Acomdata external E5 Serial ATA(SATA), User Manual

Page 1: ...hard driveE5 Serial ATA SATA external User sGuide ...

Page 2: ...eatures Explored 13 Serial ATA 13 Hot Pluggable 14 Fanless Design 14 Plug Play Setup 14 Mac PC Ready 14 Hardware Command Queuing 15 Hardware Direct Memory Access 15 Hardware RAID Acceleration 15 RAID Manager 15 Specifications 16 E5 SATA External Hard Drive 16 SATA PCI Host Bus Adapter Card 17 Installing the PCI Card 18 Installing the Software 23 Setting up the Drive 28 Choosing an Orientation 28 ...

Page 3: ...y Turn Off the Drive 40 Stacking Drives 42 Maintaining Your Drive 43 Backup Your Data 43 Defragmenting and Optimizing a Hard Drive 43 Examining and Repairing a Hard Drive 45 Protect Your Data from Viruses 45 Cleaning the Drive Case 46 Frequently Asked Questions 47 Troubleshooting 50 Troubleshooting for PC Users 51 Troubleshooting for Mac users 53 One Year Limited Warranty 55 Arranging for Service ...

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Page 5: ... pertains to E5 models HDxxxSE5 72 PCI The xxx refers to capacity For exam ple if your Drive has a capacity of 250 GB the model number is HD250SE5 72 PCI The model number of your Drive is printed on the UPC label affixed to the bottom of the box and on the label affixed to the underside of the Drive s stand This guide contains important information for the proper installation use and care of your ...

Page 6: ...go alerts the reader to impor tant information specific to Windows users A word about using two button mice When following the instructions in this guide PC users will need to use both the left and right mouse buttons While users may reverse the functions of the buttons in this guide click means pressing the left side button right click means pressing the right side button Although Mac OS X suppor...

Page 7: ...n Advantages of Online Registration 1 It s fast free and immediate 2 Free unlimited online technical support 3 You get your own personalized support page download software updates access all online support services view all of your registered AcomData products manage your personal profile 4 If you need warranty service arranging product returns is faster and easier if you registered online Mail in...

Page 8: ...ntact AcomData Technical Support Do not expose the device to rain or use it in damp or wet conditions Never place containers of liquids on the device This can damage the device and increase the risk of electric shock short circuiting fire or personal injury If the device has a three prong plug never plug the device into a two prong outlet Do not expose the device to temperatures outside the range ...

Page 9: ...tem listed above please contact Customer Service at customerservice acomdata com or call 800 470 4495 AcomData E5 SATA Drive Stand SATA Cable User s Guide Registration Card Rubber Feet PCI Host Bus Adapter Card Power Cable Software CD Molex Cable ...

Page 10: ... 3 or later Server 2003 98SE or Me 64 MB of RAM Available 32 bit PCI expansion slot 2 2 or 2 3 compli ant or 32 bit portion of a 64 bit PCI PCI X slot CD DVD drive System Requirements for Mac Macintosh with G3 or later processor Mac OS 10 2 or later 64 MB or RAM Available 32 bit PCI expansion slot 2 2 or 2 3 compli ant or 32 bit portion of a 64 bit PCI PCI X slot CD DVD drive ...

Page 11: ...ata Zinc Alloy Stand Can be removed for horizontal placement or stacking of Drives Power Switch You can turn the Drive off when you re not using it See How to Safely Turn Off the Drive for important information SATA Port Power Port Using the supplied power cable the Drive plugs directly into the PCI card that you install in your computer ...

Page 12: ... below SATA E I PCI CARD Allows you to connect one external and one internal SATA hard drive Gold Connectors White Power Connector Internal SATA Port SATA E PCI CARD Allows you to connect two external SATA hard drives 2 Power Ports 2 SATA Ports Power Port SATA Port White Power Connector Gold Connectors ...

