Hi,

I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS
instrument, to functionality. The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB
Seagate ST32430N which does not appear to be spinning because I can
neither verify nor format it in the disk controller BIOS. Since it is
part of an instrument, it is probably better to restore the Gateway
2000 to functionality, because there are a variety of interface
connectors. The Seagate ST32430N is still respected and is available
on the market, mostly refurbished. However, it might be better to find
a more modern, larger drive that maintains the SCSI v2 interface. Can
anyone recommend a good candidate to replace this drive? Thanks.

Danny

At 7 Mar 2007 10:53:23 -0800 d.086@hotmail.com wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS
> instrument, to functionality. The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB
> Seagate ST32430N which does not appear to be spinning because I can
> neither verify nor format it in the disk controller BIOS. Since it is
> part of an instrument, it is probably better to restore the Gateway
> 2000 to functionality, because there are a variety of interface
> connectors. The Seagate ST32430N is still respected and is available
> on the market, mostly refurbished. However, it might be better to find
> a more modern, larger drive that maintains the SCSI v2 interface. Can
> anyone recommend a good candidate to replace this drive? Thanks.

What sort of SCSI controller is in this system? If it is a narrow
AHA-2940 type controller, you should be able to replace it with one of
the AHA-2940 wide controllers (available on E-Bay). You should be able
to get drivers for whatever O/S this machine was running (probably the
same driver it had before) for the replacement controller. With a wide
(68 pin) controller, you will be able to use any modern SCSI disk.
Virtually all AHA-2940 type controllers will have a narrow (50 pin)
internal connector, which will allow connecting to other narrow
devices, such as CD-ROM and older tape drives, should there also be
these in the machine.

It is almost impossible to get *new* narrow (50 pin) SCSI disk drives
anymore (v1 or V2). Almost all are (older) refurbished models.

>
> Danny
>
>

--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Linux Installation and Administration
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Web Hosting, with CGI and Database
heller@deepsoft.com -- Contract Programming: C/C++, Tcl/Tk

"Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote in message news:963b6$45ef23fa$404a99a1$18157@news.news-service.com
> At 7 Mar 2007 10:53:23 -0800 d.086@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS
> > instrument, to functionality.

> > The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB Seagate ST32430N which does not
> > appear to be spinning because I can neither verify nor format it in the
> > disk controller BIOS.

So what then is the error message.

> > Since it is part of an instrument, it is probably better to restore the Gateway
> > 2000 to functionality, because there are a variety of interface connectors.
> > The Seagate ST32430N is still respected and is available
> > on the market, mostly refurbished.

> > However, it might be better to find a more modern, larger drive that maintains
> > the SCSI v2 interface.

How so?
And did you check whether your instrumentation software does even support using
a different drive?

> > Can anyone recommend a good candidate to replace this drive? Thanks.
>
> What sort of SCSI controller is in this system? If it is a narrow
> AHA-2940 type controller, you should be able to replace it with one of
> of the AHA-2940 wide controllers (available on E-Bay).

Just more of the usual bullshit you can expect from Heller.
You don't *need* a wide controller to attach a wide drive, Heller.

> You should be able to get drivers for whatever O/S this machine was running
> (probably the same driver it had before) for the replacement controller.

> With a wide (68 pin) controller, you will be able to use any modern SCSI disk.

With any controller you can, whether wide or narrow (as long as they are not HVD).

> Virtually all AHA-2940 type controllers will have a narrow (50 pin)
> internal connector, which will allow connecting to other narrow
> devices, such as CD-ROM and older tape drives, should there also be
> these in the machine.
>
> It is almost impossible to get *new* narrow (50 pin) SCSI disk drives
> anymore (v1 or V2). Almost all are (older) refurbished models.
>
> >
> > Danny

Most wide drives have a jumper on then to force narrow, so buy
a wide to narrow adapter to plug into the cable. I've only
done this once on my old 486 box, but it had to be retired finally,
can't get 100 mbit network cards for eisa bus.
Robert

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:53:23 -0800, d.086 wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS instrument,
> to functionality. The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB Seagate ST32430N
> which does not appear to be spinning because I can neither verify nor
> format it in the disk controller BIOS. Since it is part of an
> instrument, it is probably better to restore the Gateway 2000 to
> functionality, because there are a variety of interface connectors. The
> Seagate ST32430N is still respected and is available on the market,
> mostly refurbished. However, it might be better to find a more modern,
> larger drive that maintains the SCSI v2 interface. Can anyone recommend
> a good candidate to replace this drive? Thanks.
>
> Danny

Robert wrote:

> Most wide drives have a jumper on then to force narrow, so buy
> a wide to narrow adapter to plug into the cable. I've only
> done this once on my old 486 box, but it had to be retired finally,
> can't get 100 mbit network cards for eisa bus.
> Robert

The 3Com 3c597 is 100BaseT EISA; my problem is finding a development
kit for it (or any other fast EISA NIC) since drivers for AT&T SVR4
are not to be found.

Can anyone add to this list or point to drivers and DDKs?

Regards,

Michael

msg <msg@_cybertheque.org_> writes:
>The 3Com 3c597 is 100BaseT EISA; my problem is finding a development
>kit for it (or any other fast EISA NIC) since drivers for AT&T SVR4
>are not to be found.

