BAD SCSI-2 problems - data loss - how to fix?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ToasterKing
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T

ToasterKing

I wonder if someone could please give me any advice on a mysterious
SCSI problem I'm having.

It seems some data loss is occuring, and I'm not exactly sure why. I
was unable to install Windows 2000 Professional directly to the drive,
because read/write errors would occur, manifested as blue screens,
unreadable data that was just written, and the volume or partition map
becoming corrupt. Also, booting from the Windows 2000 setup floppies
resulted in a BSOD with a STOP error before the install would start.
BIOS didn't support booting from a CD, so that was out. Thinking maybe
the setup program just didn't support the controller well, I ended up
booting an older version of Windows on an IDE drive, doing a clean
install of Win2000 on that same drive, and then "cloning" that drive to
the SCSI drive using a shareware utility called XXCOPY.

Now, Windows 2000 is bootable from the SCSI drive, and I've been trying
to set it up. Unfortunately, the problems still occur. I get the
following errors in the System log in the Event Viewer:
disk: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\DR0.
amsint: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Scsi\amsint1.
amsint: The device, \Device\Scsi\amsint1, did not respond within the
timeout period.
ntfs: The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable.
Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume C:.

The timeout error always occurs at the same point in startup, after the
desktop appears and before tray programs load. After heavy disk writes
(copying large files, installing updates or programs), the ntfs error
will sometimes appear and Windows becomes unreliable. At that point,
the disk is flagged as dirty and Windows checks and fixes the disk,
sometimes resulting in lost files.

Some details:
I'm attempting to set up Windows 2000 Professional SP2 on an HP Vectra
XU 5/90c. This machine has an internal and external SCSI bus via an
on-board AMD SCSI controller chip. The number on the AMD chip is
AM79C974KC. This chip is a combination SCSI-2 controller and 10-BaseT
Ethernet NIC. The drive I am using with it is a Seagate ST410800N,
which is a full-height 9GB SCSI hard drive, and I'm using it on an
internal bus. It is set up with one NTFS partition. The chain IS
terminated properly, with an active terminator at the end of the ribbon
cable. I've tried a different terminator and a different cable. This
machine has worked fine with a different SCSI drive on Windows 95, and
this Seagate ST410800N drive has worked fine on another machine (a
Macintosh). I'm using the default driver installed by Windows 2000
(AMD PCI SCSI Controller/Ethernet Adapter). I've been unable to find a
different one.

Would it be worth my while to find and try a different SCSI adapter?
Or is there something else I may have overlooked?

Thank you kindly,
TK
 
I should also add that I had a problem in the past installing Windows
95 OSR2 to an IDE drive on that machine. During the initial copy of
files, the install would freeze. I'd reboot into DOS to find the
partition corrupt. I finally got the OS installed by using a different
computer to run the install. Then at the first restart in the install
process (after the copy), I moved the drive back to the Vectra and let
Setup continue from there. I never had any problems again once Win95
was installed.

However, I also installed Win95 to a different SCSI drive in the past
on that machine, and didn't have ANY problems with that.
 
Heres an interesting tidbit

Solaris Device Driver:
pcscsi

Device Types:
SCSI

Adapter:
Qlogic QLA510

Chip:
AMD 53C974 (PCscsi)



53C974A (PCscsi II), Am79C974 (PCnet-SCSI) (SCSI device only)QLogic FAS974

Bus Type:
PCI

Systems Supported:
PCnet-SCSI chip is embedded in the HP Vectra XU 5/90 and Compaq XL 560 and
XL 590 systems




Preconfiguration Information
Only the SCSI portion of the PCnet-SCSI host bus adapter is discussed here;
the net portion requires a separate Solaris driver (pcn). See the "AMD PCnet
Ethernet (PCnet-ISA, PCnet-PCI), Allied Telesyn AT-1500, Microdyne
NE2500plus" Device Reference Page for configuration information about
Ethernet capabilities.

Known Problems and Limitations
Occasional data corruption has occurred when pcn and pcscsi drivers in HP
Vectra XU 590, Compaq XL 560, and Compaq XL 590 series computers are used
under high network and SCSI loads. These drivers do not perform well in a
production server.

A possible workaround is to disable the pcn device with the system BIOS and
use a separate add-in network interface.

The SCSI Tagged Queuing option is not supported.
 
That's interesting. Perhaps since when the system was sold, it was
intended for Windows 95 and NT 4.0, which possibly didn't take
advantage of combinations of functions and addressing techniques which
Windows 2000 (and Solaris) do that cause problems with the controller,
so there was no perceived problem in testing. Note that I didn't have
any problems with the controller under Win95 OSR2.

I've tried disabling Tagged Queuing, but it did not make a difference.
As a temporary workaround, I have disabled write caching. Now,
commands still fail, generating errors, and are retried, but no cached
data is lost in the process. Perhaps the Solaris-suggested workaround
of disabling the PCnet Ethernet adapter portion will apply to Windows
2000 also. I'll try that. Thank you very much for the information --
I could not find it elsewhere on the net (of course, I was searching
for "5/90c", not "590". Your efforts are much appreciated. Let me
know if there's something I can do for you.

-TK
 
I consider for the better! Glad your still around. We talked a looooong time
ago about some old Gateway 486 motherboards/systems..... take care!
 
I consider for the better! Glad your still around. We talked a looooong time
ago about some old Gateway 486 motherboards/systems..... take care!
 
I consider for the better! Glad your still around. We talked a looooong time
ago about some old Gateway 486 motherboards/systems..... take care!
 
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