Seagate 1080SL, 851SL, 540SL, 1270SL manual Solutions for surpassing the 528-Mbytebarrier

14 Medalist SL Family Installation Guide, November 1995

Determining whether your BIOS accepts more than 528 Mbytes

The following suggestions can help you to determine whether your BIOS limits the drive capacity to 528 Mbytes.

∙If you are using a 286 or 386 computer, the native BIOS cannot recognize more than 528 Mbytes.

∙If the copyright date of the BIOS is earlier than 1994, the BIOS probably will not recognize more than 528 Mbytes. The BIOS copyright date, manufacturer and version number appear on your screen at the beginning of power-on or reboot.

∙Install the drive using the Standard setup described on page 20. (Transfer the free software stored on the drive to a diskette before you start the installation. See page 11 for transfer instructions.) When the installation is complete, type dir d: for the new drive, and check the number of bytes free. The number should be close to the formatted capacity of your drive. If the number is less than 528 Mbytes, you need to consider some alternatives for surpassing the 528-Mbyte barrier. Some alternatives are listed below.

Solutions for surpassing the 528-Mbyte barrier

∙Use the free installation software, EZ-Drive, that is stored on the drive at the factory or equivalent software. Instructions for transferring the software to a diskette are on page 11. Instruc- tions for using EZ-Drive are on page 15.

∙Upgrade the BIOS to one that supports more than 528 Mbytes. Such BIOSs incorporate logical block addressing (LBA) and extended cylinder-head-sector (CHS) addressing.

∙Use a host adapter that supports more than 528 Mbytes.