Any SCSI guru around who knows the "rundown"?

[Hammerz]

Hello people,

Id appreciate it if someone with the intimate knowledge of my query would be kind enough to answer me a few questions.

Lets have at it:

I have 2 x Maxtor SCSI 320 Ultra Wide 147 Gb Atlas II, 15k rpm drives
I also have 1 x LSI MegaRaid 320-x2 Controller

My probloem is im a complete tard at getting the setup done properly.

My MegaRaid Starts up fine and menus work fine. It sees both drives but keep "failing" the second drive.

The 2 drives are connected via a "Amphenol SCSI 320 compliant LVD/SE incl terminated cable" it has 2 connecters for harddisks, 1 for the controller and a termination in the end of the disks.

It states that the Maxtor drives does not support onboard termination. I take it this means I have to disable the auto termination on the controller? I have done so but to my great annoyance it makes the boot-up scan of the controllers attatched devices super-slow. Ironically its exactly the same behavior other than the speed of boot scan no matter if the controller is terminated or not.

When I boot up, enter menu ect I get "other media errors" from disk 2. Aka It fails to "initialize" the drives via the controller bios ect. I dont think the drive is at fault and certainly not the controller.

I think maybe im doing something wrong with the cabling/termination/jumpers on the disks themselves

now its Controller -> Disk (1) (jumpers set to SCSI ID 0) -> disk (2) (jumpers set to SCSI ID 1+ Terminated since its last disk in chain) -> terminator on the cable.
I use the jumpers located where the power and controller cable is located not the jumpers in the middle of the drive is this a problem?

Yet every time I start up it scans = fine
Spins = errors after 50% aka disk 2.

When entering bios errors come up with the second disk acting weird.

Am I using wrong cable/termination? am I setting jumpers wrong?

Im really at a loss, ive read, studied and torn my hair out by now and I simply need someone profeccient in theese matters to aid me.

My cincerest thanks in advance.

Best regards
Hammerz

 

[Hammerz]

Thanks for your attention to help me out, appreciated.

as pr your request:

options are:

*SCSI ID 0/fault led
*SCSI ID 1/Ground
*SCSI ID 2/Ground
*SCSI ID 3/Busy Led
*Not Used/Ground
*+5V/Term Power

also for the original documentation look here:
http://www.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor...on_guides/atlas_15k_ii_installation_guide.pdf

its a 2 page documentation Pdf for the disk jumpers ect.

I have used the jumper locations at the power/cable site is that right or wrong?

As to how ive jumpered my disks well scsi ID 0 on disk 1 and scsi >ID 2 on disk 2 (have now removed Term power)

Here is a link to the controllers direct page im using at LSI´s webpage:

http://www.lsi.com/products/megaraid/scsi_320_2x.html

Hope this helps!

 

[Hammerz]

Thanks man, ill check it tonight when I get home from work. Ill throw in a reply how things work out *crossing my fingers*

Cheers!

 

[jap0nes]

hey man, i think you're messing up something with these id jumpers. altough they may seem to indicate the actual scsi id (0, 1, 2 or 3), they actually dont. there is a right combination to select each id.

also, as wusy said, you can test disabling staggered spin, maybe the second drive are not ready when the controller boots on. if you disable staggered spin they'll just spin all together when you turn on your computer instead of start spinning one by one.

edit:
i'm not sure, but if you're using a terminator, then you would have to set auto termination to off. if auto termination is on, then remove the terminator... terminator.. i'll be back

edit2:
try to listen if both disks are spinning when it scans the bus, whether staggered spin is on or off...

 

[Hammerz]

Hey guys, thanks for all the help so far.

As it looks the settings you recommended seems to be working fine, however 2 things remain.

A) When termination is disabled on the scsi controller it goes from ultra fast to ultra slow in all operations especially scanning for devices ect were talking 20 mins+ for a single scan
- I know the Maxtor SCSI disks says "onboard termination not supported" but what the hell?

B) the top drive works alone and in stripe its the same disk thats causing trouble no matter if I put it solo, first in a stripe ect same drive always so im quite sure something is going on with it.

Now here comes the super-flunker. In order to qualify for RMA I need to run Maxtors SCSI diagnostics from a floppy.

But when I run the program, just before it gets going it complains that no ASPI is loaded.

I chekked the web and found numerous floppy/boots with some SCSI controllers loading on the floppy but all where from prior 2003 and none recognized mine :roll:

Any chance one of you can link or compile and link me the dos floppy download?

Cheers

Best regards
Hammerz

 

[michaelahess]

I found this on Maxtors site:

ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface) is a software layer that enables programs to communicate with SCSI devices. Adaptec® ASPI drivers will load from the Windows 98SE, or Millennium (ME) startup disks, when the "Start computer with CD-ROM support" option is chosen at the selector prompt. Symbios Logic® hosts load their own ASPI drivers during system startup. If you are using another brand of SCSI host adapter, consult your host or system manufacturer for ASPI driver support. SCSIMax is not currently supported to run on SCSI Ultra320 controllers, due to boot issues

Just fake an error message and get the RMA number. Or call Maxtor tech support and explain the situation to them.

You might also check with LSI.

 

[Hammerz]

Gotcha.

Thanks to you all ill RMA this baybe and see where it goes.

TOo bad I really looked forward to testing this out for IO/performance ahh well :roll:

And again thanks for digging into the troubleshooting, youre the people that makes a forum visit like this a positive experience keep it up!