Fujitsu 15K RPM HD

[mac2geezer]

I just picked up off eBay a Fujitsu MAS318RNC 18GB 15K RPM HD that appears to be DOA. Have tried 2 different 80 - 50 pin adapters, 2 different SCSI cables, the machine Bus 1, and Bus 2, an Adaptec PCI card. System is a 9500/G4 800 OS 9.2.2. None of the utilities (Hard Disk Speedtools, FWB, MT Anything) even see the HD on the Bus. Anything else I can try?

 

[Christopher]

Jumper settings.

 

[mac2geezer]

By jumper settings I presume you mean SCSI id? The Fujitsu is either the only device on the bus or there is clearly no id conflict.

 

[Christopher]

Make sure the SCSI ID is either 1 or 0. Try either.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Also make sure it isn't 7. 7 will never work.

You may have termination problems. If there is a termination jumper, try it both on and off, but most importantly try it on. If there is no termination jumper, you may need to add a terminator to the SCSI bus somewhere.

 

[shred]

Is the drive being used as an external drive? Can you hear it spin up?

Are you sure it's not a SCSI ID problem? By definition, the controller itself must have an ID (usually 7, but sometimes 15 on SCSI-2 controllers).

If you don't have an external terminator, jumper for terminator = on. Termination power should be enabled, check the drive is set to spin up automatically on power on - if it's out of a RAID array, it may have been jumpered to spin up when "told" to by the RAID controller.

Does the Adaptec controller work with another drive? Is the Adaptec controller a "proper" Mac one - with ROMs for a Mac? A Wintel PCI SCSI controller looks the same and fits in the hole, but won't work too well.

 

[equill]

... None of the utilities (Hard Disk Speedtools, FWB, MT Anything) even see the HD on the Bus. Anything else I can try?

If HDST does not show that the drive is 'not ready' in the Scan window, you can probably believe that you have a software problem. I'm no authority on Fujitsu drives (only one of >100-odd that I have is Fujitsu, and it worked out-of-the package from an eBay seller), but I suspect that yours should behave as any other HDD. If it is already formatted FAT the system should offer to initialize it, or just mount it if it is already Apple formatted. HDST, FWB ToolKit and Drive Setup (of course) should all recognize an Apple-formatted drive, and the former two can 'take over' from a DS installation of driver and install their own (Apple-like) drivers at the same time as partitioning according to Inside Macintosh V.

If you can boot from another internal drive (bypassing the Adaptec card for the moment) with the Fujitsu on the same internal daisy-chain but with a different SCSI ID (even using ID=6 so that it is polled first)—which involves less mucking about than does booting from an external HDD and having to terminate the Fujitsu drive on the internal chain if you are not sure what the jumper block is all about—and see your boot drive in the Scan window, you are part-way there. The next fly in the ointment may be that HDST will confess that it cannot 'take over' the Fujitsu and format it. Given that defeat, you may be able to reformat the drive (FAT) in a PC with SCSI, and then reformat in the 9500, but the ice is getting thin under your feet by that time.

You do have the relevant version of Adaptec's Power Domain Control for the card? Some versions of PDC have recent (relatively) updates that you may need to catch up with for OS 9.2.2.

As an aside, and as I remember, Fujitsu follows the conventional markings on the header block: TE = termination enable (for this drive); TP = supply termination power (to this drive, to the bus, or both); and other markings are largely irrelevant to Macs: MS, PE or PD, SS and so forth. Older Quantum drives had wayout descriptions of some features with codes all of their own making.

de

Codicil: If the 50/68 adapter you are using does not provide high-byte termination, you may be loading yet another base against yourself. Not all 50/68 adapters are created equal, and unterminated high bytes are wont to turn and bite you.

 

[Charlieman]

Can you test the drive in a PC? Some server OS partitions on drives appear to confuse Mac disk tools so much that the drive is unrecognisable. If possible, LLF it on a PC.

 

[mac2geezer]

Thanks to everyone who offered advice.

This morning I removed an IBM 80 pin drive from a different external enclosure, replaced it with the Fujitsu, and connected via 68 pin cable to the Adaptec 2940W in the 9500. So the adapter sequence was 80 ->50 -> 68 pin external. Result...nothing. None of the utilities would detect the drive on the Bus but a CD drive downstream showed up fine, so obviously the cables were connected ok.

This evening I tried the exact same thing with an 80 - 50 pin adapter previously tried and the Fujitsu showed up in HDST!! Formated for PC but HDST reformatted it as HFS+ with no hesitation. At this point all appears well, but clearly there are gremlins loose.

Through this entire process I made very sure there were no id conflicts so that was not the problem, and every thing was properly terminated. Much head scratching of my already thinning hair.

 

[equill]

As a generality, one change of pinning between MLB (or HBA) and drive, and even then preferably increasing in magnitude, is workable. Thus an MLB (or HBA) with DB-25 can support 50-pin cables, with or without 68-pin or 80-pin adapters and drives. The converse: a 50-pin drive attached to a 68-pin HBA is more than fraught, not only in its achievement but also in its outcome.

Take that a little further and you will readily recognize that an 80/50/68 transition is foredoomed to resolute and intransigent nothingness. Picture a firehose attached to an opened hydrant, and the firetruck's wheels standing on the hose.

Good to read that you triumphed. It restores our faith in SCSI, which is often maligned as containing a large 'voodoo' element. SCSI is effective, but it also is picky about its playmates.

de

 

[mac2geezer]

I would normally expect multiple adapters to cause problems. In fact the lash up that works is: 80 -> HD50 -> HD68 -> Adaptec 2940w PCI card. What does not appear to work, at least so far, is 80 -> 50 ribbon style connector. I have yet to dismantle the machine enough to try it on the internal bus.

As an aside Equill, your posts are always informative but equally important, a pleasure to read because of your use of the language.

 

[Unknown_K]

Any chance that drive is HVD (would turn off the bus completely if attached or smoke something)?

 

[mac2geezer]

Any chance that drive is HVD (would turn off the bus completely if attached or smoke something)?

No, it's an Ultra320 and is working fine now.

Once I actually counted pins the connection sequence is: 80 -> 68 -> Adaptec card. There is no 50 pin involved. I cloned the Seagate boot drive to the Fujitsu and it's now the boot drive on the 9500 and all is well.

 

[equill]

... Once I actually counted pins the connection sequence is: 80 -> 68 -> Adaptec card. There is no 50 pin involved ...

That makes perfect sense. Thank you for posting that addition, otherwise I might have been forced to reconsider either my experience or the rationality of the SCSI gods in allowing interruption of the High Bytes to go unpunished.

de

 

[mac2geezer]

I agree. Once I got my head out of it's dark hole and actually counted pins the entire business made much more sense. For a while I thought my understanding, such as it is, of SCSI was completely wrong.

Thanks again to all who offered advice.