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Frequently Asked Questions about Seagate Hard Drive
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Why does Device Manager list my ATA/100 device as using PIO instead of UDMA?
How to use FDISK, FORMAT, and SYS to setup a new Seagate ATA drive?
How is Ultra ATA/100 different from Ultra ATA/33 or Ultra ATA/66?
What is required to run in Ultra ATA/100 Mode?
Will performance be affected if I have to set an Ultra ATA/100 disc drive to a slower speed in order to maintain compatibility with my system?
Why does my new Ultra ATA/100 drive seem to run slower under Windows 2000 than it did with Windows 98?
Why does Device Manager list my ATA/100 device as using PIO instead
of UDMA?
Windows 2000 does not support ATA/100 (Mode 5) for IDE hard drives until service
pack 2 is installed. Without service pack 2 all ATA/100 IDE hard drives that are
used with Windows 2000 default to ATA 66 (Mode 4), or PIO mode.
How to use FDISK, FORMAT, and SYS to setup a new Seagate ATA drive?
Before proceeding with installing an operating system (DOS/Windows 9x), the
drive must first be partitioned and formatted. A drive/partition will not be
assigned a drive letter and can not be formatted until partitioned using FDISK
or a similar utility. If the new drive is a second drive, partitioning and
formatting can be done within Windows. Go to the DOS Prompt and run FDISK to set
up partitions. A second drive can be formatted within Windows by right clicking
the drive in My Computer or Windows
Explorerand selecting Format. If the new
drive is to be the boot drive, then a startup diskette will need to be used
(Windows Me requires the distribution CD to build a bootable hard drive). The
startup diskette should be included with the operating system or one can be made
from within Windows. A Startup disk can be made by going to Start
| Settings | Control
Panel | Add/Remove Programs| Startup
Disk tab. Place the startup diskette into the A: drive and reboot the
computer.
FDISK
After configuring the new drive as master or slave and configuring system BIOS
for the new drive, boot the system with the startup disk in drive A:. At the
prompt, type FDISK and <enter>.
After the FDISK utility starts, the first screen (if using FAT32 version) should
ask if you want to use Large Drive support. If your drive is over 512 MB and you
want to make partitions over 2 GB, answer Yes. The next screen should be a menu
with either 4 or 5 numbered selections.
FDISK Options
Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Choose one of the following options
- Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS drive
- Set Active Partition
- Delete partition or Logical DOS drive
- Display partition information
- Change current fixed disk drive (Only if more than one drive is present)
Enter Choice [ ]
Option 1 is used to create a Primary DOS partition or an Extended partition and
set the partition(s) size. Use Option 2 to set the boot partition as Active
(only one partition can be set Active using FDISK). Option 3 is used to delete
partitions (Primary DOS, Extended, Non-DOS). Option 4 displays all settings for
each partition. Option 5 lets you select which Fixed Disk to partition (maximum
of 4 fixed disks with FDISK).
After all configurations are made, use the ESC key to exit the program. Before
the drive can be Formatted, the computer will need to be re-booted in order for
the new partitions to be given a Drive Letter.
Steps for partitioning a hard drive using FDISK
- If you're in Windows, open a DOS window.
- From the C:\ prompt, type "FDISK" and press ENTER.
- If you're changing the partitions on an existing disk, choose option 4
from the FDISK menu to display existing partition information.
- If all of the space on the drive is already partitioned, you will need to
use FDISK menu option 3 to remove existing partitions before creating new
ones.
- For a new drive from which you will boot your PC, you must first create a
Primary DOS Partition. Choose option 1 from the FDISK main menu and Select
option 1 from the Create menu to create a Primary DOS Partition.
- If you only want to have one partition on the drive, type Y when prompted
to make one large partition. If making multiple partitions, type N.
- Enter the size for the partition if you selected N in step 6.
- To create an extended (non-bootable) DOS partition, choose option 1 from
the main FDISK menu, then option 2 from the Create menu.
- Press enter to use all remaining available space for the partition.
- Create logical drives on the extended partition by entering the desired
size(s) in MB or percent of disk space.
- Continue until all available space is assigned to logical drives.
- If you will be booting from this disk, choose option 2 from the FDISK menu
and enter 1 to make the primary DOS partition ACTIVE.
- Press the ESC key to exit FDISK. If running from Windows 9x, you must
manually reboot your PC at this point. You must format all partitions before
they can be used.
Tips
- If you are using a 16 bit OS (Windows 3.x or DOS), do not use the maximum
available size for your Primary DOS Partition on a drive larger than 2GB or
you will be unable to use the rest of the space.
- Before repartitioning an existing drive, be sure to make a good backup of
all of the data on the drive. FDISK will destroy all existing data on the
drive.
- There are utilities (e.g., Partition Magic) that can re-partition existing
drives without destroying data or minimizing data loss.
No Fixed Disk present
This means FDISK is unable to find your hard disk drive. Insure that the hard
drive is properly setup in CMOS. If the drive is setup properly in CMOS, double
check all cable connections on the hard disk drive and the System board. Also
make sure all ATA devices are configured as Master or slave.
