[NBLUG/talk] SCSI connections

[Ron Wickersham]

On Fri, 7 May 2004, Cal Herrmann wrote:

> I have gotten a Fujitsu SCSI HD with the card-edge connector, called SCA?
> And an adapter to the old-style SCSI connector, since I have an on-board SCSI
> Adaptec called aic 7880 Ultrawide channel A (which works with an older SCSI
> drive).  The Adaptec setup won't format the drive, reports Command Failed,
> Target status 02h check condition, sense key 02h not ready.
> There are some empty jumpers on the card adapter, address and PriStat,
> DlyStat, should I jumper one of these?  Ideas?  My (Mandrake) startup sees
> the drive but says it isn't ready.
> Cal Herrmann

hi Cal,

addresses on SCA drives is set thru the single connector that also supplies
the power.  using an adaptor card with power supplied to the adaptor works
fine, but yes, you do need to set the target address with the jumpers on
the card.  often if you don't have any jumpers installed the drive will
default to target 0 (is this the target reported by the Adaptec setup
utility?).   normally you don't do a low-level format on SCSI drives but
instead use the format provided with the operating system.   there is also
one unfortunate gotcha with surplus SCA drives.  some manufacturers of
large storage systems do a low level format with a proprietary block size
and the drive cannot be corrected with either the operating system format
or the Adaptec utility.  a drive that was from a machine with any Unix-like
or MicroSoft operating system is not a problem, however.

-ron