RTX100-FS USER S MANUAL Revised September 14, 2009 Thank you for purchasing WiebeTech s RTX100-FS. RTX100-FS features WiebeTech s TrayFree bay and quadruple connection compatibility in a small form factor. Features TrayFree technology! RTX100-FS doesn t force you to install your hard drives into trays. Simply slide in a SATA drive and shut the door. The specially-designed SATA drive interface is built to withstand thousands of drive insertions. Fast esata connection, Dual FireWire 400 ports, plus USB 2.0 for wide compatibility. Sturdy aluminum case provides excellent heat dissipation and rugged durability. Fanless design for silent operation. Built-in lock to keep your drives secure. R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 1 -
Table of Contents 1. Pre-Installation Steps 3 1.1 RTX100-FS Accessories 3 1.2 Identifying Parts 3 2. Using RTX100-FS 3 2.1 Installing a Hard Drive 3 2.2 RTX100-FS Host Connections 4 3. Usage with Mac and Windows Operating Systems 4 3.1 Usage with Macintosh Computers 4 3.1.1 Compatibility 4 3.1.2 Mounting and Ejecting Volumes 4 3.2 Usage with Windows Computers 4 3.2.1 Compatibility 4 3.2.2 Formatting Volumes 4 3.2.3 Ejecting Volumes 5 4. Warnings and Notices 5 5. Frequently Asked Questions 5 6. Technical Specifications 7 R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 2 -
1. Pre-Installation Steps 1.1 RTX100-FS Accessories Check the accessories with your RTX100-FS. Please contact WiebeTech if any parts are missing or damaged. The box should contain the following items. 1.2 Identifying Parts Accessories Quantity RTX100-FS unit 1 esata cable 1 FireWire 400 cable 1 USB cable 1 AC adapter & power cord 1 Tool for lock 1 Manual and Warranty Information (on CD) Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the parts of the RTX100-FS. This will help you to better understand the remaining instructions. Ejection Handle FireWire Ports USB Port Lock Power Connection Port esata Port Power Switch Front View 2. Using RTX100-FS Rear View 2.1 Installing a Hard Drive Install your hard drive. RTX100-FS features TrayFree technology, so installing a hard drive couldn t be easier! Simply pull the ejection handle to open the door, slide a SATA drive inside, and shut the door behind it. Place RTX100-FS vertically on its stand. Pull the ejection handle to open the door. Slide in a SATA drive. The label on the drive should be on the same side as the white WiebeTech logo on the RTX. Shut the door until you hear it click. R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 3 -
2.2 RTX100-FS Host Connections Plug in the data cable and power cord. The RTX100-FS can connect to your computer in one of two ways. Cables for both data connection types are included for your convenience. Plug the power adapter cable into a grounded electrical outlet. For extra security, switch the ejection handle to the lock position. Connect the data and power cables. Turn it on. Your RTX100-FS is now ready to use! Turn on the power switch on the back of the unit. If your drive is already formatted, you can begin using it right away. New hard drives will need to be formatted before they can be used. 3. Usage with Mac and Windows Operating Systems 3.1 Usage with Macintosh Computers 3.1.1 Compatibility The RTX100-FS is compatible with Mac OS 10.2.6 or later. No drivers are needed. 3.1.2 Mounting and Ejecting Volumes When you connect the unit to the Mac for the first time and turn on the power, you ll probably see a message saying that the disk is unreadable. This is because you must format the volume before using it. The easiest way to do this is to use Mac OS X s Disk Utility. If you plan to use the unit on both Macs and PCs, select MS DOS File System as the format type. If you only plan to use the unit on Macs, then select Mac OS Extended. After the volume is formatted, an icon representing the drive volume will appear ( mount ) on the desktop. You can now use the volume just like an internal hard drive. Eject the volume before powering down the unit by dragging the volume s icon to the trash bin, or by selecting the volume then pressing Command-E. Shutting down the unit without first ejecting the volume can result in data loss. 3.2 Usage with Windows Computers 3.2.1 Compatibility The RTX100-FS is compatible with Windows XP and Vista. No drivers are needed. 3.2.2 Formatting Volumes Before you can use your RTX100-FS, you must first format the drives into a volume. Use Disk Management, which you can find by right-clicking on My Computer then selecting Manage. Select NTFS for the format type. If you wish to format FAT-32 for cross-platform compatibility, you will need to use a third-party utility to do so. Windows XP will not create FAT-32 volumes larger than 32GB. R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 4 -
