CompuServe Thread

#Hard Disk not recognised

17 messages in this thread
#167751From: ShraddhanOct 13, 1994 9:11 PM
I have a Quantum LP240S on a GVP G-Force accelerator card (board 0, ID 0) and a Fujitsu M2684S-512 on a GVP SCSI/RAM card (board 1, ID 2). Both disks have Last Disk and Last LUN checkmarked. The problem I'm having is that although the system boots up OK from the Quantum, the Fujitsu is not recognised at all until I do a warm boot. Even after a warm boot, HDToolbox still does not recognise the Fujitsu as being present, though all other relevant software accepts it. Any suggestions? Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#167815From: John ChangOct 14, 1994 9:26 AM
Shraddhan, Hmm, I think the problem is that you have two SCSI controllers and it is utterly confusing your Amiga. I suggest removing the GVP SCSI/RAM card and attaching the drives to your Accelerator's SCSI. If the GVP SCSI/RAM card is fairly new, you should be able to use the SIMMs to populate the Accelerator. As mentioned elsewhere on this forum, you may want to invest into an external hard drive enclosure if you cannot mount your additional drives within the A2000 chassis. Remember to set proper termination and addressing on the drives and I suggest that the fastest booting drive be set for ID 6 and the slowest at ID 1. In this manner, the SCSI controller will wait for the slowest drive to be ready before booting. Regards, John Chang
#167842From: ShraddhanOct 14, 1994 3:34 PM
John, Ever since I bought the Fujitsu drive, I had problems with it not being recognised. I returned it to the dealer and he told me that it was fine. With the accelerator card removed, the Fujitsu drive on the SCSI/RAM card is still not recognised. The Quantum drive used to be on this card, and I had no problems with it. I might just try your suggestion of setting the Quantum to ID 6 as this is the drive I boot off of. Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#167975From: ShraddhanOct 15, 1994 3:15 PM
John, I have followed your suggestion of setting the booting hard drive to ID 6. I have also included the line GVPScsiCtrl -s in my user-startup. Still no joy with the second hard disk being recognised on cold boot. If however I interrupt booting by holding down the right-hand mouse button, and then select 'boot' from the screen that appears, the second HD is recognised with no problem, even on cold boot. Re termination: I have copied a few largish files (over 1MB) to/from the Fujitsu drive with no problem. As for connecting the second drive to the accelerator card, I don't see how I can do this as both hard drives are internal, and there's nowhere to plug the second drive's 50-way cable into. Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#168151From: John ChangOct 17, 1994 11:30 AM
Shraddhan, As you may know, you can daisy-chain all the drives to the Accelerator's SCSI controller. You would, of course, need to get a 50-pin SCSI ribbon cable with multiple headers to accomplish this. Also, be sure that only your last drive in the chain is terminated. All other drives within the chain should not be terminated. Regards, John Chang Technical Support Manager Scala, Inc.
#168297From: ShraddhanOct 18, 1994 6:11 PM
John, > As you may know … you need a 50-pin SCSI cable … I think my mind must have switched off when I wrote in my last message that I could not see how to connect multiple internal drives. I have already ordered a cable with connectors to fit two drives, and it should be arriving tomorrow. I still have my doubts as to whether scrapping the use of one controller will actually help, but I will wait and see. Thanks for your help to date. Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#168353From: John ChangOct 19, 1994 9:44 AM
Shraddhan, >I think my mind must have switched off when I wrote in my last message That's OK. I have them from time to time. I call them "Brain Farts". Regards, John Chang
#168456From: Eulogio (DJ) GarciaOct 20, 1994 1:17 AM
Hey, I like that concept! I most DEFINITELY have them on occasion, too. I'm sure mine smell nice, though. DJ On AP from Queens, the thrill and excitement of the Big Apple Where a little paranoia keeps you healthy and sane …
#168414From: ShraddhanOct 19, 1994 8:40 PM
Right, I've now got both hard drives connected to the same controller. The problem is exactly the same – the Fujitsu drive is not recognised on cold boot. Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#167893From: Michael HerschedeOct 14, 1994 11:48 PM
Try adding GVPScsiCtrl -s to your startup, or you can type it in from CLI after bootup. This is the way I am getting my GVP to recognize my Quantum after a cold boot. As for the HDToolbox.. can be of no help, I never have used it. The Worst That Is.. Is Better than the Best that Could Be.
