CompuServe Messages

I just put a Syquest 44/88MB drive on my A3000 w/o any problems at all. A few things to beware of: If the Syquest is the only device plugged into your SCSI port, it should be terminated. A terminator is a means of noise reduction for the SCSI bus, and you should ALWAYS terminate the last device on the SCSI chain, even if you only have one device plugged in. (Make sure that the dealer puts the drive in a box with TWO (2) SCSI connectors [they should look just like the Centronics connector on your printer, only bigger]. If you don't, it'll be a REAL pain to add anything else like a CD-ROM player later. Also, MAKE SURE the guy takes off the internal terminating resistors, and sells you an external terminator plug. If you use an external terminator plug, you'll never have to worry about which device is terminated and which isn't.) Make sure the SCSI ID doesn't match the ID of your internal drive(s). To determine the ID of your current drives, use the HDToolBox utility that is in Tools directory of your system partition. (You can also use this program to perform the low-level formatting you'll need to do to the cartridge.) When you run HDToolbox, you'll get a list of all the drives on the SCSI bus. It's fairly self explanatory, and I believe it's fairly well documented in the manual. The Syquest SCSI ID should be settable by a small switch on the back of the case. A really cool utility I got from CIS is called SCSIMounter, and it allows you to mount a cartridge after the system has booted up. I can't remember, but I think it was in the AmigaUser libraries. (I'd recommend that you GO AMIGAFF, and search for SCSI.) Finally, I have tried a number of Syquest boxes on my A3000, and some of them seem to cause a problem with the Amiga Power Supply. If the Syquest box is turned on BEFORE the A3000, the A3000 just won't come on. (I thought my power supply had fried the first time.) I get around this problem by turning on the A3000 first, and THEN turn on the Syquest drive immediately thereafter. Good Luck, Syquests are fun! Erik Flom