SCSI Adapter BIOS format questions

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Ok, I'm pretty much an SCSI n00b. I know the end of the cable or last device needs terminated but other than that, I know zero details or specs. That aside, I have the following question:

I have a 5 drive SCA backplane and five IBM DNES-318350 18.2GB SCA SCSI Drives connected to said backplane. I went through and formatted every one via the SCSI Controller BIOS but the last drive took well over 1.5 hours formatting and never completed. All of the other drives on connectors 1-4 took on average 26 minutes. After rebooting and trying again It once again didn't finish after about an hour. Upon suggestion from another user, I changed the #5 drive to the #3 connector and removed all the other drives. Viola!, format complete in 36 minutes fine. Am I to assume #5 connector is bad or is the #5 drive possibly dying? I don't really want to plug another drive into the #5 connector and try it for fear that if the #5 connector is flaky, I'd prefer not to mess up another drive.
 

Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
Termination is on the far end of the cable, past the 5th SCA connector?

SCSI drive "format" command executes inside the drive, via its own embedded controller. If it doesn't complete (and the activity light on the drive never goes off), the drive might be on its way out - but it WOULD be giving an error code sometime, sometimes after hours.

Next thing you can do is retrieve SMART reports from each drive. IBM might/should have diagnostics software that lets you do that.
 

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Terminator is built on the SCA backplane. I got brave and tried another drive and it was fine so I think the drive may be getting flakey. I need to run a drive test on it.
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
More than likely that last connector is flaky (or the drive carrier may not be alowing the drive to lock up properly - try adjusting the drive toward the back of the carrier). Is that a new backplane or one that has been in service for a while? Do you know if that last connector was actually used? If it wasn't used, perhaps it's dusty or corroded. Get yourself a Caig Labs contact cleaning kit (M-C stock no. 8381T21) from McMaster-Carr and clean them all up. See what happens.

I know the Caig kit is expensive but it's the best and you'll find numerous uses for it. Your RAM and add-on cards will slide in like (fill in your own analogy here). Your flashlights will shine brighter and a set of batteries will last longer. Your telephones will sound better and may get a bit better thruput from your modem, etc. etc. Just ask G-Y...

Remember that some backplanes are designed to be daisy-chained. So you'll have to make sure that the termination is actually enabled and that your cable from the backplane to the controller is relatively short and that it is connected to the proper connector on the backplane (as if the BP is designed to be daisy- chained there should be two cable connectors - one at each end of the drive connector bus). The controller cable should be connected to the one on the opposite end from the terminator. And make sure you have the correct controller cable for that rig.

Good info: http://www.scsifaq.org

Here are some good SCSI vendors:

http://www.hypermicro.com (may offer free ground shipping if you mention www.storagereview.com - check the SR site for the latest offer)
http://www.centrix-intl.com
http://www.pc-pitstop.com (offers PayPal as a payment option)
http://www.scsi4me.com (ditto)
http://www.etech4sale.com
and I can usually find stuff (like drives, cables and adapters) for low bucks on eBay.

.bh.