HD Question

[Gouv]

Hey I'm trying to get the following working together:

Seagate ST34502LC Cheetah SCA HD Link
SCA to 68 pin SCSI adapter with active terminator
Adaptec AHA-2940U2 Ultra2 SCSI adapter Link
68 pin cable with LVD/SE Terminator

I hooked one end of the cable into the Adaptec ----> second end (with the terminator) into the SCA adapter ----> SCA adapter into the SCA connector on the drive.

So, the Adaptec has 2 internal 68pin connectors. The first is Fast/Ultra and the second is Ultra2. The drive does not work when connected to the Ultra2 one, but does work on the Fast/Ultra.

Transfers are ssssslllllloooowwwww, so I'm wondering why I can't get the Ultra2 working. I'm thinking it's either the SCA adapter w/ terminator, or the Ultra2 is dead. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[dkozloski]

It sounds to me like you have the drive terminated twice, with the SCA adaptor and with the terminator on the end of the cable. Try hooking the very end connector to the SCA adaptor without the cable terminator.

 

[Gouv]

You were right about the terminating twice - but still nothing on the Ultra2

 

[Monoman]

slwo SCSI speeds can come from a bad cables.(had it happen myself, one day I rebooted and noticed my U160 was in ASYNC mode(which is the slowest mode) so I replaced my cable and it solved my issue)

Good luck!

 

[Gouv]

Yeah that could be it because I notice no difference between the modes. Is there any program/utility that will tell you how the adapter has the drive set up (i.e. Sync/Async, Wide, etc)? I googled but no luck so far.

 

[Gouv]

Oh and I'm not crazy about this, right? Even a vintage 1999 4.5GB 10,000 rpm drive SHOULD blow away my 40GB 5400rpm drive if it's configured properly...

 

[Monoman]

your best luck is with the boot up screen. every Adaptec I have used states which mode it's in upon boot as long as it's enabled in the HBA's bios to display it.. not to sure about a program, but I know in linux upon boot, it displays mode plain as english so I am sure it's posible.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: Gouv
Oh and I'm not crazy about this, right? Even a vintage 1999 4.5GB 10,000 rpm drive SHOULD blow away my 40GB 5400rpm drive if it's configured properly...

Maybe in some cases, but I have a 7200 rpm scsi drive from 1996 that got its butt kicked by a 60GB 5400rpm ide "slug" in 2000.

 

[Monoman]

Originally posted by: Gouv
Oh and I'm not crazy about this, right? Even a vintage 1999 4.5GB 10,000 rpm drive SHOULD blow away my 40GB 5400rpm drive if it's configured properly...

your crazy. 18.2gb 10k drive only has a susained xfer rate of around 18-13Mb/s and anyHDD nowadays can spank thta. but, only the RAPTOR can touch the access time which makes it "feel" faster

 

[mastertech01]

Just butting in here, but it looks like you have an non LVD SCA adaptor, which will limit the buss to UW. You need an LVD SCA adaptor with LVD drives on the LVD buss with LVD cable and terminator.

 

[Gouv]

Thanks - I was so obsessed with getting an adapter with a terminator that I overlooked the whole compatability issue. Also, I'm new to this and I didn't realize that it actually makes a difference!

 

[Gouv]

Update and questions:

Bought a new SCA adapter that is LDV compliant and now I can boot from the Ultra2 controller on the adapter.

Now I have a weird problem with the termination. The drive boots without the terminator (weird). That's probably making it run much slower that it should right? When I put the terminator on, the bootup hangs at the point where the adapter tries to detect the drive. Think a new Ultra2 cable with terminator might fix this?

Also, I did the following comparisson against a vintage 1998 Quantum Bigfoot drive. Stats:

Quantum: ATA33, Internal transfer rate 101-168Mb/s, 10.5ms seek (yeah right), 4000 rpm, 512KB buffer
vs
Seagate: Ultra2 SCSI, Internal transfer rate 151-231Mb/s, 5.4ms seek, 10,000 rpm, 1MB buffer

Results:
Quantum Seagate
Linear read 13MB/s 6.2MB/s
Random read 1.1MB/s 2.5MB/s
Seek 14ms 8.2ms

So based on those results (slow linear read) do you think a cable will solve the problem?

Thanks