#Maxtor LXT-100 SCSI
9 messages in this thread
Hello there, SCSI gurus. Perhaps you can offer me your opinions. I ran
across a place advertising a real attractive price on a Maxtor LXT-100S
3.5" hard drive ($379). Was wondering what the general consensus out there
was on that drive. I know Maxtor has an excellent reputation, but
somewhere in the dark past I remember a thread involving compatible drives
for Microbotics Hardframe SCSI controller, and apparently the LXT-100
simply wouldn't work with it at all. Now, I don't have a Hardframe (I have
an ICD Advantage 2000) but I would like to have an idea if this drive is
going to cause me undue compatibility problems.
I have had my fill of compatibility problems, from the nonstandard SCSI
implementation of the Conner CP-340 drive I now use (which also doesn't
contain a terminator pack), to the Konica KT-510 10.7MB SCSI floppy drive,
which still acts totally flaky. I was previously using both of these in an
external box, connected to an A2090 in a Subsystem 500 expansion chassis
underneath an Amiga 500. The Conner was extremely flaky until I realized
it needed to be terminated, which the Konica conveniently did for me. On
the other hand, I would regularly get the SCSI bus completely locked up
(the activity light on the KT-510 would come on and not go off) right after
the Binddrivers command polled the SCSI bus. I thought that this was at
least partly due to the infamous 2090's less-than-accurate support of
removeable media drives. I looked forward to the day that I could actually
*use* the Konica, with my new removeable-media-friendly ICD, which wouldn't
work in the Subsystem. I'm now discovering that I'm having similiar (but
not quite as bad) problems, even with the new controller.
Am I going to go through the same headaches with the LXT-100? Should I
just get the Quantum 105S, which was my other choice, and swallow an
additional $170 or so? It's just that I'd heard that, in general, Maxtor
was about as good as HD's get. True?
+ Phil +
We've been using a Maxtor LXT100S for almost a year (on another computer
system) on our BBS without a problem.
Aha! Just the person I'd like to talk to. I had little doubt that the
Maxtor was a good drive, my only question was whether it would cause any
problems with the Advantage 2000, being that I had heard it was
incompatible with another Amiga HD controller.
Do you know of any Advantage 2000 owners who are using the LXT-100? Have
you ever tried it?
By the way, how do I get a copy of the "real" docs for the board? The ones
I have say "preliminary". There seems to be several issues not covered in
there. Another question: every time I try to use the Konica KT-510 drive,
it causes me problems. Either locks up the SCSI bus, or freezes everything
when trying to a partition/format- unless verification is turned completely
OFF. Any ideas?
+ Phil +
Are you sure you have done the termination right on the SCSI bus? What
else do you need to know that isn't in the manual? Some of the
"preliminary" versions were only because it was photocopied instead of
printed.
Craig
The termination is provided in the Konica drive. I know, (or at least
*think* I know) because adding the Konica to the SCSI bus was obviously
what I needed to eliminate the *severe* problems that the Conner CP-340 was
having. After having done that, haven't had a *whit* of a problem with the
regular HD.
It seemed to me that there were issues that weren't covered in the manual,
as in modifying parameters for the drives. Unless of course, the Advantage
doesn't allow you to do so- which would be a pity. It seems that most
other controllers give you many more options in terms of mountlist
parameters, like MaxTransfer. Also, the install program wants to do every
thing "automatically", but what happens when it can't read the proper
configuration information from the embedded controller? On BOTH of my
drives, there is at least one error message that comes up at the time of
formatting. On the Konica, it gets an error regarding one of 'em, either
"reading drive configuration" or "reading controller configuration"- and on
the Conner it reports an error on BOTH. I have also discovered that the
gadgets for LUN, ID, etc. seem to be totally worthless, since if the format
program can't read a drive on the SCSI bus, those gadgets seem to be
inactive as far as entering the information manually.
In addition, one of the main reasons I was interested in more options in
the setup software was the rather dissapointing data transfer rates I've
been able to get out of the drive. I know that ICD makes big waves re: the
Advantage's speed, but it seems substandard for a 29ms Conner to only peak
out at something slightly under 200k reads. Dir scan and seek/read seem to
be fine, but I was led to believe by various sources that I could achieve
something better than that. Now, with another controller I could go in and
change MaxTransfer, but I don't see a way to do that with the Advantage.
Oh- by the way, does the Advantage require BindDrivers? It wasn't exactly
clear in the manual either. Thanks.
+ Phil +
I'll get back to you on this. We have several people on vacation this
week, so it may be a while. Remind me if you don't hear anything by about
the 3rd.
Craig
Okay…you gottie.
Oh,and about the Maxtor, I don't know if it has been explicitly tested with
the AdSCSI 2000. The person to ask is on vacation for a couple of weeks.
But I know that it follows the CCS standards, so it I can't imagine why it
wouldn't work.
Craig
Thanks for the note re: the LXT-100. It appears that I may end up with
something like a Quantum anyway- since I didn't realize that apparently the
Maxtor is somewhat slower. Thanks though.
+ Phil +