Dual Scsi adaptor help

[CADsortaGUY]

I have 2 scsi adaptors and they don't want to play nice. One is a 29160LP from adaptec and the other is a AHA-2940UW. The LP only has 1 68 pin header. I recently purchaced some optical drives to make the full switch to scsi so I figured the newer adaptor would do the trick since it was cheap and bundled with the drives(FS/FT) purchase. the 2940 isn't U160 so I'd like to keep my hdd on that adapter, but it is my boot drive and once I place the 2940 adapter in my machine the bios only recognizes(or seems to) the 2940 and won't boot to the 29160's drive. Win2k if it matters.

How do I get my system to boot off the 29160 yet have the drives running off the 2940?
TIA
<-scsi noobie
CkG

 

[PCHPlayer]

It's been a while but.... You need to go into the BIOS of the 2940 (control-A at the right time during the boot process) and disable the option that tells the motherboard BIOS that the SCSI adapter is providing the boot disk.

 

[mastertech01]

Disable SCSI bios on the 2940 and just set it to scan the buss. When it scans the buss it will show the drives attached and then report SCSI bios not installed. A good thing to do is to use the 29160 in a priority PCI slot.. IE have the 29160 in slot 3 and the 2940 in the 4th slot. That way the 29160 will always be scanned first. Make sure you have the latest bios flash for each one also.

 

[SemperFi]

Have you tried to put the scsi card that you are trying to boot in a slot higher than the other card. In other words if I read it right you want the drive on the 29160 to boot. So you should have that card closer to the agp slot than the 2940.

I am no scsi expert but just because you only have one header doesn't mean you can't connect more than one drive. I think you can connect up to six. You will probobly have to buy a new cable that has more connectors though.


edit/ Man you guys are quick or I am just a slow typer.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks for the replies guys.

semper and Mastertech01- it is in a "higher physical" slot.

Mastertech01 and PChPlayer - I'll take another gander around the bios of the 2940 but I don't remember anything that stuck out as options of what you say. I'll take a look and try them

Thanks again

CkG

 

[speed01]

Why not put all the drives on the 29160? Single channel SCSI controllers can handle up to 15 drives (provided you have the appropriate cables).

Speed

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: speed01
Why not put all the drives on the 29160? Single channel SCSI controllers can handle up to 15 drives (provided you have the appropriate cables).

Speed

Isn't there an LVD/ SE problem? like you can't have both types on the same channel? or cable?

<- noobie

CkG

 

[speed01]

I think I may just be confusing myself... Which controller did you get with the new drives? Are your drives a mix of 68 and 80 pin? In your original post you said that you wanted to keep your boot drive on the 2940 but later you said you wanted to boot from the 29160 and have the rest of the drives on the 2940......or may I'm not reading clearly enough...sometimes I'm a little dense..

Speed

 

[mechBgon]

You would want to keep the two types on separate cards or at least separate busses, yeah. Is the 29160 definitely assigning the boot responsibility to the hard drive, not just doing it by default?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: speed01
I think I may just be confusing myself... Which controller did you get with the new drives? Are your drives a mix of 68 and 80 pin? In your original post you said that you wanted to keep your boot drive on the 2940 but later you said you wanted to boot from the 29160 and have the rest of the drives on the 2940......or may I'm not reading clearly enough...sometimes I'm a little dense..

Speed

I wish to keep the boot drive on the 29160 and put the optical drives on the 2940. The 2940 won't allow me to boot to my 29160.
All optical drives are 50 pin and my hdd is U160 68pin.

CkG

/me goes off to try some more stuff.

 

[mastertech01]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY
Thanks for the replies guys.

semper and Mastertech01- it is in a "higher physical" slot.

Mastertech01 and PChPlayer - I'll take another gander around the bios of the 2940 but I don't remember anything that stuck out as options of what you say. I'll take a look and try them

Thanks again

CkG

It will be there, if not it will say enable INT13 (I think thats the correct name) support on later model bios. All I have on hand now are 2940U2W and ATTO controllers. You must have the bios enabled on the 29160 and disabled on the 2940. I have even seen earlier bios prevent one controller bios from being viewed when another Adaptec controller is installed. That is why I recommend ensuring you have up to date bios, as this was corrected with a bios flash on some controllers.

 

[speed01]

Oh.. I get it now....told you I was a little dense at times.... With just the 29160 in, does it boot? If so, then disregard me and go with the previous suggestions of checking the 2940 bios settings... If the 2940 bios doesn't have a setting for the boot device, look for one to disable the bios on it....

Speed

 

[SemperFi]

My scsi card had an option to disable the bios. It was an advansys card. One other note I could not boot the cd with it disabled. You might run into trouble if you ever need to reinstall windows.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Thanks guys.

I disabled the 2940's bios and all is well in the world.

I did have issues with the burner I installed as it wasn't recognized if I had it's ID over 4 but it works at 4.

speed01 - yes it worked fine all by itself but when I installed the 2940 the 2940 took over until I disabled it's bios.

SemperFi - I know, I'll just have to keep my IDE drives handy if I need to reinstall

Thanks again guys

CkG