After the volume is formatted, an icon representing the drive volume will appear in My Computer. You can now use the volume just like an internal hard drive. 3.2.3 Ejecting Volumes If the RTX is connected to your computer via FireWire or USB, always eject the device by clicking the taskbar eject icon before turning off power or unplugging the data cable. Failing to do so could result in data corruption on the drive. When connecting via esata, you will not be able to eject in this way. However, it is possible to disable the device using Device Manager. Whether or not you choose to disable the device in this way, always make sure the drives are not being accessed before shutting off the RTX100-FS to avoid data loss. 4. Warnings and Notices If your drive is inserted incorrectly it may cause damage to the internal connections. Be sure to only insert 3.5! SATA drives and to insert them properly. The top of the drive should go in on the same side as the white WiebeTech logo on the RTX. Do not eject the drive while it is being accessed. Data loss could result. RTX100-FS is made of aluminum to help with cooling. Although RTX100-FS can be used laying flat, we recommend that you position it vertically on its stand to aid heat dissipation. 1000GB+ drives get hotter than smaller capacity drives, so the usage of additional external cooling (such as a fan) is recommended. Do not move RTX100-FS while the drive has power. Although a drive can be accessed without locking the ejection handle, locking is recommended to keep from accidentally ejecting a drive while in use. Use caution when pulling on the ejection handle so that if it is locked you do not break the handle. 5. Frequently Asked Questions Q: Can you tell me why my esata device appear as a Parallel SCSI device in System Profiler? A: The "Serial ATA" tab in System Profile shows devices attached to the internal SATA bus, but not always devices attached to an esata host card. Sometimes these devices will appear under the heading "Parallel SCSI" instead. This is entirely normal and does not indicate a problem with the device or its drivers. Q: Why is my hard drive experiencing data corruption? A: Many things can cause data corruption on hard drives, whether they are inside your computer or inside an external storage product. Malicious software, OS bugs, failure to properly disconnect external devices, or no reason at all. Data corruption or loss is therefore not covered by warranty (this is the case with all rational companies in the storage industry). The first thing to try is restarting both the computer and the external device. If the data is still corrupted, try running built-in OS utilities (such as Mac OS X's Disk Utility First Aid) on the hard drive. For best results, boot your computer with a Mac OS X Installation CD, and launch Disk Utility from the CD. When you reach the Mac OS Installation program, you can run Disk Utility from one of the menus at the top of the screen. From Disk Utility, you can run "Verify Disk" and "Repair Disk" to find and fix any errors that may be present in your Mac OS installation. If the OS utility doesn't help, you may need Data Rescue. This is a great solution for recovering lost data from a hard drive which has suffered data loss or corruption. If there is a true hardware failure of your hard drive that prevents it from communicating with your computer, there is no software solution in existence that can fix this problem. However, since we cannot tell you with any certainty whether or not you are experiencing hardware failure in your particular hard drive, we would encourage you to download R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 5 -