Page 13: ... drive performance Ultra ATA an enhancement of the original parallel ATA interface was created as a result and it became the standard for years However continued increases in demands for faster performance has necessitated a need for a storage interconnect that goes beyond even Ultra ATA The new approach is SATA a serial implementation of the parallel Ultra ATA interface SATA architecture overcome...

Page 14: ...iciently that it doesn t need a fan for near silent operation Plug Play Setup In most cases installing the Drive on your system involves nothing more than connecting the cables and turning it on Mac PC Ready The E5 SATA Drive is ready to use on either a Mac or a PC right out of the box no formatting is required The Drive was formatted at the factory using the FAT32 file system which makes the Driv...

Page 15: ...mory Access An advanced embedded hardware DMA engine reduc es the amount of communication and time normally required by the PCI bus to control an ATA based device This increases data performance particularly in a data streaming environment such as video streaming Hardware RAID Acceleration Hardware RAID acceleration improves RAID perfor mance and scaling throughput as activity is increased Each po...

Page 16: ...nsfer rate max 150 MB s Data buffer 2 MB 250 GB 8 MB 250 GB Rotational speed 7200 RPM Latency average 4 17 ms Seek time read typical 8 5 ms Error rate nonrecoverable 1 in 10E13 Start Stops at 40º C 40K Power Requirement 5VDC 5 12VDC 5 Startup current max 2 0 A 12V Idle 4 9 W Environmental characteristics operating Ambient temperature 5ºC 55ºC Relative humidity non condensing 8 90 Shock half sine w...

Page 17: ...MB s using a SATA RAID array Supports two SATA Drives on independent Direct Memory Access channels RAID Level 0 and Level 1 support Built in hardware bus master engine 256 Byte data FIFO each channel Tag Command Queue support Supports 48 bit Logical Block Addressing PCI 32 bit 66 MHz interface PCI 2 3 compliant ...

Page 18: ...s covers on the back of the computer to discharge any static electricity Figure 1 To avoid generating static electricity do not walk around the room until you have com pleted the installa tion of the PCI card 3 Unplug the power cord 4 Open the computer cover See your computer s manual for instructions 5 Remove the screw that holds the PCI slot access cover in place Figure 2 Do not discard the scre...

Page 19: ...e 1 Carefully remove the PCI card from the packaging Handle the card by its edges Take care not to touch the gold connectors or any of the components on the card 2 Align the card s connectors with the PCI slot and press down until the connector is inserted all the way into the slot You can apply a bit of pressure to firmly secure the card into the slot Figure 3 next page FIGURE 2 ...

Page 20: ... and check the connectors and slot for damage or obstructions then try insert ing the card again Once the card in place gently pull on it to see if it is properly connected If the card stays in place and the terminals on the gold connectors are barely visible the card is properly connected 3 Secure the card in place with the screw you removed in step 5 FIGURE 3 ...

Page 21: ...lex Cable 1 Connect the 4 pin mini power connector of the Molex cable Figure 4 onto the white power connector on the SATA card Figure 5 The mini power connector is keyed so it will only plug in one way FIGURE 4 FIGURE 5 ...

Page 22: ...omputer s power supply The female con nector of the supplied Molex cable is an extra con nection you can use for powering another internal device Tuck the loose connector out of the way where it will not interfere with any internal compo nents 3 Check that all power connections are secure 4 Close the cover of your computer Windows users Proceed to Installing the Software Mac users Proceed to Setti...

Page 23: ...ftware for your Drive to work Mac Users The RAID Manager software is compatible with Windows only and you do not need to install a driver You can set up and manage a RAID array using the RAID tools built into the Disk Utility application include with the Mac OS 1 Insert the CD into your computer s CD DVD drive 2 Run the setup from the CD 3 The Welcome to the DMI SATA RAID Manager Setup Wizard Figu...

