SCSI hard drive lights up but doesnt spin.

[Jason_88]

Hi i have a SureStoreDisk 2000LP with model number C3725S and i cant seem to get it to spin anymore. It worked like an hour ago but then when i turned off my computer and turned it back on, the drive wont spin its disks any more. Any ideas on what this means? How can i fix this. i have a few very important files that i need to get from that drive. Any help will be appreciated.

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

Was the server up was a very long time? Sometimes harddisks do not spin when the server is shutdown after a very long time of service.

What you could try is, remove the harddisk, shake it a bit, and retry. It seems silly but there were cases when it worked.

In either case, get a new one. If it works, backup the whole lot and restore on a new harddisk.

HTH,
Vince

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Typically when the lights are left on there is a SCSI problem.

Ensure the cables are correctly connected and terminated.. taken that your scsi ids on the bus are unique.

Later,
Bill

[Jason_88]

OK.. this is silly, i finally got it to work. however it seems that i always have to hook up two devices to the scsi bus for the hard drive to work. However, the other device that gets hooked up does not function at all but is required for the HP drive to work. So i have no idea whats going on.

Can someone help me configure my scsi devices properly.. each drive has its own id (0, 1) The drive with ID 1 is terminated.

[F.J.Llorente Wayfarer]

Mmmm...
As far as I know, both ends of the scsi bus must be terminated, so maybe it's just a trouble with that.

Check the cable, the terminations and ensure that the terminated hard disk is the last one connected to the cable.

Check also the controller. Some SCSI boards have active terminations but some others need to be terminated manually.

Hope it'll help

Best regards
Javier 'Terminator', Alias|Wayfarer

[Jason_88]

when connecting devices together does it matter which order i connect the devices in with ID's like 0, 1, 2.

[F.J.Llorente Wayfarer]

No, the order doesn't matter as long as you keep the terminated device the last one.

You have all the rules to make SCSI work fine at the Official SCSI FAQ: http://scsifaq.org:9080/scsi_faq/scsifaq.html

Good luck
Javi, Alias|Wayfarer

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
Wayfarer is right. For SCSI keep your eyes on the cable length and the termination.
About the specs of cable length ask the HP guys or somebody here might know better than me.
Your error was the typical error of a
non-termitated scsi bus.

Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Jason_88]

the thing is.. i know its terminated as i had installed a terminator at the end of the drive since its external. and no luck.



anyhow, hooked up another device to my scsi bus and well, the hard drive wont spin when i turn it on all i see is power light. however, i can freely use the other device thats connected.

[Michael Lampi]

The problem might be related to the presence (or absence) of SCSI termination power, and possibly a flaky SCSI cable. Normally the host computer controller provides this, but it is also possible on many devices to have them supply TERMPWR as well.

If TERMPWR is not present, many disk drive will refuse to spin up, as this means that the terminator at the end of the SCSI bus will not be working properly without the pull-up termination power.

I have seen cases where the internal ribbon cables have a broken conductor (or two), preventing TERMPWR from continuing on to the end of the SCSI.

You can check whether this is the case by using a terminator that has an LED. When lit this LED indicates the presence of TERMPWR.

If you have no such terminator, or TERMPWR is shown to be absent, try jumpering your disk drive to supply TERMPWR.

[Jason_88]

ok. theres a whole bunch of settings that set term power. which one is it.