7 DATs, 2 SCS cards

[Mike Bilow]

Derek Seaman wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 DS> I am going to be constructing a system with 7 HP C1599A 4mm
 DS> DAT drives, 2 2940U SCSI cards, and 1 Seagate ST34572 HD and
 DS> 1 Plextor 12/20x CD-ROM. The DATs will all be on one card
 DS> and the HD & CD-ROM will be on the other SCSI card.

 DS> This system will be used to make tape copies which will be
 DS> released to the U.S. Navy Fleet, so system stability is an
 DS> absolute must.

 DS> Does anyone see a problem with the above setup? The 7 DATs
 DS> will be in an external case using Granite Digial Teflon SCSI
 DS> cables and terminators. I spared no expense with cables and
 DS> terminators. 

I can tell you that we had a bunch of problems with the Seagate ST-34572W
drives, and we finally had to pull them out and replace them with Fujitsu
drives.  It really set me off that Seagate at first denied that there were any
problems with the drive and then, in response to more complaining, sent me a
firmware patch that they had earlier claimed did not exist.

What we saw was that, if you hang the drives on a machine with enough CPU power
to keep them solidly pegged, then they will spontaneously deactivate. 
Sometimes they will also hang the SCSI bus when they do this.  Such a problem
may only affect early versions of the firmware, but I really don't know.
 
-- Mike



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