Hard Disk Repair, hd repair, hdd repair, Hard Disk Repair Technologies
No jumpers need to be set to configure a SATA drive. Serial ATA connections take the guess work out of master/slave drive configuration, since the single drive point to point connection has been introduced.
The Serial ATA host automatically determines the master and slave hard drive.
Jumpers are small metallic pins that protrude from the end of a hard disc drive or from its circuit board, as shown below. Jumpers are used to configure the hard disc drive’s options, such as defining master and slave or cable select.
Every pin set has a specific numbering scheme, which is determined by its location on the drive. As shown above left, if the pins are on the circuit board, the pin number assignments are printed on the circuit board around the pins. As shown above right and below, if the jumper pins are on the end of the hard drive, Pin 1 will always be closest to the 4-pin power connector.
Below is a jumper shunt, which is used to connect two jumper pins. Connecting two jumper pins with a shunt completes an electrical circuit and enables or disables options of the hard drive. Extra shunts may be stored on a single pin as shown below because two or more pins must be connected by the shunt to complete the circuit and enable or disable options. When the shunt is only on one pin, it is not performing any function.
Bad sectors can often be corrected by using a spare sector built into the hard drive. However, any information written to a bad sector is usually lost.
There are several methods for finding and correcting bad sectors.
1. Use the Error Checking utility built in to Microsoft Windows.
2. Use SeaTools diagnostics for Seagate and Maxtor drives and run a long test. For Seagate SCSI drives, use Seatools Enterprise. For Maxtor SCSI drives, test with SCSIMax.
3. Erase the drive:
A step-by-step guide to formatting an ATA hard drive with a Macintosh operating system(Mac OS).
Step1.
After hooking up the hard drive either boot off the CD or the main Macintosh HD then go to the Apple System Profiler located under the Apple menu. From there go to Devices and Volumes and check to see if the hard drive that is going to be formatted is properly displayed. If the drive is not displayed make sure that the drive is properly installed or connected.
Step 2.
Once the drive is detected and determined to be the one that is to be formatted go to the System Folder, Utilities, Drive Setup, and ‘click’ on the “Drive Setup” icon.
Step 3.
‘Click’ on the drive you want to format then ‘click’ Initialize.
‘Click’ either on Initialize for a single volume format or ‘click’ on Custom Setup to specify type of format, partition, and size. For Custom Setup instructions go to Step 4.
Step 4.
In Custom Setup select the Partition Scheme, the type of format, and the size. Then ‘click’ on OK.
Step 5.
This will then take you to the Initialize screen. ‘Click’ on initialize. After the drive initializes it will be ready for use.
Step 6.
To verify that the system recognizes the correct partitions, size, and format go back to Apple System Profiler and select the Devices and Volumes folder. Check the information from the pull downs.
Note: The way in which Mac OS X mounts the hard drive depends on the drive’s capacity.
Step 1. Plug your drive into the Macintosh.
Step 2. Launch the Disk Utility.
Step 3. Select your new drive from the list on the left. A description of the drive appears in the right window.
Step 4. Select the Partition tab at the top of the window.
Step 5. You may partition the drive or just keep it to one volume. For each volume:.
When SCSI drives are connected to the SCSI host adapter, with an ATA drive installed, you are unable to boot from the ATA drive.
The SCSI host adapter and the ATA port on the motherboard could be set for the same IRQ or address or both. Check the following:
Once these setting are properly implemented, your computer should be able to recognize available ATA and SCSI drives with no problem.
You are unable (or there is a long delay when trying) to boot from the SCSI drive.
The motherboard’s BIOS might be “pinging” the ATA bus looking for an ATA drive. When using a SCSI drive as a boot device, there should not be an ATA drive physically attached as the Primary 0 (master) drive, and the CMOS settings for the Primary 0 drive should be set to “none” or “not installed”. In addition, check the CMOS settings for the Primary 1, Secondary 0, and Secondary 1 drives. If any of those drives are not physically present, the corresponding settings should be set to “none” or “not installed” as well.
If you are still unable to boot from the drive, make sure it has been properly prepared as a bootable drive – make sure it has been formatted and has active partitioning set.
The SCSI drive is not recognized at full capacity.
Make sure the SCSI host adapter’s setting for “above 1GB support” is enabled. For drives larger than 8.4 Gbytes, enable the BIOS’ INT13 Extensions.
If the drive is reporting less than its full factory capacity to the controller BIOS, it is possible that the drive may have been programmed to a smaller capacity (Seagate SCSI drives support a change capacity feature).
