Ultrastar Faqs

A: Some BIOS manufacturers have limitations supporting any drive with a capacity greater than 32 GB. The jumper was added to help customers with this limitation and enable them to use the drive as a 32 GB capacity until the BIOS manufacturer was able to provide a BIOS update that supports drives larger than 32 GB. Drives with a capacity less than 32 GB have a 2 GB clip.

A: This could indicate that the drive is running in PIO mode and is not taking advantage of the UDMA capabilities of the drive.

To enable DMA mode in your system:

1. Right-click on the My Computer icon (found on your desktop of your start menu).
2. Selecting the Manage option opens the Computer Management console.
3. From the computer management console select Device Manager.
4. Expand the list of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and double-click on the Primary IDE channel.
   
   
5. Select the Advanced Settings tab from the controller properties panel.
6. Select the transfer mode setting DMA if available for all available devices.
   
   
7. Click OK.
8. You will then return to device manager, close the window.
9. Reboot your system. (Start > Shut Down > Select Restart > select OK)
10. When the system restarts, the drive will be running in DMA mode.

To verify DMA mode, repeat steps 1 to 4 and make sure that Ultra DMA mode is still the ‘Current Transfer Mode’. The actual mode varies dependent on the system capabilities. Click Cancel to back out of the properties panel.

A:

Windows XP and Windows 2000 do not natively include drivers for SATA controllers (add-in or on-board), so you must install them during the installation of the operating system. The system, motherboard, or controller manufacturer usually supplies these drivers, either on a driver CD or downloadable from their web site. To install the SATA controller drivers you first need to copy the appropriate drivers onto a diskette (controller drivers can be loaded from diskette only). Early in the installation process, you have an opportunity to load third-party controller drivers by pressing ‘F6’. You will have six seconds to press ‘F6’ before the installation process will continue: Press ‘F6’ to install the SATA controller drivers. After pressing ‘F6’, you will come to a screen asking you to press ‘S’ to load additional controller drivers or to press ‘ENTER’ to continue with the installation. Be sure you press ‘S’ to load your SATA controller drivers. After pressing ‘S’, you will be prompted to insert a floppy disk with the updated drivers.  Note: the installation process specifically looks at the A: (floppy) drive for the updated drivers. This is a limitation imposed by the installation routine. You cannot load the drivers using any other media. After inserting the appropriate driver diskette, choose which driver you wish to load (if the disk has more than one driver). Make a selection using the up or down arrows and press ‘ENTER’ to install the driver. Once you have loaded the appropriate controller drivers, you may continue with the installation.

A: The 4-pin Molex power connector is most commonly found in current and legacy PC systems. All Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drives and CD/DVD drives use this power connector.

 

SATA drives have the option of using a new 15-pin power connector which has been designed specifically for SATA use. Either power connector may be used on a Hitachi SATA drive, but it is not recommended that both are connected at the same time.

A: Unfortunately, Hitachi is not able to provide individual replacement parts for hard drives. If you are having problems with your drive, we encourage you to contact the technical support center for troubleshooting assistance.

A: If a SCSI drive is giving this error message, there are a couple of things that could be wrong.

1. There is a communication problem between the drive and the controller card. Try replacing the cable, termination, and any adapters that may be in use.
2. The motor is no longer spinning or the logic board is telling the SCSI controller card that the motor is no longer spinning. In this case, the drive will need to be replaced

A: SCSI standards are backward and forward compatible. This means you can use a brand new SCSI 3 Ultra 320 drive on an older Ultra 2 Wide LVD controller. However, the drive will only be able to perform at the Ultra 2 Wide speeds. You can also use an older drive on a newer controller, but the old drive will not gain the performance of the newer controller.

A: Even if your system is working and you are not using a terminator, you could still encounter future problems. Problems caused by improper termination can show up without warning and seemingly without reason. Always use proper termination on both ends of the SCSI chain.

A: Using a UDMA 6 drive on a system that is only capable of up to UDMA 5 speeds, may not allow you to perform a complete format. To get around this, you will need to download our Feature Tool utility and lower the UDMA mode of the hard drive to UDMA 5. You will then be able to format and use your drive.

