Formatting a SCSI Drive in DOS.

[Abj]

Hi, i just got my new system. It's got an IBM 36LZX drive and a Tekram DC-390U3W controller. I managed to create partitions using the tfdisk utility supplied with the controller, but i can't get the drive to format. The Tekram manual says i have to use the regular dos format utility to format the drive, but that doesn't work. It says the driver returned invalid drive parameters, and then quits. I'm really frustrated, i have a brand new system waiting to be used, but i can't do jack! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TunaBoo]

Make sure your device IDs are different, and your cables are terminated.

 

[Venomous]

If your using Win2k, just boot off the CD and format the drive there.

 

[Walk]

How are you booting the system and with what OS? 98? 2k?

Maybe you are booting with and old DOS or Win95 diskette that doesn't recognize drives larger than 2GB? You'll need Win95-B or Win98 at least in order to format that drive.

 

[Abj]

I'm booting of a bootable disk made in Win98. I can't just boot of the Win2K CD, as it gives me an error saying there's no temp. space, and exits. The device ID's are fine, and cables are terminated. Anything else i'm missing ?

 

[obenton]

Try the FreeDOS fdisk from http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/ .

 

[CQuinn]

Are you using the latest version of the Tekram DOS drivers?

 

[pcmark]

Are the drives being detected by the SCSI card bios?

 

[Abj]

Okay, i took the drive and card to a friends place, formatted it, copies system files etc. But when i came back and put in my system, the drive gives and invalid media type error! I'm at my wits end. It's getting detected fine, i'm using the latest scsi drivers, everythings seems okay, it's just not working.

 

[Trashman]

sounds like termination...if it just worked at your buddy's and not on yours.....whats different from your bud's setup and yours?... are you usin a 80 pin adapter...are there any other devices on your system??

 

[CopperHead]

Are you loading the aspi dos drivers during bootup? If so is the drive getting a drive letter?

 

[mandrake88]

do you have the tekram drivers in your floppy?? and make sure they are also defined in your
autoexec.bat and config.sys files (both for dos only). if not it will not be recognized..
creating a start up disk from win98 does not place the drivers to the floppy you have to do it manually.
good luck.....

 

[Abj]

Actually i used my own controller at my friends place. Just plugged it in, installed Win98 drivers and formatted it, so there's not question about termination, or controller card settings etc. I am loading the aspi and symdisk drivers during bootup from my config.sys, it does recognize the drive and assign it a letter, but it won't let me read the drive. What do i have to load from autoexec ?