SCSI Boot Problems with WIN2000 Server

[Grummangy]

I just visited a client who has 4 SCSI UW drives connected to an add in card, I was attempting to add a SATA PCI card and drives to increase their storage capability and migrate their system from SCSI. Once the SATA card was added and WIN2000 SB Server powered up the system reports back that there are no bootable drives available, It sees the 4 SCSI drives and any SATA Drive I add during POST and bus interrogation, for some reason it's not seeing a bootable drive. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated as I am not sure what has happened.

 

[Nodsu]

Did you play around in the SCSI or system BIOS?

Usually SCSI controllers have their own BIOS code they load (scans for SCSI drives, reports them, etc) and you use a separate key combination to get into SCSI setup. Make sure you enable booting in there. Make sure that you haven't disabled option ROMs in the system BIOS.

Also, in the system BIOS, you may have to specify "SCSI" as the boot device in boot order.

Some SATA controllers pretend to be SCSI and that may be confusing the system too.. Maybe shuffle the cards around?

 

[Grummangy]

Did you play around in the SCSI or system BIOS?

Usually SCSI controllers have their own BIOS code they load (scans for SCSI drives, reports them, etc) and you use a separate key combination to get into SCSI setup. Make sure you enable booting in there. Make sure that you haven't disabled option ROMs in the system BIOS.

Also, in the system BIOS, you may have to specify "SCSI" as the boot device in boot order.

Some SATA controllers pretend to be SCSI and that may be confusing the system too.. Maybe shuffle the cards around?

Thanks for the response. Answer to the first Q, no, Just added the card and 1 SATA drive. When the system failed to find a bootable drive I removed the card and SATA drive and powered up. Once again the System could not find the bootable drive.

1st boot device in BIOS is from the first of the 2 channels on the SCSI card, second channel is terminated and not connected to anything. 1st has 4 drives connected.

System picks up redundant ROM but when you try to select that option u are in the BIOS.

Since then I have reset the card addys to 0 and 1, and asked the system to refresh the Device list. Hope this was not a bad mistake.

A final note, the SCSI drives are seen, all four of them + whatever SATA drive I install, Just can't boot, it does not see a bootable drive.

 

[Nodsu]

Are the SCSI drives in RAID or just plain drives? If they are supposed to be RAID, then maybe the RAID configuration has been forgotten.

Try to check whether the hard drives actually work? Download and run the diagnostics utility from the HD manufacturer. Some of them offer the utility for SCSI drives too. Boot a CD Linux and see if you can mount the drive(s) and see their contents.

And of course, triple-check all the connetions. Maybe you just bumped something when installing the SATA card.

 

[DelJo63]

see this article [scsi vs sata compatibility]

I have been informed by Dell tech support that SCSI and parallel ATA hard disk drives are not compatible and can not be combined on the same bus. Does this also apply for SATA and SCSI? I currently have two SCSI hard disk drives and want to add a SATA card and hard disk. Will I encounter problems?