Please note, leaving the drive set to UDMA 5 will NOT cause a noticeable performance loss as this is the highest UDMA mode supported by the system.

A: To allow computer systems access all the data on drives larger than 137 GB, the T13 AT Attachment standards committee developed 48-bit addressing. 48-bit addressing increases the maximum addressable space to 144,115,188,075,855,872 bytes (144 Petabytes).

Computer systems manufactured before development of the 48-bit address method do not natively support drives larger than 137 GB (but can, if upgraded as described below).

If you have recently purchased your computer system, we advise you to check with your manufacturer to see if your system has native support for 48-bit addressing before pursuing one of the workarounds listed below.

If you have already installed your drive and the capacity lists as 137,438,953,472 bytes (137 GB or 128 GB), please follow one of the workarounds below to make use of the remaining space.

Windows 2000/XP - Existing Installation

Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later add 48-bit addressing support to the operating system (OS). This support will allow access to drives larger than 137 GB (128 GB).

Once the OS is installed (to a partition smaller than 137 GB), download and install the latest service pack for your operating system. After installing the service pack, you will be able to partition the remaining space into a new partition.

If you are adding a secondary drive that is larger than 137 GB (128 GB) to Windows 2000/XP, be sure to download and install the latest service pack prior to connecting the drive. This will ensure proper support is available once the drive is detected. Once connected, you should be able to partition the drive to the maximum capacity.

See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for more information:

Windows XP (Article 303013)

Windows 2000 (Article 305098)

Windows 2000/XP - Installation

In order for Windows 2000 and Windows XP to detect the full capacity of a drive larger than 137 GB during installation, the operating system CD will need the correct service pack integrated (see above for correct service pack) into the CD. To obtain a Microsoft Windows operating system CD with the latest service pack integrated into the CD, you will need to contact Microsoft (if the CD was purchased separate from the system) or your system manufacturer (if the OS came preinstalled). Utility to Enable to 48-Bit Addressing

The following site is dedicated to assisting with the transition from the older 28-bit addressing to the newer 48-bit addressing. They provide a utility called EnableBigLBA Tool (as well as other resources) that will test the operating system for support and enable it if possible.

EnableBigLBA Tool

 

Windows 95b or Later/98/ME/N

For these operating systems, add in a new ATA controller card and driver with 48-bit addressing support.

These operating systems do not natively support drives larger than 137 GB (48-bit addressing). The only way to add support would be to connect the drive to a controller card whose drivers support 48-bit addressing.

Some ATA adapter card manufacturers:

Silicon Image

ACARD Technology

HighPoint Technologies

Promise Technology, Inc.

SIIG, Inc.

 

Additionally, Intel has a program available for users of certain Pentium 4 chipsets that resolves the 137 GB capacity limitation called the Intel Application Accelerator. This download is provided by Intel at http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/IAA/index.htm.

The VIA 4-in-1 drivers are reported to have similar functionality (for VIA chipsets).

A: While we make every effort to test the compatibility of our hard drives with a wide variety of systems, it is not possible for us to include all makes and models. This does not mean that the drive will be incompatible with your system. If your system is not listed, it simply means we have not been able to test that configuration. Our drives follow industry standard specifications and should work in most systems. If your system is not listed on the compatibility document for a certain drive, try contacting the system manufacturer to see if they have performed any compatibility testing.

Our compatibility reports can be found at the following URL: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/compatibility.htm.

A: If you are looking for a drive that is no longer being manufactured, you will have to contact a reseller that specializes in older, obsolete drives. Some of the companies:

CUE Technologies, Inc.
1.800.RING.CUE (746.4283)

TCB Technologies
866.30.PARTS (866.307.2787)

Component Sourcing Group
877.274.7620
msales@4csgrp.com

A: CHS has an inherent limitation of 8.4 GB, which means no matter how it is calculated, it will never exceed 8.4 GB. Because of that limitation, CHS is not used on drives larger than 8.4 GB.

In place of CHS, Logical Block Addressing (LBA) has been implemented as the latest standard used to define the capacity of a drive. Current LBA specifications (48-bit addressing) allow for capacities of up to 144 PB (petabytes).

If you are looking for CHS information because you are having problems with your drive not being detected or accessing your drive, please contact the Support Center for troubleshooting assistance.