SCSI n00b needs help setting up old Pentium Pro

[rommelrommel]

The computer is a IBM intellistation Z pro, about a billion years old <slight exaggeration>

However, the hard drives are SCSI... two smallish drives, 4 and 2 gig, but no problem as I'm only using this thing for folding.

Now, here's my problem. There's a Adaptech 2940 controller card, and it has some SCSI utility that I can access from bios. The original disk checks out fine, surface scans fine then formats, but the second one gives me a weird error as soon as I try to do the surface scan. Sure as heck won't format. Now, I don't really care, the one 2 gig drive is fine for now, I just mention this in case it has something to do with the next more significant stumbling block.

So I've got my old Win98SE CD and boot disk, everything starts up fine, but now I can't find either drive in DOS. I imagine there's some SCSI thing I'm not doing, but I know sfa about SCSI, so here is where I appeal to the anandtech faithful.

Thanks!

 

[bozo1]

There is a DOS device driver you need to put on your boot floppy and add it to your config.sys file. Don't remember the name offhand for the 2940 version but it's probably on Adaptec's website if you don't have the diskettes.

 

[DieHardware]

Did you try to low level format the drive?

 

[Windogg]

The driver is ASPI8DOS.SYS.

Please don't ask why I still know that.

Then FDISK and format is DOS.

Windogg

 

[rommelrommel]

OK, here's the problem, I've got those drivers, but it says this:

Read BIOS parameter failed
Error attempting to load Int 13H router
ASPI8DOS.SYS install successful

Dunno, sorry bout the non-sensecal post I'm editing out.

 

[Windogg]

Oh whoops, sorry.

One more thing, don't forget a /d at the end of the line in your config.sys. Without the switch, the drive will not get detected. Should look like:

device=[PATH]\aspi8dos.sys /d

Is the SCSI chain properly terminated and all drives have their own IDs?

Windogg

 

[rommelrommel]

Here's what happens when I try to check out the drive in SCSI bios:

Target SCSI ID : 4

SCSI CBD Sent: 03 00 00 00 0E 00 70 00 03 00

Host adapter Status : 00h No host adapter error

Target Status: 02h check condition

Sense Key: 03h medium error

Sense code: 31h

Sense code qualifier: 00h

 

[rommelrommel]

The drives all have their own ID's. I think it's properly terminated since the computer worked ok under win 3.1 or whatever it had on it when I started all this.

Well, the drives now detect properly with that switch on (D'oh) but, once I actually get into DOS they're gone again. Can't switch to them, if I try to run fdisk it says I have drives over 512mb, and asks if I want to enable large disk support, say yes, then it drops back to the command line. Damn... would a basic install of win98 fit onto 420 mb? I have one of those laying around....

 

[rommelrommel]

I'm still stuck, can anyone help?

 

[stranger707]

Adaptec's Knowledgebase has a discussion of the failure code. Essentially it says that the disk is kaput, no good. See below. This lists all of the errors but the 03h - medium error indicates that the disk is bad. The URL for this Knowledgebase article is

http://adaptec-tic.adaptec.com/cgi-...X5hbnl_JnBfc29ydF9ieT1kZmx0JnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=

These errors indicate that SCSI Select encountered a problem with the disk drive or media. Normally some of the following information is displayed:
SCSI target ID of the device

SCSI CDB Sent (e.g., 03 xx xx....., 04 xx xx indicating the command sent)

Host Adapter Status (e.g., 00h No host adapter error - this means that the status of the host adapter is good - no error reported by the host adapter)

Target Status (e.g., 02h Check Condition)

Sense key (e.g., 03h-Medium error)

Common Sense Key errors:

02h--Not ready - Media is not ready to format. Drive may not be up to speed.
03h--Medium error - Disk media may be defective. Attempt to format and then verify again.
04h--Hardware error - If the drive is spinning up, the drive is probably defective. Try setting the jumper on the drive to spin up at power on.
05h--Illegal Request - Rare, usually indicates firmware issue or vendor does not allow format.
06h--Unit attention - The unit may be write protected. Check jumper configuration. Disable write protect or Unit Attention jumper.

Sense Codes and Sense Code Qualifiers are usually vendor specific:
Typical: Error code (hex) Description Byte 12 Byte 13


00 00 No additional information is supplied
01 00 There is no index/sector signal
02 00 There is no seek complete signal
03 00 A write fault occurred
04 00 The drive is not ready and the cause is not reportable
04 01 The drive is not ready, but it is in the process of becoming ready
04 02 The drive is not ready; it is waiting for the initializing command
04 03 The drive is not ready; human intervention is required
04 04 The drive is not ready; the format routine is in process
05 00 The drive does not respond when it is selected
06 00 Track 0 was not found
07 00 More than one drive is selected at a time
08 00 There was a drive communication failure
08 01 A drive communication time-out occurred
08 02 A drive communication parity error occurred
09 00 A track following error occurred
0A 00 An error log overflow occurred
The specific sense code and sense code qualifier usually indicate the failure. For example, a medium error will be an error 03H and indicates defective media or format on the disk. An 04H reflects a hardware error. For a hardware error, a sense code of 04h and a qualifier of 02h indicates the drive is jumped to require a start command. This feature can be enabled in SCSI Select: Configure/View Host Adapter Settings: SCSI Device Configuration for the specific ID. If the error occurs in both Format and Verify, it usually indicates a defective drive. Contact the drive vendor for interpretation of other errors.

A more complete list of errors can be found at the T10.org WEB site

 

[sharkeeper]

Int13 extensions enabled in SCSI select?

If these are not, you will not be able to access your drives in DOS.

Cheers!