a free demo version of ProSoft s Data Rescue from www.prosofteng.com. It is limited, in that it only allows you to recover one file per session, but it will tell you if it even sees any files. Q: I just connected my WiebeTech esata product to my computer for the first time. I turned on the power, but the drive did not spin up. Is the drive dead? A: SATA drives will not power up if a SATA cable is plugged into them, but no valid connection is established with a host. To test this, unplug the SATA cable, but leave the power plugged in. If the drive spins up in this configuration, then the problem can be attributed to the SATA host (i.e. esata host card). Q: Can I hot-swap drives with this product? A: Only if the esata/sata host supports this feature. All esata host cards currently sold by WiebeTech support hot swapping. Third-party host cards may or may not support this feature. Q: It is possible to boot to the external drive(s) in this product? A: Only if that feature is supported by the esata host to which you are connecting. The host cards sold in the TDKES or SIS4-SJ Bundles 1 & 2 do not support booting. Individual motherboards and third-party host cards may or may not support this feature. If this feature is important to you, you should read the technical specifications of any host card you're considering to make sure it supports booting. Q: Why won't the computer let me eject or unmount my drive? A: There may be a software application running in the background with an active link to the drive. Sometimes, you may see a message such as "The disk is in use and could not be ejected. Try quitting applications and try again." It could be a background application like Sherlock or the Finder. This is not a defect or issue caused by the WiebeTech device. Try invoking the Force Quit feature in OS X to see what software may be running. For Windows XP, the equivalent command is CTRL-ALT-DEL. Drives connected to the computer via esata cannot be ejected in Windows the way FireWire drives can. However, freeware utilities are available on the internet that provide a similar function. Q: How can I format my drive for Windows? A: NTFS: Windows Vista and XP will format hard drives in NTFS to their full capacity using the Disk Management utility. This is the native file system for these operating systems. FAT32: Windows 98SE and ME will format FAT32 to the full capacity of the drive. Windows Vista and XP will not format drives or partitions larger than 32GB in FAT32 format. This is a limitation Microsoft built in to the OS. To format a drive or partition larger than 32GB under these operating systems, a third-party Windows disk formatting utility is required. Mac OS also has the ability to format drives for MS-DOS (FAT32). The Mac OS has no drive size or partition size formatting limitations with hard disk drives manufactured as of this date. Q: Do I need to install USB Drivers? A: USB 1.1 usage with Windows XP, Vista or Mac OS X does not require the installation of drivers. Q: Can I access drives formatted NTFS on my Mac? A: Mac OS 10.3 or higher allows drives formatted in NTFS to mount and be seen as read-only volumes. Data may not be written to the drives, but it may be copied from the drives. R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 6 -
6. Technical Specifications Product name/part number: RTX100-FS/35100-2630-0000 Host Interfaces: Data Interface: Drive Types Supported: TrayFree Technology: LED: Operating System Requirements: Operating Temperature: Operating Humidity: Power Switch: Power Supply: Certifications: External Material: Shipping Weights: Dimensions: Warranty: esata, Dual FireWire 400, USB2 esata 3.0GHz: up to 300MB/sec 1394b: up to 800 Mbps USB 2.0: up to 480 Mbps 3.5 SATA1 or SATA2 hard drives Yes Power/HDD Activity Windows XP, Vista Mac OS X Linux distributions using Kernel version 2.4 or above (USB only) 50 85 Fahrenheit (10 30 Celsius) 5% to 95%, noncondensing 2 position: On / Off Input: 100-240VAC Output: +12/+5 V, +2/+2 A CE/FCC, ROHS Aluminum alloy case 3lbs 140mm H x 228mm L x 58mm W 1-year limited warranty. See warranty statement for details and limitations. WiebeTech offers free phone support for 90 days after purchase (1-866-744-8722). After 90 days, email support is available at support@wiebetech.com. RTX100-FS & TrayFree are trademarks of CRU-DataPort. Other marks are the property of their respective owners. 2009 CRU-DataPort. All rights reserved. FCC Compliance Statement: This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. In the event that you experience Radio Frequency Interference, you should take the following steps to resolve the problem: 1) Ensure that your unit is plugged into a grounded electrical outlet. 2) Use a data cable with RFI reducing ferrites on each end. 3) Use a power supply with an RFI reducing ferrite approximately 5 inches from the DC plug. If you have any questions or problems, please contact support@wiebetech.com for technical support. If you are interested in purchasing more WiebeTech products, check our website or contact sales@wiebetech.com. We appreciate being able to serve you! R T X 1 0 0 - F S U s e r s M a n u a l - 7 -