Page 24: ...se and then restart your computer 7 After your computer restarts the Found New Hardware Wizard will launch Figure 8 Select Install the Software Automatically Click Next 8 In the next screen click Continue Anyway Figure 9 Participation in Microsoft s Windows Logo program is optional for devel opers Software that is not Windows Logo certified is in no way necessarily inferior to software that is WL ...

Page 25: ... 25 FIGURE 8 FIGURE 9 ...

Page 26: ...tallation is finished Click Finish 10 Next the Raid Interface Installer will appear Figure 10 Select Install the software automatically Recommended and click Next 11 On the next screen press Continue Anyway 12 Once the installation is complete click Finish FIGURE 10 ...

Page 27: ...n Device Manager 3 Expand SCSI and RAID controllers and check that it contains DMI Raid Interface and Dura Micro SATA Raid Adapter Figure 11 For instructions on setting up and managing a RAID array with the RAID Manager software see the E5 SATA Drive support page at www acomdata com FIGURE 11 ...

Page 28: ...will get obstructed by other items on your desk Do not place the Drive on your desk in any way other than what is described in this guide or the Drive may get damaged Vertical Placement Most likely your Drive was packaged with the zinc alloy stand attached to the Drive case so you can place the Drive on your desktop vertically right out of the box However if the stand was not already attached foll...

Page 29: ...nuts through the groove in the Drive case entering from the backside of the case You cannot slide the stand in from the front of the case The stand is sym metrical so it does not matter which end you insert first Once the nuts are in the groove posi tion the stand so that it is centered with the Drive case 3 While holding the stand in place with one hand use a screwdriver with the proper type and ...

Page 30: ...d on the underside of the stand Loosen the screws just enough so that you can easily slide the stand out of the groove Keep the nuts attached to the screws Do not discard the stand Affixing the rubber feet to the Drive case It is highly recommended you use the supplied rubber feet for horizontal placement and stacking of Drives The feet help keep the Drive securely in place and they also prevent t...

Page 31: ... the rubber feet from the paper back ing and carefully position the foot inside one of the four oblong indentations with the adhesive side down Once the foot is properly positioned press down firmly to secure it in place Repeat for the other three feet 4 Proceed to Connecting the Drive to Your Computer ...

Page 32: ...you use If the plug will not go in check that the orientation is correct and try again Do not force the plug or you may damage the Drive 2 Plug the other end of the power cable into the Drive s power port 3 Plug one end of the SATA cable into a SATA port on the PCI card The SATA connectors are keyed so they will only go in one way If your PCI card has two SATA ports it doesn t matter which port yo...

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Page 34: ...ll have the opportunity to name the Drive during the formatting setup process Mac Users 1 Locate the Drive icon on your computer s Desktop 2 Click and hold the mouse button on the icon s label until it is highlighted 3 Type in a name and press Return Enter PC Users 1 Double click on My Computer 2 In the My Computer window click on the Drive icon 3 In the File menu select Properties 4 Under the Gen...

Page 35: ...rive only on a Mac or only on a PC you should consider re formatting the Drive with one of the more advanced file systems that may be available to you Formatting Options for Windows XP 2000 Users If you do not plan to use the Drive on a Mac or Windows 95 or Me consider re formatting your the Drive with the NTFS file system NTFS provides several advantages over FAT32 including better security and s...

Page 36: ... 107483 on the Apple web site Users of Mac OS X v 10 3 and later If you connect an NTFS formatted disk to a Mac running Mac OS X v 10 3 or later the computer will be able to read the Mac compatible files but you will not be able to save any data to the disk Formatting for Cross Platform Compatibility If you ever need to re format the Drive and you need both PC and Mac compatibility you have two op...

Page 37: ...ct NTFS Do not select FAT32 as you cannot format the Drive using FAT32 file on Windows 2000 or XP 6 In the Allocation unit size pop up select Default allo cation size 6 In the Volume label field type in a name for the Drive You should give the Drive a unique name so as to easily distinguish it from other hard drives or storage devices connected to your computer 7 The default formatting option is F...

