Very Computer

Assuming one has all space in available bays, that's the question.

The PC is running Debian linux, woody, and is a Gateway Intel Pentium III,
I think.  It's a tower, with plenty of free bays for an hd of any size.

Again, I don't read the newsgroup often -- so direct email would be
greatly appreciated.

I'll summarize when the answer is known, to the net.

:)

Thanks,

-- Saul

I've had seven disks in the same machine.  The power supply didn't
like it, though.  I currently have five disks, a CD-RW/DVD and no
problems.

--
M?ns Rullg?rd

LVD SCSI drives are required (by the SCSI specification) to fall back to
single-ended mode when one or more devices on the bus are single-ended
(be it another drive or the SCSI card itself).  Every LVD drive I've
seen also has a jumper on it to force single-ended mode.  I suppose it
is possible an adapter might be required for some non-compliant devices,
although it is highly unlikely IMHO.

Where you might need an adapter is between wide and narrow SCSI.  (All
LVD devices are wide, IIRC.)  However, since you have seem to have an
Ultra-Wide adapter, you should be good to go with a 68-pin ribbon cable
between adapter and drive.

Another situation in which you might need an adapter is if the drives
are 80-pin SCA (i.e., hot-swappable) drives and you don't have a
suitable enclosure.  Then you'd need an adapter to use the 80-pin SCA
drive with "normal" SCSI and power connectors.  Or an enclosure with an
80-pin hot-swap backplane.

Neither of those situations has anything to do with LVD but both could
require use of an adapter.

Quote:> Am I right?

> P.S.  I don't read comp.linux.hardware that often; so a direct email would be
> greatly appreciated.

General rule of usenet:  ask the question here, read the answer here.

Hi all.

I think I have the answer, from two memebers of the List who emailed me
back:

while

Since my application is for occasional backup, a performance hit is no
issue -- and my CD is only  rarely used.

So, it seems I can safely install a big IDE disk in the machine -- at
worst, sharing the same device as the CD player.

Actually, I may  simply transfer one of the hd's in the machine -- one
that is used very little, and is a small hd -- to another machine that's
always running, and that currently has only one (big) SCSI disk -- it's
used as the fileserver for the network.

(I wouldn't want to put the new backup disk on the fileserver -- the idea
is, to back up -- mostly -- the fileserver, in case of a catastrophic
failure of, either the whole fileserver machine, or at least the (crucial)
SCSI disk, containing most data).

Thanks much, M?ns and Adam, for your timely and useful responses!

:)

Yours,

-- Saul

You dont need bios support for any drive other than one to boot from.

The  PCI system has to be able to recognise and give resources to that many
interfaces...

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Quote:>The computer, on my Debian linux home hard-wired five PC Ethernet network,
>on which I wish to add a SCSI hard disk for backup purposes, has an

>> I have an Iwill Side-2936UW-E SCSI adapter.  This supports SCSI-1, SCSI-2,
>> Ultra SCSI, UYltra Wide SCSI peripherals; PCI Local bus spec revision 2.1
>> compliance; 32 bit bus master DMA; scatter/gather supported.

>Several SCSI dirves -- 36gig to 50 gig -- are available at Ebay, that seem
>most suitable.

>Most are "LVD SCSI" drives; at least one Ebay retailer seems to imply
>that this might necessitate the use of some adapter, that he'll sell me as
>well.

Most (all?) LVD SCSI devices will fall back to SE mode if you use an SE-only
controller and/or SE-only devices on the same bus.  Some devices might need
"encouragement" through a force-SE jumper setting.  An "LVD-to-SE" adapter
is little more than snake oil.

Until last Thursday, I had a 36GB IBM Ultrastar 73LZX connected to the on-board
SCSI controller on an Intel N440BX.  It needed the force-SE jumper for the
computer to see it.

It is possible, though, that the drives you're running across are SCA
drives.  These will have a single 80-pin connector on the back instead of
the usual 4-pin power connector and 68- or 50-pin connector.  Unless you're
installing the drive in a RAID chassis or other enclosure that supports SCA,
you'll need an adapter that converts from 80 to 68 or 50 pins (68, in your
case) and includes a power connector and jumpers for configuring the drive
(ID, etc.)  I use an 80-to-50 adapter on a 4.3GB Seagate Barracuda that's
connected to an Apple IIGS. (It's severe overkill for such a machine, but
the drive was cheap and I won't have to worry about running out of space. :-) )

  _/_   Scott Alfter (address in header doesn't receive mail)

(IIGS(  http://alfter.us/            Top-posting!
 \_^_/  rm -rf /bin/laden            >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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