C1537 Dat Drive Windows XP

[Chris Booth]

I have recently purchased a C1537 Dat Drive together with an Adaptec AHA2940UW Scsi card. Windows XP seems to have recognised the Scsi card but I am unsure how to get XP to recognise the Dat drive. Can anybody give me any ideas. I have search the internet for the Dat drive drivers but come up a complete blank. As you are probabley aware I am a complete novice when it comes to Scsi cards and Dat drives. HELP!!!!!

[Eugeny Brychkov]

C1537A is DDS3 drive. This device should work w/o any special driver installed, see http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=lpg29007&locale=en_US&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=42901&prodTypeId=12169 , it states "The driver included with Windows XP supports all of the DAT products". Of course it will not be seen by Windows if there's problem with drive, SCSI bus or SCSI adapter. Please install HP LTT http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50128.html and check everything
Eugeny

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi,
as Eugeny wrote, you just need to connect it to the Scsi controller and XP will recognise it and load the correct drive himself.
Id the DAT do not appear in computer managment, be sure ye iis well connected (check for bent pins) and check if it appear in the scsi bios at boot time.
then run L&TT for more diagnosis

[Chris Booth]

The Adaptec AHA2940UW scsi card seems to be working correctly. I can see it on bootup and using the scsi utility it appears as scsi id number 7. Unfortunately the dat drive is nowhere to be seen. I am unsure whether the jumpers are set correctly having bought it as a working seceond drive. I do not have any documentation to set the jumpers and have spent a painful 4 hours looking on both the HP and COMPAQ web sites for any documentation, without any luck. As suggested, I installed HP-LLT, which finds the scsi card but says it's not supported and does not find anything else. Also, I cannot add the dat drive using Add Hardware, as again it itn't found. I seem to be getting nowhere very fast.

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi,

Are you sure you have a 2940 and not a 2944 that is HVD interface?,
if you have the correct card, press CTRL-A at boot time in order to go in the bios and chek if the DAT appear at that time, if not, check for bent pins or bad connection or defective terminator.
also be sure to have set the id of the tape at an id different that the controller that is usualy 7 as you said.

[Chris Booth]

Hi,

The scsi card is a AHA2940UW, checked with the label on the side of the chip. I've even upgraded the cards bios using adaptec's bios update. My dat drive jumper are set for scsi id. 6 but still is not found with the scsi utility. Do all motherboard these days support PCI scsi controller cards. I've tried it in at least 3, still no luck. I am running out of things to try. I'm sure the controller card is working as it is found by windows xp every time I switch the slot. All pins look ok and I saw the drive working before I bought it.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Chris,
do you have anything else than DAT drive on the SCSI bus? If you have another SE SCSI device, you can connect it instead of DAT drive to see if windows will see it (even if device you'll connect unsupported by OS, you'll see XP prompt 'I found device and want drivers for it' - this means XP found the device).
You also can connect DAT drive to another SE controller to see if it will find drive. Please pay attention to termination - bus should be terminated at both ends with CORRECT type terminators - WSE or SE. Replace terminator(s) with know good ones. Try operating w/o terminators at all - drive may not work correctly, but at least OS should find 'somethinf on the bus'.
In addition, please check drive's bottom switches (8 dip switces in one block) - all should be on, but 3rd should be off.
If you drive will not be seen by another good SE controller and this 2940 will see another connected device then consider your drive is dead
Eugeny

[Chris_234]

Trying to locate another Scsi card and will let you know if successful.

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

Did you install Tapeware 6.3? That is the only tape backup software which works on windows XP.

HTH,
Vince

[Marino Meloni_1]

hi Chris,
If you cannot see the Device in the SCSI Bios utility, or you have a connection problem or your drive is defective, because at this time, the connection is not OS related, and the tape SHOULD apear.
If you can enter inthe bios of the controller (With CTRL-A) then your card is supported and managed by the server or pc.
So I will insist in asking you to check for connection until the tape appear in the SCSI Bios Utility

[Chris_234]

Hi

I now realise that if the dat drive doesn't show up in the scsi utility its not worth proceeding to the operating system. What's confusing me is that it find itself on scsi id 7 but nothing else. Even tried another internal dat drive (HP Surestore DAT24), but again not seen by the scsi card. Could my card still be defective even though it finds itself using the scsi utility and also recongised and say's "working perfectly in windows"?. I suppose could be an internal scsi lead problem. Hopefully when the NEW scsi card arrives it will include an internal scsi lead, (AHA2940UA)

[Marino Meloni_1 · Accepted solution]

yes the card may have some kind of trouble on the scsi interface, so it can recognize itself but cannot communicate on the scsi bus, but the problem may also be related to the cable or to the device .

[Chris_234]

Thanks Meloni, Eugeny and Vincent for all your help. I've changed the Scsi card to a Q-TEC 210S Fast Scis-II PCI Card and "eureka" the tape drive is now listed in device manager. Obviously, the controller card had some problem, now sitted at the bottom of a bin. Luckily the tape drive was ok. Now got to find some suitable software so that I can archieve my files. What programs work with Windows XP. I have seen a program called DATMAN which mounts the tape as a drive but I am unsure whether this will work with XP. Does Tapeassure work with XP. Any ideas?

[Eugeny Brychkov]

Do not trow it away so fast :o)
Check fuses on the board. They may cause inoperable SCSI bus
Eugeny

[Marino Meloni_1]

Nice to heard you found the problem.
Related to the BU SW, I suggest you to use the internal applet of XP (NTBackup), this should be enouth for save your data
marino