Manuals

Storage Devices: Dell Dimension XPS P60 FS

Storage Devices: Dell Dimension™ XPS P60 FS

General Notes on Drive Installation

For non-SCSI devices, the general rule is that a terminator is present on the drive connected to the first drive connector on the end of the interface cable. Exceptions to this rule are possible. Always refer to the documentation for the drive that is to be installed. Some possible exceptions are:

Some drives have permanently installed terminators which are disabled by means of jumpers.
Some drives have terminators that are never removed or disabled.
SCSI devices have their own strict termination rules.

Jumpers and Switches

Drives may have jumpers or switches that must be set to configure drive. Refer to the documentation for the drive that is to be installed. General guidelines for configuration jumpers/switches are as follows:

Some diskette drives have jumpers that configure them as drive A or B.
When daisy-chaining IDE drives, it will be necessary to configure one or both drives in order for the operating system to differentiate between them.
All SCSI devices must be configured with a unique SCSI ID number.

Partitioning and Formatting Hard-Disk Drives

Physical (low-level) formatting divides the disk into concentric magnetic tracks which in turn are divided into storage segments called sectors. Physical formatting is rarely required; drives are shipped already physically formatted.

If there is trouble with the hard-disk drive, run the appropriate diagnostic tests. See the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.
If physical formatting is required, refer to the documentation that came with the SCSI adapter card.

IDE drives cannot be physically formatted.

Partitioning assigns the storage area to one or more logical drives. For MS-DOS�, use fdisk.exe to partition a drive. For OS/2� or the UNIX� operating system, see the documentation that came with the operating system.

Logically formatting the drive sets aside groups of sectors that store start-up information, directory information, status information, and data. For MS-DOS, use format.exe to format the drive. For OS/2 or the UNIX operating system, see the documentation that came with the operating system.

Diskette and Tape Drives

Drive Bay Locations and Cable Connections

To install a diskette or tape drive, follow these steps:

NOTE: If a tape drive that came with its own adapter and interface cable is to be installed, do not use the system diskette/tape drive interface cable. Instead, install the adapter and interface cable supplied with the drive, referring to the instructions provided with the drive.

Remove the front-panel insert from the selected drive bay.
Slide the drive into the selected drive bay. If necessary, remove the front-panel insert covering the bay to use.
Attach the DC power cable and the diskette/tape drive interface cable.

NOTE: If the user is installing a dual-mode diskette drive, use the middle connectors on the interface cable.

Update the system setup program.

Set the Diskette Drive category to match the diskette drive that is to be installed.

If a tape drive is to be installed as the third drive, it is not necessary to update the system setup program.

If a tape drive is to be installed as the second drive, the Diskette Drive B category should be set to Not Installed.

Run the appropriate diagnostic tests. See the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.

CD ROM Drives

Install a SCSI adapter (or the special CD ROM controller that came with the drive) in the computer. If a SCSI adapter is going to be used, see the section on SCSI drives.
Slide the drive into the selected drive bay. If necessary, remove the front-panel insert covering the bay to be use.
Attach the DC power cable and the SCSI or CD ROM interface cable.
Run the appropriate diagnostic tests. See the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.

Hard-Disk Drives

The drive bay can hold up to 6 half-height drives, including any diskette and tape drives.

IDE Drives

To install an IDE hard-disk drive, follow these steps:

Install the drive in the drive bay, first removing the front-panel insert, then replacing it after the drive is installed.
Attach the DC power cable and the IDE cable.
Update the system setup program. At the Hard-Disk Drive 1 category, select Auto.

If a drive error message is received when the system is booted, the automatic drive-type detection feature may not work with the drive. Highlight the appropriate hard-disk drive category, type u for user, and enter the drive's parameters: cylinders (Cyls), heads (Hds), and sectors per track (Sec).

Run the appropriate diagnostic tests. See the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.

SCSI Drives

NOTE: See special instructions for 1-GB and larger SCSI drives.

To install a SCSI hard-disk drive, follow these steps:

Install a SCSI adapter card in the computer.
Set the SCSI ID number for the drive that will be installed.
SCSI ID numbers range from 0 to 7. Each device on the SCSI bus, including the controller, must have its own unique ID number. There are no requirements that SCSI ID numbers be assigned sequentially or that devices be installed on the SCSI cable in order of ID number. A SCSI drive is usually assigned ID 0. If a SCSI drive will be the boot device, it must be configured as ID 0. If an IDE hard-disk drive is installed, it will automatically be the boot device, regardless of the ID number assigned to the SCSI drive(s).
Install or remove the SCSI bus termination on the drive.
Each end of the SCSI bus be terminated. Thus, if there is only an adapter card and one drive, each must have termination installed. If there is an adapter card and two devices, the device in the middle of the cable must have its bus termination removed.
Install the drive in the drive bay, first removing the front-panel insert, then replacing it after the drive is installed.
Attach the drive's interface connector to the SCSI cable.
Update the system configuration information (in the system setup program).
Set the Hard-Disk Drive 1 and/or Hard-Disk Drive 2 system setup categories to Auto.
Run the appropriate diagnostic tests. See the Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Guide for instructions.

1-GB and Larger SCSI Drives

The 1-GB (or larger) SCSI drive must be installed in a special drive bracket with its own cooling fan.

The drive bracket can hold up to 2 drives. It is installed in the drive bays, and takes up 2.5 bays, leaving 3 bays for other drives.