>Can anyone add to this list or point to drivers and DDKs?

FWIW: any era in which AT&T released a Unix OS was done when any device
driver writers were expected to be source licenseees of the OS.

Sun actually did the most work in making the DDI/DDK API for device
drivers for Solaris 2.x systems. But that work stayed in Solaris, it
wasn't put back into AT&T's codebase past the initial work Sun did
with them in building SVr4.

Doug McIntyre wrote:

> msg <msg@_cybertheque.org_> writes:
>
>>The 3Com 3c597 is 100BaseT EISA; my problem is finding a development
>>kit for it (or any other fast EISA NIC) since drivers for AT&T SVR4
>>are not to be found.
>
>
>>Can anyone add to this list or point to drivers and DDKs?
>
>
> FWIW: any era in which AT&T released a Unix OS was done when any device
> driver writers were expected to be source licenseees of the OS.
>
> Sun actually did the most work in making the DDI/DDK API for device
> drivers for Solaris 2.x systems. But that work stayed in Solaris, it
> wasn't put back into AT&T's codebase past the initial work Sun did
> with them in building SVr4.
>

Indeed, thanks for pointing that out Recently I have benefited from
the OpenSolaris CVS in my work on AT&T SVR4 (R 2.1) and I have been backporting
a number of user space packages but I haven't looked at the kernel yet.

Also, I just now noticed that this thread was cross-posted to two addn'l
newsgroups; I've changed that to just C.S.S.H

Regards,

Michael

In article <pan.2007.04.11.08.14.28@not.here>, Robert wrote:
>Most wide drives have a jumper on then to force narrow, so buy
>a wide to narrow adapter to plug into the cable.

Thanks for mentioning that, I'd probably have depended
on the controller negotiation to select wide/narrow.

> I've only
>done this once on my old 486 box, but it had to be retired finally,
>can't get 100 mbit network cards for eisa bus.

But every switch I've handled for years (even the home units)
will auto-negotiate 10 or 100 and auto-bridge the speeds.


>> I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS instrument,
>> to functionality. The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB Seagate ST32430N
>> which does not appear to be spinning ...

I don't recall how you plan to restore the data & operating system,
or was this a data-only drive?
--

-- mejeep deMeep ferret!

In article <461d1757$0$36719$892e0abb@auth.newsreader.octanew s.com>,
Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:
>msg <msg@_cybertheque.org_> writes:
>>The 3Com 3c597 is 100BaseT EISA; my problem is finding a development
>>kit for it (or any other fast EISA NIC) since drivers for AT&T SVR4
>>are not to be found.

>>Can anyone add to this list or point to drivers and DDKs?

I wish I could, but my consulting to AT&T information systems ended around 1989.

>FWIW: any era in which AT&T released a Unix OS was done when any device
>driver writers were expected to be source licenseees of the OS.

It helped immensely to have the source code but was not truly required.
There was the SVID (System V Interface Definition)
for later versions of System V Release 3, and then SVR4.
I am rather sure think were Device Driver interface books
for Unix before SVR4 because AT&T sold Unix
for their WeCo 32000 based VME card
and that certainly required device drivers for all the other interface cards.
And there was "the Lyons book".

>Sun actually did the most work in making the DDI/DDK API for device
>drivers for Solaris 2.x systems. But that work stayed in Solaris, it
>wasn't put back into AT&T's codebase past the initial work Sun did
>with them in building SVr4.

I'm unsure how to scan/read what you said.
I was part of AT&T's SVR4.0 development and yes, Sun Microsystems and AT&T
traded a LOT of Unix technology, but AT&T's network team did a lot of
device driver work and were a major part of the interface and documentation.

During a later assignment when I wrote a serial device driver
for SVR4.0 and Solaris, I worked adhering to the Device Driver Interface and
the Driver-Kernel Interface (DDI/DKI). That documented all I needed for the job.
--

-- mejeep deMeep ferret!

"Robert" <Robert@not.here> wrote in message newsan.2007.04.11.08.14.28@not.here

> Most wide drives have a jumper on then to force narrow,
> so buy a wide to narrow adapter to plug into the cable.

That jumper is used to force the drive to narrow on a wide Host Bus Adapter and even
then it is only needed if the HBA doesn't allow negotiating narrow-only for that drive.
It has no meaning when connected to a narrow HBA.

> I've only done this once on my old 486 box, but it had to be retired finally,
> can't get 100 mbit network cards for eisa bus.
> Robert
>
> On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:53:23 -0800, d.086 wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to restore a Gateway 2000 that is part of a GC/MS instrument,
> > to functionality. The hard drive is a SCSI v2 2.1 GB Seagate ST32430N
> > which does not appear to be spinning because I can neither verify nor
> > format it in the disk controller BIOS. Since it is part of an
> > instrument, it is probably better to restore the Gateway 2000 to
> > functionality, because there are a variety of interface connectors. The
> > Seagate ST32430N is still respected and is available on the market,
> > mostly refurbished. However, it might be better to find a more modern,
> > larger drive that maintains the SCSI v2 interface. Can anyone recommend
> > a good candidate to replace this drive? Thanks.
> >
> > Danny