Page 38: ...r options type in a name for your the Drive The name is limited to 8 characters and no symbols are allowed 5 Click Start The following warning message will appear This device is either a hard disk or a large removable disk Formatting it will destroy all files cur rently on the drive Are you sure you want to format this drive If no data was previously written to the Drive or you already backed up t...

Page 39: ...nd later you have the option of selecting Mac OS Extended Journaled Journaling is a feature that helps protect the file sys tem against power outages or hardware failures We recommend using journaling if available 6 In the Name field type in a name for the Drive You should give the Drive a unique name so as to eas ily distinguish it from other hard drives or storage devices connected to your compu...

Page 40: ...recognize each other Establishing the logical connection is called mounting Mounting occurs automatically when you turn on a hard drive that is connected to a computer assuming the computer has the necessary drivers You know that a hard drive is mounted when you see the drive icon on the Desktop Mac or the drive icon letter in My Computer Windows If you want to turn off a hard drive you first need...

Page 41: ...ollowed by the drive letter 2 Select the Drive After a few seconds Windows will give you a message that it is safe to remove the device Click OK The Drive will unmount You can then safely turn it off Mac Users Drag the Drive icon on the Desktop to the Trash Wait until the icon disappears then turn off the Drive Whether you are using a Mac or PC When you shut down your computer the Drive will unmou...

Page 42: ...more desktop space For this section we assume that you already have an E5 Drive installed on your system and that the Drive is placed in the horizontal position 1 Follow the steps in the section Horizontal Placement to properly prepare a Drive for stacking 2 Place one Drive onto the other making sure the feet of the second drive are properly seated in the foot indentations of the first drive 3 Fol...

Page 43: ...rror such as mistakenly erasing or overwriting a file You should backup your data on a regular basis using a quality data backup utility How often depends on how frequently you save or transfer data to the Drive If you save and transfer data to the Drive on a daily basis then you should backup your data daily Defragmenting and Optimizing a Hard Drive A hard drive stores data on disks called platte...

Page 44: ...es the longer it takes to read and write data because the drive s read write mechanism spends more time moving back and forth over the platter searching for fragmented data or free clusters We recommend using defragmentation and optimi zation software to maximize the storage efficiency and optimize the performance of your hard drive Optimization software re organizes files so that the files you us...

Page 45: ...lly speaking it s a good idea to examine a disk for damage at least once a month Some maintenance and repair operations can take quite some time so it is wise to schedule these opera tions for those times when you don t need to use your computer The good news is that for the most part you won t need to tend to the computer while the software performs these operations Protect Your Data from Viruses...

Page 46: ...age There are a number of good anti virus programs on the market for both PC and Mac Cleaning the Drive Case Always unplug all cables from the Drive before clean ing it Clean the Drive using a soft dry cloth For tough dirt dampen a soft cloth with some neutral detergent diluted in 5 to 6 parts water wipe off the dirt then wipe off the Drive with a dry cloth Do not use alcohol paint thinner or othe...

Page 47: ...s right out of the box Q What is the difference between FAT32 and NTFS A FAT32 is an older and more compatible file system but it has certain limitations such as file size maximum 4 GB NTFS is more secure and has fewer limitations The NTFS file system can only be used on Windows 2000 and XP If you plan to use your AcomData Drive on Windows 2000 and or XP only con sider re formatting the Drive usin...

Page 48: ...ed by hard drive manufacturers Hard drive manufacturers have always used the decimal base 10 method where 1GB 1 000 MB 1 000 000 KB 1 000 000 000 bytes Windows and Mac oper ating systems use the binary base 2 method where 1GB 1 024 MB 1 048 576 KB 1 073 741 824 bytes Example A hard drive with a capacity of 120 GB will show up on Windows and Mac with a capacity of say 111 8 GB The actual number of ...