Drive Lettering
Drive letter assignment is dynamic, meaning DOS/Windows hands out drive letters
in sequence each time the computer boots. Booting to a DOS/Windows floppy and
running FDISK /STATUS is a quick way to see how the operating system has
assigned hard drive letters. DOS/Windows (FAT File Structure) is limited to four
Primary DOS partitions and can only assign one Primary DOS partition per
physical hard drive. Using Extended Partitions and Logical Drives, you are only
limited by the alphabet for Drive Letters.
Every device in your computer has a priority. Drive letters A: and B: are
reserved for the Floppy drives. Hard Drives begin with Drive letter C:. Primary
DOS partitions have priority over Extended DOS partitions. Therefore, the
bootable floppy drive is A:, the non-bootable floppy drive (if present) is B:,
the first Active (bootable) primary partition on the first hard drive is C:. Any
logical drives or Extended DOS partitions would become D:, E:, F:, etc. (Some
networking software reserves Drive Letters starting with F:).
If a second hard drive is in the system, the second Primary DOS partition would
be D: and then logical drives or Extended DOS partitions on the first drive
would then become E:, F:, G:, respectively (Primary DOS has priority over
Extended DOS) followed by any logical drives or Extended DOS partitions on the
second drive.
After four Primary DOS partitions have been used, the next priority is for
devices loaded by an external BIOS such as SCSI devices. The last priority is
for devices controlled by "block mode" drivers loaded from the
CONFIG.SYS and/or AUTOEXEC.BAT; most CD-ROMs fall in this category and their
drive letters are assigned when the MSCDEX.EXE loads. RAM drives, Parallel Port
drives, and Double Spaced or Stacked drives also fall into this category. If the
CD-ROM device driver is loaded first, it gets the next available drive letter.
When you add a new device, it will get the next available letter following the
above mentioned priority assignment and displace any device using that letter.
The displaced device will pick up the next available drive letter, and all
associated drivers for the displaced device may need to be reconfigured, a
common occurrence when adding a second hard drive to a system with a CD-ROM.
FORMAT
After a drive is partitioned with FDISK, each partition must be Formatted to
make it useable by the Operating System. After re-booting to the A:> prompt,
type FORMAT x: (x= drive letter) and <enter>. If this is to be the boot
drive, use FORMAT C: /S and <enter> to format the drive and make it
bootable by transferring the system files (Windows Me requires the distribution
CD to make a drive bootable). The FORMAT command will ask a couple of times if
you are sure you want to continue with the operation with the warning that
Formatting will destroy all data on the drive. If sure, select Yes. The Format
command should start the process and show a percent of drive formatted.
If this is a second drive and you are using Windows 95/98, double click the My
Computer icon on your Windows desktop. Right click on the first partition of
your new drive and choose Format. If this will become the new boot disk, be sure
to check the box at the bottom that says "Copy system files." Choose
full format. Give the drive a label of up to 11 letters and/or numbers if you
like. Click the Start button to begin formatting. You must repeat these steps
for each partition you created on the new drive.
SYS
This command can be used to transfer a fresh copy of system files to a drive
that has been partitioned and Formatted (Windows Me will not allow use of SYS
command to transfer the system). This will not destroy any data on the drive,
but will simply replace the current system files with the ones from the source
disk. This is a good way to refresh a drive that has data on it but will no
longer boot. Use: SYS x: (x=Drive letter to be refreshed).
How is Ultra ATA/100 different from Ultra ATA/33 or Ultra ATA/66?
The most significant difference is the increase in transfer rate. There are also some enhancements to error checking with Ultra ATA/100. In addition, these new drives include an enhanced command set to ensure compatibility with future interface additions.
What is required to run in Ultra ATA/100 Mode?
Similar to Ultra ATA/66, there are basically four requirements:
- An Ultra ATA/100-capable system board and BIOS. (Ultra ATA/100 expansion cards are also available.)
- An Ultra ATA-capable 40 pin, 80 conductor cable.
- An operating system capable of DMA transfers, such as
- Windows 95 (OSR2), 98, and Windows Millennium Edition.
An Ultra ATA/100-capable device.
Will performance be affected if I have to set an Ultra ATA/100 disc drive to a slower speed in order to maintain compatibility with my system?
Changing the transfer mode affects only the external transfer rate of the device. If an Ultra ATA/100 device is configured for a slower transfer mode, its maximum speed will of course be limited to the maximum burst transfer rate of that mode. However, the internal performance is not affected by the external transfer mode, therefore the sustained transfer rate will not be as drastically affected as the maximum (burst) transfer rate.
Why does my new Ultra ATA/100 drive seem to run slower under Windows 2000 than it did with Windows 98?
Microsoft has posted a technical article stating Windows 2000 does not support UATA-100 (Mode 5) for IDE hard drives. According to this article, all UATA-100 IDE hard drives that are used with Windows 2000 will default to UATA-66 (Mode 4). The supported fix is to install Service Pack 3. See Microsoft's article Q260233 for details.
(Soucre:Seagate)
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