FAQ's - Troubleshooting SCSI

1) SCSI Termination - ONLY the last physical drive on the external SCSI chain should be terminated. Termination can be either internal or external. External terminators are easy to spot - a large connector on a SCSI port. Internal termination can be configured either with a switch - Zip drives are like that - or, for most internal devices, by using jumpers, small plastic bits making a contact between two pins.

 

2) SCSI Addressing. Each disk must have a unique address - number - on the chain. The computer is set to 7, and the original (startup) hard drive is usually set to 0. External devices have switches, but you'll need more jumpers for internal configuration.

 

3) Multiple disk driver conflicts. A driver is written to a hard disk in an invisible partition by the formatting application. Drivers instruct the computer on how to interact with the hard drive.

Try to format all your drives with the same application, therefore using the same driver. If a device refuses to mount or to be recognized by the computer, try disconnecting other SCSI peripherals and restarting with only that device connected.

There are many tools available to see what's connected to the SCSI chain. Peripheral View is one, free from Intech and available at: http://www.IntechUSA.com.