SCSI Hard Drive installation help needed!

[twharry]

OK, I bought a couple 15k 18.2gb Compaq SCSI drives (bf01863644) off eBay. I got an Adaptec 39160 card (card and drives are U160), a 68-pin ribbon cable and two adapters for the drives (drives are 80, everything else is 68 pin, so I got the adapters and installed them).

Now I need to hook everything up and install windows, but I need a little help. A few questions...

1. Do I need a different card to put these drives in a RAID0 array? Can it be done via software, or does it have to be hardware?

2. Do I need a terminator or do the drives self-terminate?

3. Do I need to adjust the jumpers at all on the drive or the adapter? The installation instructions for the adapter says to set the ID select pins the same as they are set on the drive, but I don't see any ID select pins on the drives. There is a jumper box with addr 1,2,4,8 on it, but the IDs on the adapter are 0,1,2,3. Any idea what I should do?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mechBgon]

1) yeah, different card or stripe them in the OS. Or leave them stand-alone, there are situations where the ability to read from one drive while writing to the other will benefit you.

2) yeah, LVD terminator needed for proper operation. Your cable is LVD, right, not plain flat ribbon?

3) without bothering to scrounge up the jumper sheet for that drive (being on dial-up), basically leave the ID jumper block unjumpered on one of the drives and stick a jumper on the "1" pins on the other, that ought to get them set for two different ID's so they don't fight.

 

[twharry]

Thank you for your help!

How would I know if the cable was LVD or flat ribbon?

 

[mechBgon]

The cable might say on the plugs that it's LVD, and/or Ultra160/Ultra320 (which would be LVD by nature). LVD ribbon cables traditionally have the strands intertwisted between the plugs, like in this photo.

 

[twharry]

"5 male connector (4 Device) SCSI 3 Ultra Wide 68 Pin High Density (HD68) ribbon cable"

That's what I have. SCSI3 and U160 are the same, right? So this is LVD by nature?

The cable has 4 connectors in addition to the one that connects to the mobo.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: twharry
"5 male connector (4 Device) SCSI 3 Ultra Wide 68 Pin High Density (HD68) ribbon cable"

That's what I have. SCSI3 and U160 are the same, right? So this is LVD by nature?

The cable has 4 connectors in addition to the one that connects to the mobo.

SCSI-3 isn't a synonym for Ultra160. Do you have a link to the cable you bought perhaps?

 

[twharry]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...4&item=6776456248&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

That's the one I got.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: twharry
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...4&item=6776456248&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

That's the one I got.

That will come in handy if you ever need to hook up four Plextor UltraWide CD-ROM drives, but it appears to be a vanilla flat non-LVD cable. I guess you could try it if you want to, but I'd just grab a proper cable & terminator and be done with it. Here's a reasonable buy: http://www.scsi4me.com/?menu=menu_scsi&pid=14&display=intel_cable.htm

 

[twharry]

Thanks for your help. I will get the good cable.

 

[mechBgon]

Sure thing You could probably also score one in For Sale & Trade for a great price too.

 

[Zepper]

The SCA to 68-pin adapters have to be LVD compliant too.

.bh.

 

[imported_whatever]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: twharry
"5 male connector (4 Device) SCSI 3 Ultra Wide 68 Pin High Density (HD68) ribbon cable"

That's what I have. SCSI3 and U160 are the same, right? So this is LVD by nature?

The cable has 4 connectors in addition to the one that connects to the mobo.

SCSI-3 isn't a synonym for Ultra160. Do you have a link to the cable you bought perhaps?

True, but Ultra3 Wide is.