#167976From: ShraddhanOct 15, 1994 3:15 PM
Michael, Following your suggestion, I tried adding GVPScsiCtrl -s to my user-startup. It had no effect 🙁 It seems that failure to recognise the drive occurs before the startup-sequence gets executed. If I interrupt the boot process by holding down the right-hand mouse button, then selecting 'boot' from the screen that appears, the hard disk is recognised with no problem even on a cold boot. Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#168325From: Ray RobertsOct 18, 1994 11:51 PM
Excuse me, but isn't it ~GVPScsiCtrl -r" that you are using in your Startup-Sequence? This command rescans the SCSI bus for devices that have not been mounted and mounts them. Some hard drives have a slow spin-up time or rather the SCSI controller is autobooting too fast for the drive to keep up. Ray
#168413From: ShraddhanOct 19, 1994 8:40 PM
In my case, I have a Fujitsu 507MB hard drive and a Quantum 240MB hard drive, both on the one SCSI controller. On cold boot, the Fujitsu drive is never recognised and only appears after a warm boot, or if the cold boot process is delayed by holding down both mouse buttons. I have tried all documented options for GVPScsiCtrl to no avail. It appears that after a normal cold boot, the system cannot find the Fujitsu drive at all. The Fujitsu has ID = 2 and the Quantum has ID = 6 The problem happens even if I only have the Fujitsu drive, without the Quantum installed. The system is set to boot from the Quantum drive, not from the Fujitsu. Any ideas? Regards, Shraddhan (via AP from Hertfordshire, England)
#168427From: John DraperOct 19, 1994 11:08 PM
Try changing the Fujitsu to SCSI ID 5. -larry
#168428From: gary ludwickOct 19, 1994 11:10 PM
Coming in late on your woes, so I didn't see your opening messages. Two things come to mind: jumpers being set wrong, and termination. Is your controller at ID 0? Is the Fuji first in line, and the quantum second. Is the resistor pack removed from the first unit and in place on the 2nd? Do the jumpers on your drives match the ID's you've given in software? Lots to consider in the wonderful world of SCSI! Gary on AutoPilot from Charlotte, NC
#168553From: Steve SetzerOct 20, 1994 6:50 PM
Shaddran, Not a fix, but a workaround would be to get one of the pd/shareware reboot programs (used by BBS's) and add a little line in your startup-seqence re: IF NOT EXISTS dh<x>: (a partition name on the fujitsu) Rebootit (or whatever tool you use to reboot) ELSE END Place this in your startup-sequnce, then whenever the fujitsu is not recognized it will auto reboot untill the drive is up to speed. …Steve Cruising on Autopilot from beautiful Coastal South Carolina
#168570From: James R. OllickOct 20, 1994 9:44 PM
I had the same problem with a 540 Meg. IDE hard drive on my 4000. The system looks for hard drives first, before the startup-sequence is executed. The larger hard drives take a little longer to spin up to speed than the smaller ones. After installing WorkBench 3.1, the problem was solved, I guess they made the machine wait just long enough to catch the larger drives. I do get a software failure and auto reboot everytime I cold boot, I do not know if this is how C= solved the problem or if there is another problem but it beets having to warm boot all the time. If you have a 3000 there is a program that will set the system ROM to wait 2 seconds for drives to spin up to speed. The program is here on CIS, I think it is called BATMEM. It may even work on the 500 and 2000. Let me know how you make out with this. Jim R. Ollick Using AP from Bergenfield, NJ