Sun 611 external SCSI question

so I have this external Sun SCSI that was working a few months ago. It was partitioned with 4, 1gig partitions. I never did much with it other than confirm it worked by booting it up and writing a file to it. I was putting together a Toaster system and thought the extra disk space would come in handy, so it was put to the side while that happened.

Now we fast forward 3mnths and my sump pump went out and I had some water in my basement, nothing major but the drive sat in about 1/2" of water. Just enough to get the plastic casing wet and did not get to the drive or control boards. I know this because I opened it and none of the internal dust was even wet, lol. Nonetheless, I left it open to air out for the last month.

Today, I put it together and connect it to my A2000 and it doesn't recognize the drive. The Sun enclosure powered up, I hear the drive heads move and the green light goes on. Prior to that when I'd connect it the 4 partitions would pop up on the screen.

So, here's my question(s);

1. I'm using a db25 male to 68 pin male SCSI cable, (same one that came w/drive), does that get connected to the IN or OUT on the drive enclosure, I forget?

2. Does the db25 gets Connecticut to the accelerator board or the parallel port?

3. How can I confirm the Amiga is recognizing it once it's connected properly?

4. What is the re-formatting procedure should the A2000 actually recognize it?

I'm personally thinking even though water didn't reach the drive electronics, moisture evaporation is playing a role in malfunction. I pulled the adaptor and power board out to look for water stains, blown caps or even corrosion but found nothing. There's a plastic, black shield between the casing and components and that showed no water residue either, but the water is the only variable since I purchased it.

Unless, my 'Newbness' is causing me to do something wrong, of course. However, I tried every port configuration, I think.

Thanks guys for reading and any advice.

Best,
J

Update: the Sun drive works! Yay!

BUT, if I don't hold both mouse buttons down and click Boot and just let the Amiga start normally, it goes to DOS. It's like it's trying to boot from the Sun drive which of course has no kickstart.

Thoughts?

Best,
J

[Arnie]

My guess is that you need to Install Workbench (not kickstart) to the SunDrive. I'ts loading to a CLI screen because it's bootable but has no OS (Workbench) on it.

[ptyerman]

If it's trying to boot from the Sun drive but your Workbench is on another drive it would have that effect. Load it up in Workbench HDtools and change the boot priority of the Sun drive to -1, that will prevent it from booting from that drive.

Originally Posted by Arnie

My guess is that you need to Install Workbench (not kickstart) to the SunDrive

Correct! My mistake,kickstart are the ROMS of course.

Originally Posted by Arnie

If it's trying to boot from the Sun drive but your Workbench is on another drive it would have that effect. Load it up in Workbench HDtools and change the boot priority of the Sun drive to -1, that will prevent it from booting from that drive.

That's exactly right, I have an internal drive with WB on it. I will try that and see. If that's the case though, I wonder how it changed in the first place?

Also, should I have that SCSI cable on in IN or OUT of the Sun drive?

[ptyerman]

It won't have changed, drives just normally install with a boot priority of 0 by default, if all drives are set at 0 then sometimes the Amiga just tries to boot from the drive IT thinks is primary. You override this by using the boot priority switch. Place the cable on the IN port, the OUT port is for further SCSI peripherals on the chain, although a lot of the time it doesn't really matter with SCSI which port you put the cable on.

[macce2]

I got a Sun Scsi external tape drive (model 611) from a friend.
I d want to know, which type of Scsi cable / adapter would fit in the external Scsi slots ?!
They arent standard 68 pin (or 50!) .
If someone would help, I wpuld be able to try to get the proper kind of cable / adapter ?!

[macce2]

Ok, I had to count the total number of pins from the Scsi connector at the backside of my Sun tape device, and to my big surprise it appears to be 68 pins !
The strange thing is; Im pretty sure that isn't "standard" Scsi 68-pin connector, because this one is considerably wider physically.

I really hope someone here on EAB had some knowledge of Scsi connectors used by Sun Microsystems..