Seagate Medalist 4312 ST34312A IDE HDD Review and Disassembly

Today we'll be presenting a very old hard drive from the well-known company Seagate, part of the Medalist line, part number 4312, and model name ST34312A. This 3.5" hard drive uses an IDE connection interface—aka ATA or PATA (here Ultra ATA/66), long since superseded by the SATA interface.

+ Click on the photo to enlarge!

The hard drive has a capacity of 4.3 gigabytes, and the platters inside rotate at 5400 rpm.

External Inspection

This is a standard hard drive of the era—it was manufactured in 1999. The HDD has a gleaming aluminum finish. On the end, we see connectors for the ribbon cable and power supply (4-pin Molex), as well as a group of contacts (jumpers) used to set the device's operating mode.

On top is a steel cover with a label. It contains the manufacturer's logo and product line symbol... and the necessary technical specifications. Specifically:

Part Number: 9N5001-401
Firmware number: 3.09
Lot number: 442324
Configuration Level: KER01
Date code: 9948

Also listed are the serial number, power supply information, and the country of manufacture—China.

On the back, we see that the controller board is covered with a steel protective plate—it's unclear what it protects against. But it's a fact that the temperature control suffers. However, back then, drives weren't known for their fiery temperament. This plate contains a sticker explaining how to install the HDD and, most importantly, how to correctly set the jumpers.

Unscrew the two screws (star-head screws—they're all here) and remove this plate. Beneath it, we see the controller board. The end of the spindle motor bears the marking: 4F9413ND1H2

The controller board for the Seagate Medalist 4312 ST34312A hard drive is single-sided PCB. More accurately, it's double-sided, but all the components are located on one side, with only the tracks on the back.

There are five components on the board. Chips:

SIEMENS SAB-M3000-8D 33F ATLANTIS 23400309-003
NEC C2160GC 23400247-002
STMicroelectronics 23400269-012 1A8AT9919
STMicroelectronics 241 900909
Atmel AT49F1024 50VC

And other components, most of which are SMD format, as you can see in the photo.

Seagate Medalist 4312 ST34312A Disassembly

Unfortunately, this hard drive hasn't been disassembled yet. I gave this particular example to a collector of IT antiques. Other HDDs like this are somehow uncommon...

But if I'm lucky, I'll definitely disassemble it in detail, and the article will be updated. You can also help me with this matter - write to me. And send photos if you have any.

Let's summarize.

At one time, this was a pretty good hard drive. For example, I had a 1.2 GB Quantum Bigfoot 5.25-inch hard drive on my PC in 2002...

Demand for mechanical hard drives is steadily declining, and soon the last HDD manufacturers will abandon this troublesome business in favor of SSDs... And these drives will become museum pieces and collector's items.

- Related article: Seagate Barracuda ST380011A 80GB IDE

Mikhail Dmitrienko
Especially for PRETICH.com
08/17/2026