Opinions on a HD Please

[Brian R.]

I am tempted to buy the following HD:

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=746374

Waste of money? Going to die in a week? Anyone have any opinions? The price is right and the capacity and speed are just what I need.

What's the difference between the above drive and this drive other than the performance characteristics?

http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=710241

Notice one has the original label and the other has an OEM label.

[DGhost]

well, the OEM label also says Factory Recertified... generally that means it is a refurbished part... the same drive does appear to be a newer product though...

dunno, i like my Seagate SATA drive. performs nicely and all. I do not know about anyones scsi drives, though. never used them on my own boxes.

[Brian R.]

Thanks for the input. I just bought this card to replace my old UW Adaptec card:

http://www.isellsurplus.com/product.asp?id=6297&C=9

Hope my current drive and new drive like this card.

I thought recertified meant checked for function and approved for resale. As opposed to rebuilt or remanufactured which means the card had parts replaced to make it saleable.

Anyone can clarify?

[schmosef]

It's almost certainly a refurbished drive, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's been re-certified for use and probably has the absolute latest firmware installed. I've generally had good experiences with refurb drives that we've received as warranty replacements.

Since these are 80 pin and being called OEM, I'd hazard a guess that the drives are failed units from name brand (Compaq, etc.) hotswap RAID arrays that were replaced under warranty. If so, the drive probably sustained heavy use.

You get a one year warranty with it so I wouldn't be concerned.

[KeiFront]

The first on doesn't ship with an SCA-adapter (80 to 68 pin adapter) they cost about 20€ if you need to buy them seperatly. It' diffcult to tell the difference between the 2 only one has a part number (ST173404LCV).

[Brian R.]

Thank you for the input. Actually, the first one also comes with an adapter, it is just not in the title - see the description. I am pretty sure the 1st drive is a ST373307LC.

[Byock]

The drives are alot faster than the controller. The drives are ultra 320 (320MB), and the adapter you listed is ultra2 which is 80MB.

I would check to make sure the drive are compatible with the controller. They should be, as most drives will work with any controller, up to the speed of the drive, or the speed on the controller, whichever is less.

[dZeus]

ultra2 uses LVD, so any LVD drive should be backwards compatible (including the Ultra320 ones).

When you only use 1 drive, I doubt it'll saturate the 80MBps channel that fast.

[Wombat]

Can that drive self-terminate? Will you need to buy a terminator, or do you have one already? (They're not cheap).

[SpiralDragon]

IIRC seagate scsi drives have jumpers for termination... i know my old 9gb barqouda had one

[Brian R.]

Termination is one of my worries. I don't understand the needs of SCSI for termination. Right now, I have an Adaptec 2940 w/uw SCSI3 card. I have a Ultra2 SCSI Cheatah (ST318203LW) as my boot drive and it is on the terminal connector. I also have a WD SCSI3 drive on the chain, that I use as a data drive. There is no terminator on the chain and I have not needed one. I haven't put any jumper on the Cheatah to initiate termination. I don't understand why this works, but it also worked with an IBM SCSI3 as the boot drive on the terminal connector (with the WD drive), and it worked with only the WD drive on the chain on the terminal connector.

I have now hooked up the Adaptec U2W card with the two drives I listed above, and it won't boot to windows. I get a BSD for no bootable device. No difference, except the card. Same with two different, but identical cards. Sounds to me like I need a terminator, but the question is what kind and why (since I didn't need one before)?

Seagate confuses me. In one picture, they show a terminator inserted between the drive and the terminal connector on the cable. In another instance, they say that LVD drives don't need termination. In addition, the 80-pin drive is SCA and Seagate says that the SCA drives don't provide power for termination in any of the pins. Clear as mud. Will it provided power with the 80-68pin adapter? Do I need external termination power?

Can it self-terminate? Good question. I haven't needed one up to now.

Here is a link to the manual for the U320 drive:

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/scsi/100195486a.pdf

I haven't been able to figure out the termination requirements. I guess I should call Adaptec. Maybe get Seagate on a conference line.

Here's a link for the manual to the drive I am currently using and won't boot into windows with the U2W card.

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/scsi/83329400f.pdf

Thank you for any help.

[schmosef]

I'm kind of too lazy to look it up right now but I seem to remember from the last Seagate SCSI drive I installed that they stopped having a jumper for termination on the newer models. What it did have was a jumper for termination power. Not sure what that means, but the SCSI cables I've bought lately all had a terminator block on the end of them and I've never had any problems.

I had a 2940U2W drive for a while and it was super finicky at first. Make sure you update to the latest firmware that's available. I had mega problems getting it to work and Adaptec tech support was absolutely no help. They kept telling me that it was something wrong in my config. I kept telling them there was a problem with the card and it was similar to a problem I'd had on an older model that was fixed when they released a firmware update. They denied that any were in the works at the time but sure enough after several weeks of going back and forth, a new firmware was released and everything started to work as it should.

BTW, I have to agree with Byock, your controller isn't well suited for those drives. They should operate just fine but you're not taking for advantage of them. I think that they can communicate in Wide mode too and that's something you're not going to be able to benefit from with only a U2 controller. Finally, I found first gen LVD controllers to be poor in general. Ultra 160 solved a lot of little mysterious problems for me when it came out. I'd consider a better controller.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Brian R.


I have now hooked up the Adaptec U2W card with the two drives I listed above, and it won't boot to windows. I get a BSD for no bootable device. No difference, except the card. Same with two different, but identical cards. Sounds to me like I need a terminator, but the question is what kind and why (since I didn't need one before)?

That's not a terminator issue, that's Windows not having the right drivers (or possibly geometries?) for your hard drive controller. It can't boot because it can't read your drives. I've seen that one before. You might be able to get away with putting the old card in, and installing the appropriate drivers, THEN switching cards. Otherwise, I think you'll have to do a fresh install of Windows.

[Brian R.]

Interesting...

Thank you Wombat. And you too schmosef

Windows 2K does have drivers for the U2/U2W Adaptec card. If I install those drivers and then switch cards, is there a way to reverse the situation if I don't get it to boot into Windows?

[Wombat]

Drivers shouldn't be exclusive. Installing one shouldn't uninstall the other.