Hard Drive Sorting

Hard drive sorting is done in System Evaluation. There should already be a tub for keepers and a bucket for recyclers.

Sort

First, check the bucket for ones that should be kept:

Put these into the keeper tub:

• Regular sized marked 8 GB or bigger
• Bigfoot drives marked 8 GB or bigger

Next, check the tub for ones that should be recycled:

Create a temporary place for a recycle pile and put hard drives marked under 8 GB in it.

Put all the recyclers in the bucket and all the keepers in the tub.

How to tell a hard drive's capacity

Many hard drives are marked with their capacity. The words might be very small, but they're usually there. Look carefully for them. If that doesn't work:

Multiply the clyinders, heads and sectors

Check the drive geometry (cylinders, heads, sectors) information. The forumula is (CxHxS)/2000. If heads and sectors are 16 and 63, 16x63=1008, which is about 1000, so Cx1000/2000=C/2. In other words, half the number of clyinders is usually the approximate size (some newer drives can fit more data in the same geometry, you can check the model number described below to find those drives but they will be big enough to be kept even if you use the smaller size you get using this trick).

Look for double labeled drives

Some drives have two labels. One generic label lists several different capacities and/or disk geometry. The other label is model specific and lists the model number. For instance one label might say:

MPC3032AT (3.24GB)
MPC3043AT (4.32GB)
MPC3064AT (6.48GB)
MPC3084AT (8.45GB)
MPC3096AT (9.74GB)

The other label says:

Model MPC3032AT

The drive is a 3.24 GB drive

Look for model number schemes

Some model numbers contain a hint as to the capacity of the drive. For instance, the western digital drives can usually be deduced by dropping the first digit in the model number. In the example above MPC3032AT is approximately a 3.2 GB drive and MPC3043AT is approximately a 4.3. Thus we can determine that the third and fourth digit in the four digit number is the drive size. By comparing similar models, you might be able to determine the probable sizes.

Google is your friend.

Try googling the model number and see if anything turns up.

Jumpering the Hard Drives

Keepers should be jumpered to "single" or "stand alone" if such a setting is available. Otherwise, they should be jumpered to "master".

Western digital drives (and some others) differentiate between single (or standalone) and master. On most western digitals, no jumpers (or the jumper in the parking position) is the single setting and is what is preferred at Free Geek.

Where to put them

• Hard drives in the Recycle bucket go straight to Recycling after they are signed off by the Eval instructor. There is no need to receive or label them.
• Good Hard Drives go into the TARDIS (Build Office).