A3000 SCSI setup

[ajk]

Hello!

I've got an A3000 but I'm not that familiar with how the SCSI on it works (never had one back in the day, just now recently). At the moment I have an actual 1GB SCSI drive in there, and it's still working sort of but showing signs of old age. I'd like to replace it with a modern alternative, so I got an ACard ARS 2000-SUP adapter. I've used a similar one successfully in my A4000, but now I'm not sure how to set this up.

I put a 40GB SATA drive in the adapter, and everything does show up in HDToolBox. However, querying the drive for data always gives different results for the cylinders and other parameters, and when I try to save the changes to the drive it gives me error code -3 (command not supported, if I understood correctly). I tried partitioning the drive in WinUAE (using a SATA-USB adapter) instead, and saving changes does work there, but it's still unrecognized in the actual hardware. I have also tried another SATA drive just in case.

I realise there are going to be limitations with Kickstart / Workbench 3.1 and a big drive, but I'm perfectly happy to just get a few gigs to use. I can't easily install 3.9 if I can't do it in UAE, as I haven't got a suitable CD drive for the A3000. 3.1 floppies I do have of course.

So, which would be the right steps to get the drive supported and partitioned with these limitations? What do I need to add to 3.1 to get things going?

Thanks for any help!

[SACC-guy]

Wow, we have just recently answered on the larger hard drive (see partition thread)
But SATA...I have never seen it used on older scsi even with adapters.
Please let us know what you learn. We may all run into these issues when the old drives die.

M

[gertsy]

Hello!

I've got an A3000 but I'm not that familiar with how the SCSI on it works (never had one back in the day, just now recently). At the moment I have an actual 1GB SCSI drive in there, and it's still working sort of but showing signs of old age. I'd like to replace it with a modern alternative, so I got an ACard ARS 2000-SUP adapter. I've used a similar one successfully in my A4000, but now I'm not sure how to set this up.

I put a 40GB SATA drive in the adapter, and everything does show up in HDToolBox. However, querying the drive for data always gives different results for the cylinders and other parameters, and when I try to save the changes to the drive it gives me error code -3 (command not supported, if I understood correctly). I tried partitioning the drive in WinUAE (using a SATA-USB adapter) instead, and saving changes does work there, but it's still unrecognized in the actual hardware. I have also tried another SATA drive just in case.

I realise there are going to be limitations with Kickstart / Workbench 3.1 and a big drive, but I'm perfectly happy to just get a few gigs to use. I can't easily install 3.9 if I can't do it in UAE, as I haven't got a suitable CD drive for the A3000. 3.1 floppies I do have of course.

So, which would be the right steps to get the drive supported and partitioned with these limitations? What do I need to add to 3.1 to get things going?

Thanks for any help!

So just to confirm.  
On the A3000 booted in WB3.1? within HDToolbox when you go into "Change Drive Type" and select "Define New Drive Type" each time you click on "Read configuration from Drive" you get a different result in regard to Cylinders, heads and blocks per track etc?

A few questions:
Does the ACard have SCSI termination and is it set?
What SCSI Id do you have it set to?
Does it support LUNs and what options do you have?
What sort of 40GB SATA drive are you using?

I don't know if I can help but I'll give it a go.

BTW: These ACARD SCSI-SATA things are expensive...

Cheers

[ajk]

@SACC-guy

Yeah modern solutions do need to be found. IDE is straightforward enough for the time being, but SCSI is trickier.


@gertsy

I booted the A3000 with an "Install 3.1" floppy and ran HDToolBox from there. The behaviour was as you describe. It did get the manufacturer name and model more or less right, and also didn't work at all if there was no SATA drive in the adapter so it is definitely working in principle.

The adapter has the following jumpers:

"ID1, 2, 4" - without jumpers at the moment so id 0, I have tried other combinations and it shows up in the expected spot in HDToolBox.
"Delay start" not set
"Write protect" not set
"Parity disable" not set
"SCSI terminator" set
"Terminator on" set

The SATA drive is some oldish Seagate one, don't have the model number at hand but I can look it up. I also tried a Fujitsu and it behaves the same way.

The adapters are indeed somewhat costly, but I got mine at a decent price, and since it has worked so well with the CyberStorm SCSI in the A4000, I thought why not If we get this working, the A3000 will be future-proofed for a long while.

I have a Deneb so I can transfer stuff to and from the A3000. I haven't yet gotten it to boot from the Deneb, though, I'll have to try that a new go at some point. Still, the hard drive would be great so I wouldn't need to necessarily have the Deneb installed all the time. This system is not in such active use, just comes out for shows and meetings every now and then.

[gertsy]

Even though it has a 50pin connector I'm guessing it could be an incompatibility between the ACARDs Ultra SCSI interface and the 3000s SCSI-2.  Though Ultra SCSI should be backward compatible.
You could try HDInsttools instead of HDToolBox. : http://aminet.net/package/disk/misc/hdinst
But if you get the same result I would hazard a guess that it's the 3000.

[danbeaver]

Wow, we have just recently answered on the larger hard drive (see partition thread)
But SATA...I have never seen it used on older scsi even with adapters.
Please let us know what you learn. We may all run into these issues when the old drives die.

M

SATA works fine with the adapter on the A2091, A4091 and the UWSCSI of a CSPPC.  I've used SATA as 80 GB, 1TB, and a 128 GB SSD.  It should work on a fully functional A3000, but I've been bitten so many times with that computer, the D800 diode, WD controller and termination issues that all bets are off, in my opinion.  That is, among other reasons, I sold off all my A3000's and blame them for global warming, Ebola, HIV type 2, prion diseases, and rabid MOS users ♥

Good luck, and may God Bless!

[gertsy]

I guess you could check if you have the 3000 SCSI controller issue:
See this thread: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=56201&highlight=scsi+problems+3000