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The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: melott on July 29, 2004, 01:34:21 AM

Title: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: melott on July 29, 2004, 01:34:21 AM
Anyone know where I can D/L the software to mount
and install a SCSI drive on the PC??
I've spent about 2 hours on the Adaptec site and
can't find it.
I D/l'ed it there a year or so ago but when I gave
that old card away the software went with it.
I now have a newer card (AHA2940UW). Hardware sees
the drive but I need to mount and format it.
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: AdMartin on July 29, 2004, 01:56:39 AM
Assuming you use Windows, you don't need special software for that, only Windows drivers for the SCSI card. When Windows recognises the SCSI card you can partition and format drives the same way you would any plain IDE drives.

However, if you use Windows 98 or earlier, you'll need to install DOS drivers and use the Adaptec DOS partition utility, unless you partition the drive with a third-party application such as Partition Magic.

/Martin
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: melott on July 29, 2004, 02:08:49 AM
I'm using Windows 98SE.
I was looking for the DOS partitioning util but
was unable to find it.
Maybe its not on the site anymore.
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: shaf on July 29, 2004, 02:14:34 AM
Melott,

Use the Fidisk for Win98SE, it should work fine.

The old FDisk limitation was for MS-Dos 6.22 because Larger SCSI partitions were not recognised properly.

The adaptec dos utility was called adisk.

The win98se startup disk should have everything you need.


Cheers

Shaf
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: Sparky on July 29, 2004, 02:32:25 AM
If you do CTRL-A while the machine is booting (think that is the right key combination, you'll know when to press it as something about Adaptec will pop up on screen)
Then make sure the BIOS is enabled on the adapter, that way DOS will know about it, then just use FDISK to do the partitioning.

Been years since I've used any SCSI disks, all my work is Fibre Channel based now.

Regards.
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: Floid on July 29, 2004, 03:00:47 AM
Quote

shaf wrote:
Melott,

Use the Fidisk for Win98SE, it should work fine.

The old FDisk limitation was for MS-Dos 6.22 because Larger SCSI partitions were not recognised properly.

The adaptec dos utility was called adisk.

The win98se startup disk should have everything you need.


Cheers

Shaf
Agreed, and from memory, Win98 plain should work, too.  (Well, with a 2940UW, it did, the U2W might, again, need new DOS drivers.)

The problem in recognizing shouldn't be the fdisk... it's that you may need an ASPI driver for DOS to get fdisk to work from the boot disk... and perhaps the same on your hard drive to get full functionality during a "reboot into DOS mode."  (This is a .SYS that would need to be loaded in CONFIG.SYS before DOS could see the drives in any fashion.)

Been long enough that I can't remember what's needed to use fdisk from the DOS 'emulation' while Windows is actually running.
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: TjLaZer on July 29, 2004, 03:10:22 AM
Um isn't this a AMIGA forum? lol  There are a million other placed to get help with PC problems... ;)
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: melott on July 29, 2004, 03:34:02 AM
--------------
Um isn't this a AMIGA forum? lol There are a million other placed to get help with PC problems... ;)
--------------

I did post in the Alternitive OS forum didn't I ?? :-D
 
Title: Re: SCSI on the PC .. help needed
Post by: AdMartin on July 29, 2004, 07:04:17 PM
As a couple of other guys said, simply use the MS-DOS partitioning utility fdisk, after installing ASPI8DOS.SYS in your config.sys. You have to be in real DOS mode to use fdisk, so restart your computer in DOS mode or press F8 during boot to get the start-up menu and choose DOS mode directly.

Oh, ASPI8DOS.SYS is a part of this package (http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/driverdetail.jsp?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=/Product/AHA-2940UW&filekey=fms_on_cd_v40a_sp3a_no2k.exe).

However, fdisk has its limitations with newer drives. I've never got a hard drive (IDE or SCSI) bigger than, say 17GB, to work properly with Win98 fdisk. How big is your drive and what brand is it? Some manufacturers offer partioning utilities as free downloads from their sites, but recently many have ceased to offer them as Win XP doesn't need them... :/

/Martin