I can understand that the SCSI ID#z should not conflict. As I understand SCSI termination, terms should be on either end: as to say the logic board itself, and whatever I have on the furthest cable connector.

So I move a drive from one connector to another. Switch back. Put my second drive in, which used to work. The system either starts and does not recognize the drives, or does not even chime on at all. What COMPLETELY boggles me is that I can switch to the most recent working configuration and it will still fail to work. How can a SCSI setup work one time, and the same config not work another? I do not understand! Why the probklems ov booting at all?! My 8500 is enduring serious abuse as I remove the battery, dance on the CUDA and power buttons and try every concievable combo ov startup keys. It takes me a day or two ov fiddling to get the 8500 to work at all! I have used SCSI devices for years, and had never experienced anything so confusing before. Wondering if it could be the cable, all I could do is pull the other cable from the 8100 and try, with the same results.

Now I try to endure the 8100 for use online, and the exact same thing is happening! Now it no longer recognizes either ov my 4 GB drives. Neither are a problem on my B&W external SCSI bus, they both test fine. At least I was able to back up data.

Weird thing is that a given SCSI config might not work, so I will change (to other non-conflicting) IDz, or another type ov termination. Then, sometimes it will start up and work for a time or two. Then flake some more. Constantly migrating SCSI setup, quite tiring!

Any ideas? The 8500 is my internet machine and source ov MIDI data for my music, quite difficult to be productive without it. I have been very methodical in trying to pin down the problem, but it seems so inconsistant, I need to give up for a while to regain my sanity.
Thanks for hearing me!

First, could it be a driver issue on the HDs? Did you use some 3rd party driver that OS X does not like? I would try reformatting the HDs with OS X or the newest version of classic that you can get.

The other very real possibility is bad RAM. OS X is notorious for pushing the performance of RAM and borking on marginal memory. DIMM sticks that worked under older Mac OSes become unreliable with OS X. Unreliable RAM would cause unexpected hard crashes that would eventually cause corruption on the HDs and decreasing reliability. I'd look into removing banks of RAM and retesting (yes, I know from very personal experience that adding/removing RAM from an 8500 is a PITA).

As to why those HDs don't work in the 8100 now, I'd bet that OS X's unreliable attempts to use the drives have corrupted them. Reformatting the drives would be the best option.

Good luck!

G4From128k

As things are though, the RAM is ok, 140Meg. I'd guess the two 64 MB sticks at least would be ok. The hard disk drivers are from a recent version ov DriveSetup.

I am still quite baffled, though I have needed to take a few daze off to not stress out.Thanks for your reply, I was beginning to think that my problem was not interesting!

We all wish you the best of luck -- these type of problems are always very tough to endure.

G4From128k

Have you tried booting that 8500 off an external HD? The 8500 has two independent SCSI busses and the external one might still be functional. If the machine works on an external SCSI, then you can easily switch the internal SCSI devices to use the external SCSI bus. Apple very nicely put an internal connector for the external SCSI bus inside the 8500 on the mobo. Plugging the internal SCSI ribbon cable into the other SCSI bus would switch the internal devices to the external bus.

Note that the external SCSI bus is not as fast as a the internal one, but it might let you resurrect your 8500. You will also need to worry more about SCSI ID conflicts between the internal drives and any external SCSI devices.

G4From128k

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