Actually, the array won't recognize the drives.
One of the controllers is an Adaptec 2944W, and I started out with 3 HP (Seagate) 9.1 GB drives. I have the Ctrl-A option on startup, but the Disk Utility (to format the drives) fails, with error: "
Unexpected timeout" while scanning for scsi device #0. I can't get past it right now.
I turned on bus mastering in Bios, but no effect.
I have a 2940UW to try next.
I haven't played with SCSI in 10 years, so confidence is low. Adaptec manuals are no longer on the site, except for a basic 14 page installation guide, that any monkey could follow blindly.
I've had to put an adapter on the drives, to connect them to the 68 pin connectors on the cable (that's the green board visible on the pics), most of these scsi drives have an 80 pin connector, originally. These boards also allow me to assign a scsi address, with jumpers. I first tried #1,2 and 3, then I switched to 0,1 and 2, then I tried one drive (only) with address #0, but I still get the same message above. I tried changing the controller address from default of 7 to 15, no effect.
The cable I'm using *appears* to have a terminator built at the end of it. I've got other cables to try.
I also have 13 other drives, most of which are 9.1 (a few are 18 GB). Most have the 80 pin connector, some have the 68 pin. They're either Seagate (some HP), IBM or Western Digital. (One of the drives was a Seagate 18 GB Fiber Channel
)
Next I'm going to try the 2940uw, and possibly one of the drives with an original 68 pin connector. I also have a real Adaptec cable.
The third controller is an old HP Netraid (with three scsi channels, can do raid 50, has onboard ram slots), but won't fit in this computer, because it's too long. The PC I'm using is an old Compaq Despro, EN series, P2 - 350, SFF (Small Form Factor, aka tiny desktop case) with 256 MB ram. I'm avoiding testing these controller and drives on my main computer, because I don't want the downtime right now (looking at the picture, waddya think I've been doing for the past 6 months?
).
Rigging up drives like this isn't something I'd recommend: the bottom drive is sitting on top of the PSU, but the other two get no ventilation/cooling, and heat up nicely. Ok for testing, but I wouldn't run them any longer than I have to. The drives get hot enough to where I can't hold on to them for more than a few seconds.