Seagate ST36530A Addressing Drive-Capacity Limitations, Drive Partitioning, Drive Formatting

ADDRESSING DRIVE-CAPACITY LIMITATIONS

Some DOS-based computers and operating systems are not designed to accommodate large hard disc drives. The three most common system limitations are listed below, along with methods for overcoming these limitations. See your system manual to determine which (if any) of these limitations applies to your computer.

528-Mbyte limit: The BIOS in some older computers cannot accommodate drives with capacities greater than 528 Mbytes. Seagate provides free Disk Manager software with your drive to overcome this limitation. Alternatively, you can purchase a hard drive controller or a BIOS upgrade that supports drives with capacities greater than 528 Mbytes.

The 32-bit disk access feature in Windows 3.1 does not work with drives that have capacities greater than 528 Mbytes. If you want to use 32-bit disk access with Windows 3.1, install the Seagate replacement driver 32-bit access driver, SEG32BIT.386 located on your DiscWizard diskette. For more information, refer to the back sheet of this poster.

4,092-cylinder limit: The BIOS in some computers cannot support drives that have more than 4,092 cylinders. If you install a drive that has more than 4,092 cylinders in one of these computers, the computer may “freeze” or fail to boot. If this occurs, see “Advanced Troubleshooting” on the back side of this sheet.

33B. STANDARD DOSbINSTALLATION

! Caution. Partitioning or formatting a drive erases all data on it. Seagate assumes no liability if you erase your data.

Drive Partitioning

Partitioning a hard drive divides it into sections (partitions) that function as separate logical drives (labeled C, D, E, etc.). Because DOS computers cannot access partitions larger than 2.1 Gbytes, you must divide large-capacity hard drives into multiple partitions. In creating partitions, keep in mind that the larger the partition, the more drive space is taken up in un- used clusters. To partition your new drive:

1Insert a bootable DOS diskette in your diskette drive and restart your computer (We recommend using DOS Version 5.0 or later).

2Insert a DOS program diskette that contains the FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM programs into your diskette drive. At the A: prompt, type FDISK and press ENTER.

3If you have two hard drives installed, the FDISK menu displays five options. Option five allows you to select the drive you want to partition. Make sure that your new drive is selected.

8.4Gbtye-limit:If your drive’s capacity is greater than 8.4 Gbytes, the capacity may exceed the limits of your system BIOS and operating system. DOS and Windows operating sys- tems and most system BIOS limit the drive partitions to 8.4 Gbytes per physical drive. Because of this limitation, a 32-bit file allocation table (FAT32) is needed to support drive capaci- ties greater than 8.4 Gbytes.

To achieve your drive’s full capacity, you need a Windows op- erating system that supports FAT32 and, device support for drives greater than 8.4 Gbytes, from one of the following:

•Third-party device driver, such as Disk Manager (Disk Manager is provided on the DiscWizard diskette included with your drive), or

•An intelligent ATA Host Adapter, or

•A system BIOS upgrade. Refer to the back of this sheet for BIOS upgrade information.

4Select “Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive” by pressing 1. Then press ENTER.

5Select “Create primary DOS partition” by pressing1 again. Then press ENTER. Create your first drive partition. If you are creating a partition that will be used to boot your com- puter (drive C), make sure that the partition is marked active.

6Create an extended partition and additional logical drives, as necessary, until all the space on your new hard drive has been partitioned.

7When the partitioning is complete, reboot your computer.

Drive Formatting

At the A: prompt, type format x: /s, where x is the letter of your first new partition. Repeat this process for all the new partitions you have created.

!Caution. Make sure to use the correct drive letters so that you do not format a drive that

already contains data.

After you format your drive, it is ready to use.

YOU’RE DONE!

2/9/98, 9:31 AM