronics manufacturing plans include a comprehensive ESD program, the basic elements and functions of which are outlined here:

ESD Program Element	ESD Program Function
Management	Institute and maintain
Chief coordinator	Organize and enforce
Multi-department committee	Evaluate and improve
Employee training	Educate and inform

ESD program supplies typically include: wrist- and foot-worn grounding straps; counter-top and floor antistatic matting; wrist strap testers; ESD video and training materials. Sources for such supplies include:

Static Control Systems – 3M	Charleswater
225-4S, 3M Center	93 Border St.
St. Paul, MN 55144	West Newton, MA 02165-9990

Maxtor also offers a complete video training package, “Care and Handling of Maxtor Disk Drives.” Contact your Maxtor representative for details.

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