PL 3000 - Multiple IDE devices supported?

[joshnerl]

I'm using a Proliant 3000 as a FreeNAS server. FreeNAS is a small (32mb) NAS OS built on FreeBSD. Anyway, it runs great and it provides the option for running from a USB drive or CF card. I bought a SYBA CF to IDE card and a 1gb CF card and attempted to put them in the middle connector of the IDE cable going to the CD rom. I can't get the system to see the adapter. I moved the jumper on the CD rom to Master and configured the Syba adapter to slave to make sure there were no conflicts, but nothing. Both devices will work if they are the only device on the cable and have their jumpers set to Master. Unfortunately, it makes it really tough to install the OS from the CD to the CF card.

Anyone know what I could be missing? Is there something I need to check in the BIOS (Smartstart)?

[Mark Matthews]

I was taught that the old Proliants only supported CD drives as IDE devices.
However, older Compaq stuff (including PCs) was very fussy re jumpers on IDE devices.
It may only work by setting the jumpers on both devices to Cable Select and try the CD first on the cable, then the other device first.
Its worth a try, but I if that doesnt work than I dont think that you'll get it working at all...

Mark...

[Jon Conant]

The Syba gadget is quirky. I've tried it with different results on different machines. They say as long as yellow and red LEDs are light the system is good with it.

Even more so are the CF cards that are supported (or aren't). I got back from Syba that they only support 'old' CF cards. The responses are a little cryptic. Also, I've seen many write ups that DMA and more importantly PIO support is required of the card. I was told to disable DMA on my BIOS and it would work for FreeNAS. Unfortunately, there is no disable option.

I guess the rule of thumb is to play or pay. Play until the SYBA works or pay for a CF IDE boot gadget that behaves like it should.