Ok heres the deal...I got an IBM SCA 2 hard drive...hooked to a 80-50 pin adapter...it says I need to enable Single ended mode for it to work..ok...i jumped the force single ended mode pins on the HD...it spins up...i hear it read it...but in windoes 98 I get no drive letter...I go into hardware and click on hard drives and I can see it...it says IBM and the model number 09Y but when I click on properties I can wee a spot that says current drive letter but its greyed out and theres no way i can assign it a drive letter??? Whats up...do I need a program to install it??I cant give it a drive letter...I remember when I hooked my SCSI zip drive I needed to run a program called guest that assigned the drive a letter...is that the problem again??

HELP HELP HELP!!!

Another few things I thought of...
The adapter I got didnt have a place for termination??? Should it? I saw a part number for an adapter with termination...would this cause my problmems....if so why would an adapter not have termination??

Does your computer recognize the SCSI card correctly in Device Manager?

I don't know what you know about SCSI devices, but in a SCSI device chain, there is usually a maximum of eight devices with SCSI IDs #0 - #7. SCSI ID #7 is usually reserved for the SCSI Controller card itself, and #0 - #6 for hard drives, CDROMs, Tape Drives, etc.

The end of a SCSI Chain must be terminated, some SCSI devices "self terminate", but most older ones do not.

Two devices can not have the same SCSI ID #.

So your hard drive will need a SCSI ID # set and it will need termination.

I have never used SCSI with a windows OS, only with Solaris so I can't tell you about how windows will act with it. But I know that if I wasn't a gamer, I would not be running windows, I would be running Solaris for sure. UNIX is sweet.

Have you partioned the drive with FDisk or another disk maneger yet?

IC PIPER: Well the drive is an 80 Pin and I have an 80 to 50 pin connector, but there is no place for termination to take place?? I saw a part number for an adapter WITH termination...is that the problem?? there is only 1 device hooed up to the SCSI card...the hard drive and adapter are set to ID 0 ...i guess both the HD and adapter have to be set to the same ID. So whats your opinion??

SYKSAK: I cant get access to the drive to partition it...thats what I gotta do first!!

KeeflA

Check it out...heres an adapter WITH termination...is this what I need?? The other card i got didnt have termination on it...

http://mcpb.com/html/sca.f80tm.50t.html


KeeflA

change your adaptor id to 7, boot device must be set to 0, and it should not be the same as your controller/adaptor, any other device on the chain can use assignments 1 through 6, and even skip numbers, but boot device MUST be 0

heres are some good rules of thumb

1) In a SCSI chain, the first and last devices *MUST* always be terminated.
2) The host adaptor must be terminated if you have only external OR internal SCSI devices, becoming the end or beginning of the chain.
3) If one has internal AND external devices, thus using BOTH connectors on the SCSI adaptor, the termination on the controller MUST be removed due to the fact that the first and last devices have become the first internal device (at the END of the flat cable) and the last external device (at the end of the ext cable) which must be terminated.
4) All the devices on the same chain MUST have UNIQUE IDs.
5) The host adaptor's default ID is 7 and shouldn't be changed.
6) The boot device MUST be set to ID 0

When you refer to the host adapter, is that the SCSI card?? or the first device on the chain..??

in my case i just have the HD. No other internal or external devices. I will change my device ID becasue its at 0 now...thow I dont want to boot from it....the problem is It is an 80- pin hard drive...follow the link i posted in my previous message to see the adapter im talking about..its not the SCSI controller card.. its actually a 80 to 50 pin converter...the one I listed HAS termination..but the one im trying to use DOES NOT. Would you say this would cause my problems?? If so would the adapter I listed fix all this??

Thanks for your help!!

KeeflA

the 80 to 50 pin adaptor does not need to be terminated unless it is on the end of a SCSI chain, the host adaptor i speak of in the previous post is the scsi card or controller card.

