On Mon, 29 May 2000, Gary Nielson wrote:
> Thanks, Mikkel:
>
> Your reply was very helpful. I have a couple of "quick" questions below:
>
> On Mon, 29 May 2000, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> > Gary,
> > As long as the SCSI card on the new system has an external
> > connector, the easy way to handle it is to connect the tape drive to the
> > same SCSI card as the CD-RW drive. As long as the tape drive and the
>
> Since I am awaiting arrival of the machine, I do not know, but is it
> common for the SCSI card on the new system to have an external connector?
> Does that mean all I would have to do is plug the tape drive cable into
> the external connector already on the box? If there isn't an external
> connector, does that mean my only option is 2 cards (which I have anyway)?
>
Most cards will have an external connector. It could be a DB25, or a HD50
connector. As long as the connector matches the card you have now, you
should be able to plug it in. You may have to change a jumper on the SCSI
card, or remove some resister packs, to turn off temination on the SCSI
card, or it may do it for you. You will have to check the manual for the
card. Another option may be to mount the tape drive inside the machine,
if you have a spare drive bay. I would have to look up the spec's on the
drive, but most SCSI tape drives can be removed from the external case and
remounted inside the computer case.
>
> > CD-RW drive don't have the same ID, and do not have ID 7, about the only
> > thing you may have to do is turn off termination on the SCSI card. About
> > the only time you might have problems is when backing up to tape, and
> > burning a CD at the same time. But you may have problems with that even
> > with the tape drive and CD-RW on seperate cards.
> > If you need to run two cards, you shouldn't run into any problems.
> > If they were both ISA cards, it would be a different story, but the PCI
> > cards should get along. About the only conflict would be if they both
> > have a SCSI BIOS on them, and it gets mapped into the same address space.
> > But the card for the tape drive probably doesn't have a BIOS on it anyway.
>
> It's a AHA-2940 single PCI SCSI Intl card. Adaptec I believe. How can I
> find out for sure if it has a BIOS on it? Can I remap to a different
> address or is it easier just to get another card without a BIOS?
>
Do you have the manual for the card? If not, look on the Adaptec site and
check the spec's. Chances are that if it does have a BIOS, it can be
turned off. But if it came with the tape drive, it probably doesn't have
one. If it does have one, you will see a message from it when you boot
the system. It should also say something about scanning the SCSI buss.
This is before you get the LILO prompt, or Windows starts booting.
>
> One thing you didn't say - does the new system have SCSI hard
> > drives? If so, and if they are on the same card, then make sure the tape
> > drive isn't on the same address as the hard drives.
>
> IDE hard drives.
>
>
> SCSI isn't that hard
> > to set up, as long as you remember to use good cables, and remember to
> > only terminate the ends of the chain. A SCSI card with an internel and
> > externel drive is not on the end, but in the middel of the chain.
> >
>
> OK, I am confused about this. Are you saying that either the internal
> or the external device needs to be terminated (take your pick?) because
> the card itself is in the middle? That's assuming there's only one card
> being used of course. What if there are two cards? Does this mean that
> each card is a separate universe and there would need to be termination
> for both the CD-RW and the tape drive on the different cards? Presumably
> the CD-RW will be shipping from the factory terminated anyway right?
>
Actualy, with an internal drive, and an external drive, both need to be
terminated. The system should come with the CD-RW and the SCSI card
having termination turned on. When you hang a something on the external
connector, your SCSI card is no longer on one end of the chain, so it
doesn't get terminated. The last device on the external chain gets
terminated instead. (You can have more then one external device.)
Also, if you have more then one device on the internal SCSI cable, the
last device on the chain should be the only one that has termination
turned on.
If you use two cards, then the card and the last device attached to the
card both need termination.
Normal rule on SCSI termination: You need two and only two terminators - one
on each end of the SCSI chain. For a card with only external devices, or only
internal devices, it will be the card, and the device on the other end of the
cable from the card. With both external and internal devices, you
terminate the devices on the ends of the cable away from the card. There
are a couple of special cases that are different, but the only one you are
likely to run into here is if the system comes with a terminator that
plugs into the end of the cable instead of using the terminators on the
CD-RW drive.
[tape drive]---------[SCSI card]-----------[CD-RW]
^ ^
terminate terminate
[tape drive]---------[SCSI card]
^ ^
terminate terminate
[SCSI card]----------[CD-RW]
^ ^
terminate terminate
[SCSI card]----------[tape drive]-------[CD-RW]
^ ^
terminate terminate
>
> Thanks for all the help.
>
> Gary
>
I hope I cleared things up a bit.
Mikkel
--
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for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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