If this is the case, standard drives may be returned to full capacity (or reprogrammed to any capacity up to full capacity) using Seagate’s SeaTools utility.
The SCSI drive is not performing optimally.
Try the following:
The following recommendation is DATA DESTRUCTIVE. Proceeding will ERASE ALL DATA FROM THE DRIVE.
After the low-level formats are completed, reboot the computer from a bootable system or recovery diskette and proceed to prepare the drive for use. In a DOS or Windows 95/98 environment:
1. Use FDISK to partition the drives as desired. Ensure that the C: partition is a “PRI-DOS, ACTIVE” partition.
2. After partitioning the drives, reboot the computer.
3. Use FORMAT to high-level format each partition on the SCSI drives.
a) Type format X:, where X is the drive letter of the drive you wish to format.
b) If you want to make the C: partition bootable, add the “/S” parameter to the end of the command to transfer the system files. (At the command prompt, type FORMAT C: /S)
Each partition should now be formatted to its full capacity, ready to store data.
To help determine your system’s USB capabilities you can download a free USB evaluation utility from the following site: www.usb.org
This program will examine your system and inform you of your computer’s USB capabilities.
For a general rule, if your PC was manufactured before 1996, it probably does not include USB. If the machine was manufactured in 1997 or later, it may support USB 1.0 . Most computers manufactured after 1998 support USB 1.0. Systems available since 2001 probably support USB 2.0.
With some PCs, you may need to connect an adapter (PCI or CardBus) to connect USB peripherals. Read your system documentation if you’re not sure there is a USB port.
You may have heard that USB 2.0 is “backward-compatible” with USB 1.0/1.1 (Full-Speed USB). While that’s true, USB 1.1 is also forward-compatible with USB 2.0.
Whenever a system has USB 2.0 ports, you’ll find the “Enhanced” USB controller in Device Manager, but you will also find two other USB controllers. These two to mantain backward compatibility to USB 1.1 devices. Each USB 2.0 host actually has 3 chips onboard. The USB controller routes signals to the correct controller chip depending on how a device is recognized. Where a device is physically plugged in has no bearing on how it is routed. All ports on a USB 2.0 motherboard can host any USB devices at all as long as the system and devices are healthy.
The vast majority of USB 2.0 devices will work on older PCs and Macs. None should flat-out fail unless there are other issues with the system. Hi-Speed USB devices will revert to Full-Speed operation when connected this way. Understand that Hi-Speed is at least ten times faster than Full-Speed in actual operation, so the speed difference is quite noticeable.
It is important to follow the appropriate steps when disconnecting the hard drive. If the proper procedure is not followed then data may be lost.
In Windows a small icon appears in the system tray (next to the clock) . this is the dismount icon that allows you to safely disconnect hot pluggable devices.
To dismount the drive before removing it follow these steps:
If the device is busy then the request to stop the device will be rejected. Be sure to close any applications that are using data from the external drive then attempt to stop the device again. Usually the Windows Explorer will be open and will be the application keeping the drive busy.
In Mac OS the drive appears as an icon on the desktop. Before unplugging the drive the drive needs to be dismounted by dragging the drive to the Trash Can. Wait a few seconds after the drive has gone into the Trash Can, once the activity light has gone out you can safely remove the drive. Once the drive is turned off, disconnect the interface cable.
Note: MacOS users should always dismount the drive before shutting down (or powering off) their computer. If the drive is not properly dismounted there is a chance of data loss.
An external hard disk drive is a type of hard disk drive which is externally connected to a computer. Modern entries into the market consist of standard SATA, IDE, or SCSI hard drives in portable disk enclosures with SCSI, USB, IEEE 1394 Firewire, eSATA client interfaces to connect to the host computer.
External hard drives are certainly known for their memory storage capacity. They allow one to store data up to four thousand gigabytes, along with easy portability. There are many external hard drives available in the market which have unique features and functions. When external hard drives were newly launched, they were very expensive. However, due to their wide demand and use, the prices have lowered significantly. Let’s take a look at some of the best external hard drives available.
1. Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1 TB 3.5″ USB 2.0
2. Western Digital My Passport Elite Portable 500 GB USB 2.0 Hard Disk Drive (Titanium)
3. Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
4. LaCie Hard Disk 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
5. Maxtor 320GB Black Armor 2.5-Inch External Hard Drive
6. Toshiba 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive
7. Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
8. Western Digital 1TB My Passport Studio II
9. LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Disk 320 GB
10. Iomega Prestige 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
External hard drives aren’t as fast as internal models, but they are great for backups and are easy to install.
System Requirements For PC Users:
Included in the Kit:
Features:
