SCSI controler-HD Questions

[SlickVic]

8:16 AM 11/19/00

I'm somewhat new to SCSI, so bear with me.

I have Adaptec's SCSI Card 29160N (PCI) installed with the 68 pin LVD cable in a WIN98 SE machine with (2) 18.2 GB Compaq 7200 RPM Wide Ultra 2 SCSI HD's installed on 1 channel, installed in a clone C500-256MB RAM-Diamond Monster Fusion 16 MB AGP video-Standard PCI sound card and 56K modem with a Compaq 3120 NIC and a IDE 13.6 GB HD (disconnected for now). The Adaptec's SCSI Card and SCSI HD's are hooked up and functional, with WIN 98 on Drive 0, and nothing on Drive 1, and boots to Win 98 fine.

My questions;

1) Can I use the IDE drive with the SCSI controller/HD's, and how do you set that up?

*2) I got the HD's used without documentation, so what do all the jumpers on the non-power/cable side mean, and where should they be set (on both hd's). (ID0, ID1, ID2, ID3, WRIT PROT, START CMD, SINGLE/WIDE, DIFFSENS, SP SYNC, IDD RESET , LED, TERM PWR EN)?

*It came with a jumper on START CMD on both, so that's where I left it🙂

3) What kind of throughput should I get vs. IDE, mimimum, and how do I test that?

As I said, the controller works fine, see's the HD's in the SCSI BIOS, and boots to WIN98 SE OK, but the drives seem VERY warm, and really not that fast.

Did I screw up, miss a setting, etc. Any help would sure be appreciated.

Thanks all.

 

[Namuna]

1. Yes, you can setup a system with both SCSI and IDE.
....Make sure the IDE drive jumpers are set for slave
....Since the Adaptec card is seen by BIOS before the IDE, the SCSI will always boot first (check your Mobo BIOS for boot-options, on my Mobo I can choose to force boot SCSI/IDE)

2. You can get the PDF files for those drives from Compaq.com

3. Go through the SCSI BIOS settings as far as drive throughput.

Good luck!

 

[Cyph3r]

1) In the olden days(not that long ago in Computer terms) when you had IDE subsystem and a SCSI subsystem, the IDE subsystem had to be always the boot drives. That's just the way it was. As ludicrous as this sounds, that's how it went..

Then some BIOS dudes saw the light and gave the option of either booting from IDE or SCSI. So what you would need to do is go into the BIOS and searching for some sort of an option that says things like BOOT ORDER: A, C, SCSI. Or something to that effect, the "C" here would indicate the IDE HD. So you'd want to move SCSI before/above that.

Once you've ensured that you have a BIOS setting allowing for SCSI booting, then plug your IDE HD just as you would if there was no SCSI system. If you're only gonna install a single HD, then leave it as a SINGLE drive, if it's gonna be a master with a IDE cdrom, then plug them so. There is no need to make the IDE HD a slave if the BIOS gives you the option to boot from SCSI. Similarly, if your BIOS doens't have the option, making the IDE HD a slave will NOT make it boot first.

2) The ID0/ID1/ID2/ID3 are the pins you'd use to setup the SCSI ID for each of your devices. This is binary here. So now going back to my freshman computing days, I come with this chart:

ID3 | ID2 | ID1 | ID0
---------------------
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 ID = 0
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 ID = 1
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 ID = 2
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 ID = 3
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 ID = 4
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 ID = 5
0 | 1 | 1 | 0 ID = 6
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 ID = 7
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 ID = 8
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 ID = 9
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 ID = 10
1 | 0 | 1 | 1 ID = 11
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 ID = 12
1 | 1 | 0 | 1 ID = 13
1 | 1 | 1 | 0 ID = 14
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 ID = 15

Phew!! A "1" means that pin is jumpered, a "0" means it is not.. Note the decent number's ID3->ID0..

WRIT PROT probably is Write Proctect
START CMD, your guess is porbably good as mine..
SINGLE/WIDE, If you have an older SCSI control not cable of handling a WIDE HD, then setting this jumper would make the HD behave a little nicer with older cards.
DIFFSENS, hmmmm..Differential Sensor?
SP SYNC, you got me..
IDD RESET, No clue..
LED, this one is led..🙂
TERM PWR EN, Enable Termination. In a SCSI system you must make a chain. The chain starts from the connector on the SCSI controller and encompasses a bunch of devices and then the LAST device is terminated. Improper termination will lead to some very bizzare data corruption problems.

3) With the LVD drives, especially Ultra2Wide that you have here..your max thruput is 80MB/s, your IDE HD is most proabably a ATA66 and with a UDMA/66 connector onboard, you can expect a max of 66MB/s thruput on that.

The beauty of SCSI is not the max thruput, usually measured as burst rate but rather sustained transfer rates are usually higher over time because unlike the IDE system, the SCSI system has a controller that can do the work for the CPU whereas in an IDE system the CPU would end up being involved in data transfers..

7200 RPM drives shouldn't necessarily run VERY hot..but HD's do get warm..you should definetly ensure that there is proper circulation in your system, not taking care of this will surely lead to HD failure over time. Make sure you've got enough fans to allow for good air flow..

Ok..I think I'm done now..Thanx for listening and caring..🙂

 

[SlickVic]

Thanks for your time and detailed answer...all is working OK, just like ALL of you mapped out...I appreciate it🙂