What to do with problematic Xeon machine?

[Spac3d]

I have a Dell Dimension 610. Specs:
P3 Xeon 500mhz
256mb ECC SDram
10k RPM UW SCSI 2 <-- not sure
Adaptec 100x/1190 series SCSI Card
Another Adaptec card which apparently doesn't exist (forget the number)
Windows NT 4.0

My aunt was using it for a little while and she infected it with a virus rendering Windows NT useless. I am unable to format because Windows NT cannot find the appropiate drives to find the harddrive. I have gone to dell.com but none of the drivers work. I tried to install NT, 2k, XP, but all failed on install.

Should I just hook up an IDE harddrive to use the machine? I would like to use the SCSI hd because it is uber fast ... I have no idea how to fix it now. Adaptec's site has been completely useless. When I search for anything related tot he Adaptec cards, I get 0 hits.

I really want this machine back up... it had only been rebooted a couple times in the years I have owned it... it rivaled Linux boxes for uptime.

 

[mechBgon]

How about get one of the $42 LSI Logic Ultra160 cards from Newegg? It's a 64-bit card, too, with backwards compatibility to 32-bit. The main thing, of course, is that you can find drivers for it so you can get NT reinstalled.

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Spac3d
... it had only been rebooted a couple times in the years I have owned it...

No wonder it got infected. LOL.

You need to find the model number of that Adaptec SCSI card, and try and find the drivers for it off their website.

Good luck.

 

[trak0rr0kart]

use fdisk off a win98 boot disk to see the drives and to make them accessible to dos interface. then format them with fat 32. If you want to see the drives to get data off of them ..then get a ntfs boot disk. You can get one here... http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm


Other then that.. install windows 2k and then reinstall windows with ntfs or whatever. If you have to use nt4.. then get your files off that you want with the ntfs boot disk then run the nt4 setup off a cd or floppy etc..

 

[dexvx]

Remember theres a difference between Adaptec Model numbers and adaptec chipsets. Go to Dell.com and look at the technical specs for your model. They provide updated drivers and SCSI boot disks.

Since its a precision workstation, it still might be under warranty.

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
How about get one of the $42 LSI Logic Ultra160 cards from Newegg? It's a 64-bit card, too, with backwards compatibility to 32-bit. The main thing, of course, is that you can find drivers for it so you can get NT reinstalled.

Hrm... that sounds good.

You need to find the model number of that Adaptec SCSI card, and try and find the drivers for it off their website.

I tried that when I had the model number written down. No luck. My dad has the same machine at work, they can't get another OS to work with it either.

Other then that.. install windows 2k and then reinstall windows with ntfs or whatever. If you have to use nt4.. then get your files off that you want with the ntfs boot disk then run the nt4 setup off a cd or floppy etc..

No Windows operating system can get installed. There is no critical information that needs to be saved.

Remember theres a difference between Adaptec Model numbers and adaptec chipsets. Go to Dell.com and look at the technical specs for your model. They provide updated drivers and SCSI boot disks.

At Support.Dell.com, I searched for a while and found this information,

Primary SCSI controller - Adaptec AIC-7890 Ultra2/Wide LVD (Adaptec 2940 U2W-equivalent ).

Well no wonder I couldn't find any information on the AIC-7890 card .... it wasnt listed with the Adaptec equivalent with the white papers that came with the box

So I went to Adaptec.com to find the 2940 U2W under support ... no such card:| I did a search for it and found this, drivers. I have midterms coming up, but I will test out these drivers to see if it will install 2k, XP pro, or 2003 Server

Since its a precision workstation, it still might be under warranty.

It is out of warranty btw