Much as I hate to admit I am using W95 on a Pentium 166 MMX, it
is really to run E11 and run RT-11.
Included, I have an Iomega SCSI Insider (100 MByte Zip drive) which
came with a (wonder of wonders) Adaptec 1510 SCSI host adapter
(at least I think that was the Adaptec number - it is inside the guts of
the motherboard and I ca pull it to check if absolutely necessary).
Now, wonder of wonders, not only does the 1510 and the Iomega
APSI device drivers support the Zip drive, but I can also connect
the Sony SMO S-501 as well. In fact, at one point, I had 3 of the
Sony magneto optical drives (SCSI ID 0,1,2 and the Zip at ID 6)
all running on the 1510 and of course recognizing all four SCSI
units at boot time (along with a C: drive and an IDE CD-ROM
drive) for a total of 8 drives: A: (3.5" floppy) B: (5 1/4" floppy)
C:, D:, E:, F:, G: (Zip) and H: (CD-ROM).
About half the time I boot without the Sony drives and the ZIP drive
and the Iomega device driver complains there are no SCSI IDs, and
I just press any character to continue.
On occasion, I want to use a SCSI hard drive (currently I have both
a ST11200N and a ST32550N) instead of the Sony drives (I hardly
ever use the Zip drive - it is normally cabled to the 50-pin cable but
not powered on). When that happens, i.e. want to use the Seagate
drives, I find it necessary to FIRST boot W95 with the Sony drive
powered on at the same SCSI ID I will be using for the Seagate
drive. Then I power down all the Sony drives, disconnect them ALL
from the end of the cable (a 50 pin external centronics connector
since the Sony drives are external boxes) and power up (sometimes
all three) the Seagate drives, i.e. I can't seem to keep both the
Seagate drives and the Sony drives powered up on the SCSI cable
at the same time.
In addition, if I boot W95 with just the Seagate drives powered on,
they are not even recognized at all - actually not quite true. Although
W95 and the device drivers from Iomega will not allow these Seagate
SCSI hard drives, the are "partially" recognized by E11 to the point
that I can "MOUNT" them under E11, but I can't really access them
properly. It looks as if the Iomega supplied device drivers will not
recognize a fixed (i.e. non-removable media hard drive).
I would prefer to not use W95, but that is all I have to use when I post
to classiccmp and use email and the internet.
Plus, I really use the PC to run RT-11 on the PC, so please don't suggest
getting a MAC or running Linux or some equally reasonable answer since
I like having the system right now with RT-11 and the Zip and Sony drives
and I can put up with the problem of having to boot with Sony drives if I
have to.
So, it sounds like a termination problem on the SCSI bus. But
the ST11200N is definitely terminated from the drive. I checked at:
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/scsi/st11200n.html
and J2 has both the Parity and Terminator jumpers. But when even just
one ST11200N drive is cabled on and powered on by itself, booting W95
does not recognize the ST11200N, but having the Sony drive there first
does the job as stated above.
So I am starting to think the problem is more likely the device drivers.
Could the 1510 and the Adaptec device drivers just not recognize an
ST11200N (or any other SCSI hard drive that is not removable), but
be fooled once booted with the Sony drive which has a removable media?
NOTE: I want to use the ST32550N under both RT-11 as a permanent
and much faster hard drive (the Sony is quite slow) and W95 as a backup
device - I have an option on a bunch of these drives even if I can't solve
the boot problem - does anyone else want a few as well?
Question: Can anyone HELP? Does anyone have any experience with the
device drivers from Iomega for their Zip drives? If that is the problem, then
I am probably stuck since I prefer to keep the Sony and Zip drives over the
hard drives. Plus if having to re-cable after I boot with a Sony drive is the
answer, then I can probably live with that for a few more years.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
Received on Thu Jan 10 2002 - 23:13:14 GMT