OLD SCSI STUFF QUESTIONS

[KennyH]

I have come across a trade that involves some old SCSI stuff that I will be receiving on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I will be getting two ISA SCSI both an Adaptec AHA-1542B and an AHA-1522A. I will also be receiving two older 50-pin drives. One is a Seagate Hawk ST21230N and the other is a Seagate Barracuda ST32272N. I have never used SCSI before and that is why I am asking these questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Which of these two controllers is better? Is it possible to use both drives at the same time on the same cable even though the drives are different and their rotational speeds differ? I doubt you could do something like this with IDE but have no clue with SCSI. I am wanting to use the Barracuda as the boot drive and set the Hawk to run as the swap.. etc. Do those ISA controllers have to have their own IRQ's in the bios? If so, which ones are best? Is their any special ways to format the drives or other bios, ASPI layers or anything like that I need? Please LMK. Thanks a ton.

 

[KennyH]

Please help me out here guys. I am desperate.

 

[wolf550e]

have no clue in scsi but here's a free bump for ya...

 

[Jhereg]

For specifics on the cards I suggest you check out the adaptec web site. You can use both HDs on the system just make sure they are terminated properly.You need to set the IRQ via jumpers on the cards.
Depending on the OS you are using Windows 98/2000 will most likely have drivers available , if not check the adaptec site.
Which card is better? , it really depends on what you plan to use them for You FDISK and format them just like anyother drive.

 

[jkellynewyork]

i9ihoou

 

[pjs]

I am not familiar with either of those particular Adaptec controllers.

But, I have some experience with scsi.

Both of your 50 pin drives SHOULD work on one scsi cable. (I say SHOULD because I had a situation once where two drives did not get along on the scsi bus untill I updated the scsi controller's bios) Just make certain that each drive has a unique scsi address. The scsi controller couldn't care less that the drives have different rotational speeds. Also verify that at the end of the scsi cable away from the controller there is located a scsi terminator OR a drive that has it's termination ON. Also, I am assuming that at the other end of the the scsi cable is located the scsi controller. If this is the case, then the scsi controller should have it's termination ON. This may be taken care of automatically by the controller, or you may have to do it yourself (in the controller's bios setup, if it has one.)

If you are going to use these scsi drives as you main drives, then be prepared for some slow action, beings these controllers, as you state, are ISA. If the drives are fast/large enough to use as boot devices (maybe not, they have 50 pin scsi connectors ... narrow scsi), then you might want to get a more recent pci bus mastering scsi controller.

1542b manual

1542 support

1522a support

1522a manual

Beings neither of these devices are plug-and-pray ... oops ... plug-and-play,
seting one up in your system might be an excitement-filled all day event.

Paul