Installing Compaq SCSI hd in Amiga 3000

[TheMagicM]

I have a 4.3 gig Compaq SCSI hard drive I just bought used..yes it works.    I set the SCSI ID to 0, and set the jumper to terminate, but HDToolBox under 3.1 does not see it.. I have it setup as the only hard drive and am wanting to install 3.1 on it.

Any help appreciated.

[amiga1260]

Do you have kickstart 3.1 roms in your A3000? Are you using internal scsi or other SCSI cards like Cyberstorm internal SCSI?

If it's not the internal SCSI device you have to change the SCSI_DEVICE_NAME.

First you make a backup of your install disk.

Insert the copy of Install disk an go to the drawer HDTools. Click once at the HDToolbox icon.

Click on the right mousebutton, go to icons and select information.

Change this:

SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=scsi.device

to this:

IE: SCSI_DEVICE_NAME=cyberscsi.device

Some HD are not very compatible with Amiga's, but I am not sure with SCSI HD's.

[Ilwrath]

Hmm...  I might not set the SCSI ID to 0.  As I understand it, the base SCSI configurations support 8 devices (0-7) but included in that list is SCSI controller, itself, which is counted and has a SCSI ID.  Sometimes this is fixed to ID 0.  I don't remember if it was on the 3000, as I never use ID 0, myself.

Try setting the SCSI ID to something 1-6 range to be safe.  

Also, of course, make sure you have the right device listed in your HDToolBox's tooltype.

And, also, of course, make sure your external chain is terminated.  (You always need exactly two termination points, with the controller in the middle.  If you have no external devices, make sure the controller "knows" this, so it can terminate that chain, itself.  Often there is a jumper to set.)

And, last, but not least, was this Compaq SCSI drive from a server or disk array, by any chance?  If so, you may have some additional problems.

[TheMagicM]

hdtoolbox tooltype = scsi.device

I set the scsi ID to 1, termination is on the hd, just like a oldschool scsi drive... still does not find it.  Yes I have 3.1 roms installed.

[Ilwrath]

Ok... But you didn't answer my question about the origin of the drive.  Many Compaq disks, especially early ones from array cabinets and servers were LVD or Differential SCSI.  These devices may need some special attention to degrade them back down to a normal SCSI 1 or SCSI 2 standard.  This isn't supposed to happen, but I've heard rumors of certain drive designs from 5-7 years ago by IBM and Compaq (used in servers) that have severe problems on earlier interfaces.  Also, just out of curiosity, what is the model # of the compaq drive, and what connector does it have?

The ROMs on the Amiga shouldn't matter...  I mean, they are A3000 ROMs, right?  (not adapted A2000 ones, or something??)

Are you sure the SCSI controller on your mainboard is good?  I've seen certain A3000s with dead WD SCSI chips....

[1500]

It's only the current drives in Compaq (HP!) servers which are LVD (Low-Voltage Differential) - this is a standard which was introduced with the Ultra2SCSI (which is NOT the same as UltraSCSI2!!) but has been superceded by Ultra3 and now Ultra320.  All the older pluggable drives (beige carriers) are single-ended SCSI.  LVD drives should quite happily operate on a single-ended chain as they will all sync down to the lowest common denominator as far as bus speed is concerned - I run several drives in this configuration.

There was also a high-voltage differential standard as well, but this only tended to be used for large external tape silos.

Compaq have never manufactured their own drives.  They participated in the development of the SCSI protocols, but they always sourced units from a third party, re-branded them and blew new firmware onto them to handle the systems management gubbins, but if you're not using that you won't notice it's there (unless you have a particularly buggy version of firmware!!)

If you've got a part number for the drive I could try and cross-reference it and find out exactly what it is.

- Andy

[TheMagicM]

hd is out of a regular pc..nothing fancy.    I got it working but here's the weird stuff.  Now this hard drive has checksum errors... the same symptoms like the other two.. they worked fine and then all of a sudden..checksum problems.  I installed a A3640 and read that sometimes it causes problems w/the A3000 scsi...you have to replace the dmac... so I removed the a3640..still have checksum errors... what could the problem be?