Ok...this is my setup...see what you think:

SCSI card plugs into the cable then into the 80-50 pin adapter, then into the 80 Pin HD. The scsi card operates my ZIP drive fine when its plugged directly into my zip drive...my zip drive has a termination plug on it. If I unhook my terminated zip drive(while powered off) and plug in the HD (with no place for termination) it wont assign it a drive letter. So would the HD in this case need to be terminated since it is the only device on the SCSI card?? If not should I set the ID on the HD to another number (say 1)?? WOuld that help??

Thanks for all the help...sorry about all the questions im new at this hardware stuff and im totally clueless about SCSI devices.

KeeflA

you can buy a terminator to plug into the last port on your scsi cable if your cable is not already terminated, then move down the cable to next open port and plug in hard drive there, some cables have a backside to the port that allows for a terminator on backside of the port to be plugged in

Another solution would be, your zip drive is already terminated, so keep that drive set up on the end of the chain and then use next port up from that for your hard drive

if you are not booting from your scsi devices then you can still use the id of 0 on end of scsi chain, just remove the scsi option from boot sequence in your bios (if it is selected already)

if your hard drive is the only device on the chain, then it MUST be terminated, yes

the id you use for ANY scsi device does not matter as long as the boot device is 0 and the host adaptor is 7

For example, you could have the zip drive use scsi id 5 and the hard drive scsi id 6 with no selections for 0-4 at all. or you could skip a couple after the hard drive and use 6 for the hard drive, and 3 for the zip drive. it really doesnt matter =)

The big thing that matters is termination on the end of the chain of devices, that doesnt necessarily mean termination on the end of the cable, just has to be on outside of devices on chain.

that making any sense?

BTW what host adaptor are you using? Also, how many ports on your cable do you have?

DUde...you rule....your a scsi GOD!! U hear me?? GOD!!
Yes it makes sence now...thanks for taking the time to explain everything like 3 times ;-)

ANyway Ill try terminating it with that adapter thing...and Ill let you know.
As for the cable its only a 2 plug cable...like a plug for the card and a plug for the device...the card is an adaptec 50 pin SCSI card...not sure of the model # thow...
Any other suggestions??

Thanks hella much for your help dude!!
KeelfA

Ok...looking over terminators...whats the difference between active and passive terminators??

Would this work??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=31494

Abys, your giving him some excellent advice.

Although I am sure that your experience with SCSI and some particular hardware in general is what makes you say the boot device must be SCSI ID#0, I use SCSI systems at work every day and we often boot from other devices that are not set to SCSI ID#0. I am sure that it is a difference in operating systems and hardware, and I also suggest that Keef stick to that anyway, it will not hurt a thing if he sets that HD to SCSI ID#0 for what he is doing, now or in the future so you haven't told him anything that will hurt him at all. Nice job buddy.

IC,,,thanks for the info...ill keep it set to 0 i guess...but im getting that e-bay cable with termination. After reading up on SCSI devices I know I have to set it to narrow mode and single ended mode AND i need either active or passive termination. I think the cable Im getting has passive termination...but they say that it should be fine for slower data speeds...so I think Ill be ok...I will let you know when it comes in and I get it hooked up. Thanks a million to ABY and IC for your help...i couldnt get this info ANYWHERE else...youve helped me a ton!!


KeeflA

Really LC? I had always heard that your boot device had to be set to id0, how do you tell for example scsi id 3 to be the default boot drive if you also have a id0 device on the chain?

Heh i've always set my devices up this way, i'd be really curious to know what you are doing differently. Are you talking about booting from network drives? or just one box with multiple devices in the local machine?

I'm wondering, can you set it up that way in your host adaptor bios config? I run an adaptec 39160 in one pc and an Intel SRCU21 SCSI raid in the other

You gotta tell me bro LOL I thought I knew everything about SCSI hehe.

Glad we could be of assistance KeeflA. thats what we are here for!

Sorry I missed this Abys.

It may be specific to Sun machines, but you just set the default boot device in the Eprom (read in BIOS equivalent), or give it a standard Unix boot command like ok>boot disk3 and as long as you have a boot sector written, then it will boot.

Sun boxes rock, and you can get older ones cheap. Face it, Sun machines and Sun's Solaris OS are made for each other.

wow, very cool, ill have to do some research and see if i can figure it out on an x86 platform

thanks bro!