Configuring the Disk
Configure the drive select jumpers according to the documentation supplied with the disk. If this is a two disk Setup. One must be set to be drive C and the other to Drive D. If you are using a twisted cable (IBM type - look for a twist in the cable between the connectors for each drive), you should set both drives to be the second or D drive.
Physical Installation
Install the hard disk into an empty drive bay. Connect the data connection cable(s) from the Hard disk to the disk controller card (or motherboard). If this is a two disk Setup, remove the terminating resister from the disk which is NOT to be connected to the end of the cable. I.e. the disk which is connected to the middle of the cable. Connect the power cable to the disk drive.
Changing PC Setup
Switch on your PC and run the Setup utility. Look for the options for Hard Drive settings. If you scroll through the inbuilt drive types (number from 1 to 46) you should find one where the drive parameters match those of your drive. If not, on most systems, you can select type 47 and type in the correct parameter values.
PCs fitted with Plug and Play compliant BIOS software will perform this operation automatically.
Low-Level Formatting
Most new drives are shipped with low-level formatting having been carried out.
Run the low level format program supplied with the hard disk. You may be asked to select the interleave factor and enter the known disk defects table. The interleave factor should be specified in your hard disk documentation and the known defects table may be written on the hard disk itself. Most disks may come already low level formatted, saving you having to do this work.
Note: If you run a low level format program on a disk which contains data, you will lose that data permanently.
Partitioning
The process of partitioning a disk defines areas on the disk to be used by a particular operating system. Unless you will be installing multiple operating systems such as OS/2 or Windows NT as well as DOS, you need only create one primary DOS partition. You will need to run the FDISK program from your DOS diskette. Simply choose Create Primary DOS partition from the FDISK menu and it will do the job for you. Then Choose Set Active Partition to make it Active. FDISK can also be used to delete existing partitions, create multiple partitions and extended DOS Partitions.
Formatting
If you are installing a recent version of DOS (5+) DOS will perform a high level format when you install it automatically. If you are using an earlier version of DOS, you will need to format the hard disk by running the Format command.
Hardware Troubleshooting - a Logical Approach
Each hardware problem is of course going to be unique because of the particular brands and mixes of hardware you have, plus the use of different configurations and drivers. Compound this with the different combinations of software programs that can be run and you will soon appreciate the enormous potential there is for problems.
The first step to solving problems is to try and talk the user through the problem, possibly making yourself a check list to ensure they have checked all obvious things, for example:
- Is the power on?
- Monitor brilliance turned up?
- Is the fault intermittent?
Remember users sometimes answer yes to a question because they feel that is the answer you want, or simply did not really understand the question.
Secondly, taking a look at the problem yourself will ensure all the information you have is correct. Avoid rushing through the solution and diving in at the deep end. Based on the information you have sit down and make yourself an action plan. Remember - do not assume anything and double check the obvious.
Thirdly, implement your action plan, testing to see if the problem is cured and document any results that help to give a clearer picture of it.
When the problem is finally cured remember to document what you have done. This will help other people when they see the same problem and act as history for that machine if the fault is actually intermittent.
Solving a problem involves the application of certain deductive techniques. Effective and efficient troubleshooting involves gathering 'clues' and isolating the problem to the exact location. In general there are some basic steps to follow to assist in troubleshooting a problem.
Basic Steps
- Do not Panic
- Observe the conditions
- Use your senses
- Use the correct technical reference and tools
- Make an assumption
- Make one change at a time to attempt a resolution
- Document your change
- Retry
- If failure persists reverse your change and go back to step 4
- If failure resolved document your change
Localisation
Once you are convinced a real problem has occurred (i.e. that the user has not misinterpreted something quite normal as a 'problem') it may be useful to pin the problem down to a rough area and test the components in this area.
You may wish to use the following diagram when trying to localise a problem.
Power On Self Test
When a PC is powered up, a Power On Self Test (POST) is performed. These routines check many aspects of the computer system's operation, before the bootstrap routines prepare the system for loading software from disk drives.
If any part of the test fails (for example, if the keyboard is not plugged in or a faulty chip is found) an error message will be displayed on the screen. If the monitor is at fault, the machine will beep more than once.
If no errors are found, the boot program accesses the first diskette drive to obtain further instructions. If there is no disk in the first drive, it searches the fixed disk on a fixed disk system.
POST Error Messages
Errors are signalled either by a message on the screen to indicate the source of the problem or by a beep which will sound in different ways according to the problem. The more common error messages are listed:
POST Error Table
POST Error Table
Diagnostics Utilities
If the PC is actually bootable, a great deal of time could be saved by using one of the many cheap and effective diagnostic utilities that are available.
Suppliers Diagnostics Programs
Most PC manufacturers supply a diagnostics disk with their systems. This program will have been designed to test the specific components within the PC. The problem arises when peripherals have been added to expand the basic system. In this event more than one program may be needed, the original diagnostic diskette for the PC together with any diagnostic diskettes for additional peripherals.
CHECKIT
CHECKIT is a diagnostics utility package for use with most PCs. CHECKIT is used for three main functions:
- To check each section of the PC hardware and report any failures
- To perform a low level format of the hard disk
- To check any adapter conflicts
In the first case, if an error message is reported CHECKIT will allow you to select any part of the computer individual and run a test or series of tests. This will also help in the identification of a problem in determining whether the hardware is at fault.
Checkit also has a batch mode which will run a sequence of tests continuously to help trace intermittent faults.
In the second case, a low level format may be necessary as, over a period, when many files have been written to and deleted from the disk the areas available for writing files will become discontiguous. Files may, therefore, become badly fragmented. This means that different parts of a file may be widely scattered over the disk as a whole. The low level format procedure will test the integrity of the recording medium and will test the disk for bad sectors much more rigorously than the normal format procedure and may succeed where a DOS format fails.
Once a low level format has been performed the disk will need to be re-partitioned using FDISK and then formatted again using the DOS FORMAT command.