Page 49: ...ly by copying the operating system s files In order to install an operating system you ll need to follow the manufacturer s installation procedure If you wish to transfer the contents of one startup disk to anoth er you will first need to properly install the operating system on the target drive You can then use your AcomData Drive to copy over your files except the operating system Q Does AcomDat...

Page 50: ...all of the instructions in this guide properly 2 Consult the Troubleshooting sections of this guide 3 If the issue you are having is still not resolved please contact Technical Support using one of the following options a via the online Technical Support form at our web site www acomdata com b via e mail at techsupport acomdata com c by telephone at 909 348 0680 ...

Page 51: ...iate solution is to restart your computer To prevent this problem from reoccur ring go into your Power Settings Energy Saver and set it to where it never goes into sleep mode My AcomData Drive feels warm when it s powered on Is this dangerous A When in operation the Drive may feel quite warm to the touch This is normal The Drive gives me a Device cannot start Code 10 A This is a power issue Make s...

Page 52: ...op up menu When the Partition Wizard appears select Primary Partition and click on Next You will see a default value for the AcomData Drive click Next You will then see a drive letter you can change this drive letter if you wish click Next You will then be asked to format the AcomData Drive When I try to format my Drive in Windows 2000 XP I get the message Could not complete format A You may come ...

Page 53: ...s A When in operation the Drive may feel quire warm to the touch This is normal When I connected the Drive to my computer I got the following alert message Please insert disk untitled A If you get this alert message your Mac is not recog nizing your AcomData Drive and the mouse cursor may actually freeze on screen If this happens hold down the Apple Control key and press the Period key You should ...

Page 54: ...ed Use disk utility software such as Norton Utilities to repair the disk Periodic testing of a hard drive is recommended to keep it in good working order I can t transfer files larger than 2 GB A This is a limitation of the FAT32 file system If you plan to use the AcomData Drive on a Mac OS only and you do not need Windows compatibility consider re format ting the AcomData Drive using the Mac OS E...

Page 55: ...ver 1 any software contained in or included with the Product any such software is provided as is Please refer to any documentation included with the software for your rights and obligations with respect to the software 2 any consumables such as batteries supplied with this product 3 cosmetic damages 4 damage to or loss of any software programs data or removable storage media 5 damage due to the Pr...

Page 56: ...ginal packaging or in a package that provides the Product with a degree of protection equivalent to that of the original packaging AcomData is not responsible for any damage to or loss of any pro grams data or other information stored on any media or any part of any product serviced hereunder Be sure to remove all features parts options alterations and attachments not under warranty prior to retur...

Page 57: ...warranty service 1 A copy of the bill of sale from the purchase of your AcomData product 2 A Returned Merchandise Authorization RMA num ber that is assigned to your product by your TSS An RMA can only be generated if the product has been registered online at www acomdata com If your AcomData product is not registered at the time you need service you must register the product online or your Technic...

Page 58: ...ontacting Customer Service at customerservice acomdata com In your e mail please include your name phone number mailing address model number or description of item e g SATA cable quantity per item A Customer Service agent will contact you to complete the transaction ...

Page 59: ...e reasonable efforts have been made in the preparation of this docu ment to assure its accuracy AcomData assumes no liability resulting from errors or omissions in this document or from the use of the information contained herein AcomData reserves the right to make changes or revisions in the product design or the product manual without reservation and without obligation to notify any person of su...

Page 60: ...Address 3410 Pomona Blvd Pomona CA 91768 Telephone 909 348 0680 Fax 909 598 8663 Web Site www acomdata com Customer Service customerservice acomdata com Technical Support techsupport acomdata com Pre Sales Questions sales acomdata com ...

Page 61: ...erved The AcomData name and its logos are registered trademarks of AcomData Other trademarks mentioned or appearing in this document are the property of their respective owners Prices and specifica tions are subject to change without notice ...