Seagate ST19171FC manual Inserting the drive, Formatting the drive, Enabling write cache

18 Barracuda 9FC Installation Guide, Rev. A

Inserting the drive

Most systems provide a way to insert the drive using a carrier or tray which allows the drive to be hot-plugged into the system’s Fibre Channel 40-pin single connector attachment (FC-SCA). Refer to your system documentation about the method they pro- vide and follow their instructions.

When installing the drive on a carrier or tray, discharge the static electricity from the carrier or tray prior to inserting it into the sys- tem.

Formatting the drive

Warning. Formatting a drive erases all user data. Be sure that you understand this principle before formatting any hard disc drive (it is not necessary to format a drive which has previously been used to store data).

1.Supply DC power to the drive (power is supplied to the drive through the 40-pin FC-SCA).

2.Format the disc drive. This drive is designed to operate with a variety of operating systems. Refer to your system and Fibre Channel controller manual for information about selecting and formatting the drive.

Enabling write cache

Write caching is a feature that allows the drive to transfer write data to its own cache, tell the controller that the task is complete, and then actually complete the write at a later time. This improves write performance by freeing the CPU to go on to its next command.