18GB External SCSI HD help.

[Synthesize Me]

Hello all,

I recently bought an external SCSI CD/Hard drive combo box. The Hard Drive inside the box is 18GB in size and the box gets connected to my Blizard 1260 SCSI kit. My Amiga is running Amiga OS 3.9.

After I hooked everything up and modified CD0 for the proper SCSI Unit ID I powered up the Amiga and saw that the CD Drive was working properly but the Hard Drive wasn't showing up... I then proceeded to open HD Toolbox to see if i can format the drive, and that's when I got the following message that I'm attaching to this post.

I have not installed a new file system or done anything like that so I'm wondering if maybe that needs to be done or if it is something completely different? If i do need to update or install something then I would definitely need (and really appreciate!) some detailed instructions.

thank you in advance for any help anybody can offer!

[thomas]

You don't say much about your configuration. How many drives do you have on the SCSI bus and what is the ID of each?

The HDtoolbox window says it found a drive on ID 4 and the error message happens on ID 5. So if your new HDD is ID 4 and ID 5 is not present, then I would just ignore the message.

OTOH if ID 5 is your new HDD, then there is something wrong with it. Unexpected phase changes are usually caused by inadequate termination. How is your SCSI bus terminated?

The error message also says that it reverts to asynchronous mode. Perhaps your new HDD does not support synchronous mode. If so you should set the ID 5 to asynchronous in the SCSI Kit's firmware. I don't know how to configure the SCSI kit but I am sure that there is a way to set defaults.

[Synthesize Me]

Originally Posted by thomas

You don't say much about your configuration. How many drives do you have on the SCSI bus and what is the ID of each?

The HDtoolbox window says it found a drive on ID 4 and the error message happens on ID 5. So if your new HDD is ID 4 and ID 5 is not present, then I would just ignore the message.

OTOH if ID 5 is your new HDD, then there is something wrong with it. Unexpected phase changes are usually caused by inadequate termination. How is your SCSI bus terminated?

The error message also says that it reverts to asynchronous mode. Perhaps your new HDD does not support synchronous mode. If so you should set the ID 5 to asynchronous in the SCSI Kit's firmware. I don't know how to configure the SCSI kit but I am sure that there is a way to set defaults.

Hey,

Thanks for the reply!
I only have the combo drive on the scsi bus, so that would make it 2 devices, the cd rom is device 4 and the hard drive is device 5. I just have a passive terminator on the other scsi port on the back of the unit. I'll have to look for the synchronous settings on one of the disks, but I get this same error when I try to open SCSIconfig and SCSIcontrol. Maybe I'll try to adjust the settings with the drive disconnected...
So in theory the hard drive should be recognized even though it is 18GB?

Thanks for your help!

[thomas]

Perhaps the drive has a jumper for sync/async?

What's so special about 18 GB that you think it should not be recognised? People have used 100 GB and bigger drives on the Amiga.

[Synthesize Me]

I tried all the jumpers on the drive I could find... There were two labeled SNC, one labeled REM, DLY, and a few more that I don't remember. Unfortunately using these jumpers made no difference, except that one or two of them made the error message go away, but the drive was still invisible.. I wonder why this drive won't work, should I look for a specific type of scsi hard drive next?

I always though that you needed to install a different file system if you are using a hard drive over 4 gigs, plus I have no idea what rules apply to using scsi HD's so that's what I was assuming might be the problem.

Any idea on what I should do next?

Thank you so much for your help Thomas!

[Synthesize Me]

Anybody have any ideas? I might just buy a different scsi hard drive, so if anybody has one that is compatible and at least 12gb, let me know! (doesn't need an enclosure, as I'll just put it in my CDROM/HD combo box).

Of course if I could get this one working, that'd be ideal, but I'm starting to think I won't get it working...

[zipper]

Is the 1230scsi.device (or whatever it was) enabled in the rom update? Can't remember which devices were by default. Principally 3.9 does not need anything special to work wih drives upto at least 127 GB; I have just 2 x 18 and one 36 GB in my CSPPC.

[thomas]

128 GB is a limit of IDE. SCSI limit is 2 TB.

About which harddrive to use and how, you should first read the manual of the SCSI controller. It will tell you the requirements. If you don't have a manual, check http://phase5.a1k.org .

A criterion I would look for is to avoid adapters, i.e. use a cable which connects to the controller without adapter and use a HDD which connects to the cable without adapter.

For fast SCSI2 it is recommended to use 50 pin connectors and cables only. Those 25pin external connectors which look like printer ports are unreliable at best.

And for SCSI in general proper termination of the cable is essential, especially if it is rather long. Again the manual should tell you which terminators are needed.