[2860] in linux-scsi channel archive
zip drives and adaptec 1542c
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Williams)
Mon Nov 24 15:50:01 1997
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 12:40:03 -0800 (PST)
From: Dave Williams <dnw@eskimo.com>
To: linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu
Has anyone gotten a zip drive to work with an ISA Adaptec 1542C?
Kernel 2.0.32.
I have read the relevant sections of the SCSI HOWTO, and the zip
HOWTO, and tried the various remedies recommended for flaky behavior.
So far I have achieved:
Numerous SCSI bus timeouts near the end of the boot process. The last
message I get before a login prompt regards starting sendmail, and
that's where the bus times out.
A couple of times, CRC errors right after the "Uncompressing linux"
message.
Forced fsck, when all I did was reset the machine (c-a-d had no effect
when the bus was timing out). Frightening: what have I lost?
_One_ time, the machine booted, and I started X, tried to write to the
zip drive, and everything locked up: I had to reset to get out.
All this suggests to me that I have cable/termination problems. I had the
zip drive connected to the external Centronix connector on the adapter
(it's not there anymore!) and the two disks internally connected;
without the zip drive, everything works--as it has for years.
Possible solutions that have occurred to me:
Replace the internal cable.
Find a DB25 active terminator and use that on the zip drive, instead
of the switch on the back of the drive.
Replace my SCSI adapter--I know the Adaptecs are notorious for
cabling problems. Recommendations? (I know, kind of silly to
get rid of something that works because something else doesn't.
But what good is an adapter if you can't connect things to it?)
Buy the Iomega adapter--it _will_ coexist with the Adaptec...?
I have an _old_ DTC 3180 adapter: could I make that coexist with the
Adaptec, and have only the zip hanging off it?
I already have the best external cable I could find.
Of course, I could get rid of the drive--too late to take it back to the
vendor--but I want to get it working; it would fit perfectly into my
backup scheme of things.
Ideas, anyone?
Dave Williams
dnw@eskimo.com
