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BASIC INSTALLATION PRODCEDURE for ESDI Drives
by Ryan Ramsey -- July 3, 1992
All Micropolis ESDI need to be low-level formatted on the controller you
intend to use them with. Because of this, and with all ESDI drives, if you
ever switch the controller, you will also need to back-up your data, and
low level format the drive again. ESDI drives need a little more attention
to configuration than SCSI drives do. The major things that must be done
are setting up your system CMOS, drive addresses, sector size, and termination.
SETTING UP THE CMOS
-------------------
In order for your computer to use an ESDI drive, it must first be
denoted in your system CMOS. The first thing you must do is go into
your system CMOS and set your drive types accordingly. Most CMOS's
allow you to select a type from 0 (not installed) to 47, where 47
is a user-defined entry and 1-46 are preset types.
For all Micropolis ESDI drives, you should set your type to drive
type 1. On intelligent BIOS's, it will tell you you only have a 20MB
drive, but when it comes time to low level format the drive, this
drive type will indicate to the controller card to pull the parameters
off the physical drive and set itself up.
If your are installing only one drive, then only your DRIVE 0, or
DRIVE C, parameter should be set to drive type 1. If you are setting
up two drives, both DRIVE 0/C and DRIVE 1/D must be set to 1, once
again, regardless of what the capacity comes out to.
NOTE: These settings are for ESDI drive only! If for example you have
one ESDI drive and one SCSI drive, you will only set DRIVE 0/C to
drive type 1. SCSI drives will set themselves up.
After this is accomplished, the setup should be saved and exited and
the system will then reboot.
SETTING DRIVE ADDRESSES
-----------------------
In order for your machine bus to be able to tell where it is getting its
information from, it is neccessary for each drive to have a particular
drive address. This number, is set with jumpers on the circuit board side
of the drive. The jumper block will be labeled as follows:
DA1
|DA2
| | DA3
___________|_|_|_
| . . . . . . . . |
| . . . . . . . . |
-----------------
| | | | |
W1 | | | |
W2 | | |
W3 | |
W4 |
W5
The first part of this jumper block (The 'W' series) sets your sector
size and bytes per track. In most cases it should be set only to W2,
which sets it for the factory standard, yielding the most capacity at
512-Bytes per Sector. If you are using a very slow machine such as the
IBM-XT, you will also want the W1 jumper installed (Write Fault Latch).
If another configuration is needed, you find out the sector sizes and
bytes-per-track numbers from your drives specification sheet.
The next part is to set your drive address, and this is done with the
DA jumpers (they could be labeled DS in older models). These jumpers
are not only related to your drive (whether it is primary or secondary),
but also to your cable. If you have a twisted cable (there is a physical
twist in the cable between the first and last nodes), the scheme will be
a little bit different. To find out how you should have this section
jumpered, follow this basic configuration.
ONE DRIVE SYSTEM (Primary Drive)
The primary drive should always be connected to the last (end) node
of your cable.
TWISTED CABLE: Jumper on DA2 ONLY.
FLAT CABLE: Jumper on DA1 ONLY.
TWO DRIVE SYSTEM (Primary and Secondary Drive)
Once again, the primary drive should be connected to the last (end)
node of your cable, and the secondary drive in the middle (first)
node of the cable.
TWISTED CABLE: Primary at DA2, Secondary at DA2
FLAT CABLE: Primary at DA1, Secondary at DA2
NOTE: If your cable has the twist CLOSEST to the colored stripe, you
are using a FLOPPY cable, and this will not work!
DRIVE TERMINATION
-----------------
Termination is something that causes a lot of undue grief for everyone, but
the concept is really simple.
"Only the last drive on the CABLE must be terminated,
all others should be un-terminated."
and
"The chain must be terminated on both ends."
The controller must be terminated (which is the way it comes from 99.99%
of the manufacturers) AND the very last drive/component on the CABLE
(do not get "the last drive on the cable" confused with the "last drive,
which would be the highest DRIVE ADDRESS").
Therefore, a graphic display would look as follows:
____
/ \
| HOST |=====DEVICE=====DEVICE
\____/ | |
| UN-TERMINATED |
| |
TERMINATED TERMINATED
(Usually default)
So once again:
If you have only one drive, it is to be TERMINATED.
If you have more than one drive, all drives must be UN-TERMINATED
except for the last PHYSICAL drive on the CABLE which must
be TERMINATED.
CABLE INSTALLATION
------------------
Once the two above items are checked and configured, all you need to
do then is put the drive on the cable (matching the red stripe on the
cable to pin one on the controller card) and then power on.
NOTE: If you have a twisted cable, if the twist is closest to the
COLORED stripe, you will NOT be able to use it because it
is a FLOPPY cable. You must get either a FLAT cable or a
TWISTED cable where the twist is furthest away from the colored
stripe.
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
---------------------
PROBLEM
Cannot see the drive.
REMEDY
1. Did you set your Drive 0 to type 1 in your CMOS?
2. Check your drive address, it may be in the wrong location.
3. Check your sector size. Most computers use 512-bytes per sector
and if your drive is set up otherwise, it may not be able to
see it. Set the drive to the factory default (W2).
PROBLEM
When booting up the system, the machine gets hung up at the bios
banner of the controller card.
REMEDY
There are a few possibilities for this problem.
1. There are two drives with the same drive address.
Verify that all drives have different SCSI ID's.
3. There could be a bios conflict.
Change the bios address of the controller card to a different
memory location.
4. There could be a conflict with add in boards. Check and make sure
that there are no memory conflicts with any add in boards or
bios's, check DMA's, IRQ's, and port addresses.
PROBLEM
When you boot up, the computer gives you a message along the lines
of "Drive C not found" or "Drive 0 not found".
REMEDY
Check your drive addressing jumpers, they are most likely set
incorrectly. Also, check your cables, they may not be seated
properly.
If you are experienceing a problem that is not approached in this
document or you continue to have problems, you may do one of the
following:
1. Call our Technical Support Line at (818) 709-3325.
2. Call our BBS at (818) 709-3310 and leave an email to the Sysop.
3. FAX your request to us at (818) 718-5352.
4. Mail your request to:
Micropolis Corporation
Attn: Technical Support
21211 Nordhoff Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311