Can`t Instal XP Pro on SCSI Drive

[destr0]

Hello...
I`m having trouble installing Windows XP Pro on my system, when booting with the cd it gives an error (CDBOOT: Cannot boot from CD - Code: 4). I have a PCI SCSI contorller card and a 32 gb drive (SCSI too) in where i whanr the system to be but i can`t install it. One funny thing is that removing the drive from the system the CD will boot, otherwise it gives the error code.
I have no operating system, I want to install (New) Windows XP Pro.
I have no IDE Hard Drive only the SCSI Hard disk. I want the system to boot from the SCSI hard disk.

What can i do?

SYSTEM:
Biostar P4M800 - M7 A Ver 7.0 "VIA Chipset" (VIA P4M800/VT8237R+)
Celeron D Processor (2.8 Ghz)
512 Mb RAM
Mercury SCSI Ultra 160 Controller Card (898B) Model 155984
32 gb Compaq SCSI Drive 80 pins (With Adapter 80 to 68 pins)
IDE DVD-Rom (as Primary Slave)

 

[smah]

Is the scsi bus properly teminated?

 

[destr0]

Well i think it is... one end has the termination thing, then is the SCSI PCI card connected and at the very last connection is the hard drive. In the midle there are a few connections with no devices.

 

[edfair]

Usual is termination, drive, card. But then there are issues with whether the drive is terminated as well, and whether the card is terminated.
Might help if you could tell the SCSI card and the drive.
And if you have something like a 98SE bootdisk you could see if it will take a partition.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[smah]

The termination sounds wrong (if I interpret correctly). Assuming traditional scsi buss, starting at the controller card......

Cable end is plugged into controller card
Several unused connection points
Hard drive (second to last connector)
Active Terminator at other end of cable.

 

[destr0]

OK, im going to change the order the cable is connected to the devices... as edfair said... (Usual is termination, drive, card)
But for you to have a better picture of the cable...
The cable has 4 connections, two are very close (#1 and #2), one is in the midle (#3) and the last one is at the other end (#4).

Connection Device Connected
#1 Termination thing
#2 The PCI Controller Card
#3 No device
#4 The drive.

Also I can get to the card Bios and look for a configuration on how is terminated, but how can I do that on the drive, can I terminate the drive via software or I have to find a jumper config to do that?

 

[edfair]

This would only be correct if:
1) the controller card did not have termination installed or automatic(some cards have resistors and some have active)
2) the drive had its internal termination active.

If you get to the card BIOS and can set the termination, either on or automatic detect that would be preferable.

If you can find a termination jumper on the drive, that would be sufficient and you can leave the termination device off the chain.

The termination device was developed for those applications where the resistor termination on drives and cards were not fast enough to settle voltages down for proper signal transfer. Current drives and controllers use active devices to improve speed so cable terminators are mostly unneeded.

You will need to dig into the specs to verify the settings but you probably need it to be:
Termination---Drive----Controller.
The cable evidently was built for a special purpose. Normal 2 close together are for drives, then a distance to the controller. But there are as many kinds as there are designers of systems.




Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[destr0]

Hello...
Ed, I've changed the cable to the configuration you told me, but nothing the same boot error.
I checked the card and is set to automatic termination, but....
I don't know how to check that on the drive... it only has one jumper and its covered. Its a Compaq Wide ULTRAS SCSI Model:BD07265H22 but I can't find anything on the net about it. Also It's a 80 pin drive and I have to use an adapter to 68 pins. does the adapter has to be configured in any way?

 

[edfair]

I butt out now because all my SCSI is 1 & 2 (50 pin IDH) and I have no info on 68/80. But reading back on the thread I have a couple of questions. Your CD is SCSI and it can't be found when the hard drive is installed.
1)Does the PCI SCSI controller have a function called bus scan? And can you get it to scan with drives separate and both installed?
2) Does the CD identify when it is on the cable by itself?
3) Does the hard drive identify when it is by itself?
4) Are the hard drive and the CD on separate cables?
Your description kinda sounds like both drives are set to the same ID. And somewhere on the hard drive you should be able to find 4 sets of jumpers used to select the ID plus other jumpers to set the configuration. The CD should have 3 jumpers for ID, 1 for parity, 1 for termination.

Compaq doesn't make hard drives. They buy them from somebody else, potentially special builds. So somewhere you should be able to find another label.
Hopefully this will help. But it is your swamp to drain. Your alligators.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[smah]

I had a little trouble with understanding the configuration as well. Because of the specs in the first post, I suspect that the hard drive is the only scsi device & the 'cd' drive is the ide dvd-rom. If I'm reading this right, you might change the dvd-jumper to primary master, but I don't think that's the problem. Yes, knowing the exact manufacturer and model of the drive will help greatly with the jumper settings.

Does the machine boot without the hard drive? (I think 'yes', but I'm not clear with the earlier posts). With the drive attached, does the drive appear in the scsi configuration settings?

 

[edfair]

Funny how you jump to conclusions attempting to read between the lines. You're right and I've been on a wild chase through non-existant issues.

Suspicion that the SCSI controller bios is set to force boot from the SCSI drive. And it doesn't have an OS. Remove the drive and it goes to the CD.

destr0,
Is there anything in the SCSI controller setup that controls boot? If so, try disabling boot from the SCSI drive and see if the actions change.



Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[destr0]

The DVD is my only device connected to the IDE Channel, then the Hard Drive is the only SCSI device connected to the Card.

Now the DVD is set to primary Master, I updated the BIOS of my mother board and checked if that was the problem, but sadly it wasn´t.

*** From smash ***
Does the machine boot without the hard drive?
(I think 'yes', but I'm not clear with the earlier posts).

destr0-> Yes, the machine goes trough the installation process with no problem, until tries to detec some kind of hard drive, and send the message the it was unable to find a hard drive.
--------------------------------------------------------
With the drive attached, does the drive appear in the scsi configuration settings?

destr0-> Yes, I can see the drive listed on boot time, and also can see it in the configuration of the BIOS card.
---------------------------------------------------------

Also, as I start the machine, I can see the bios of my mother board, then comes the Bios of the card and scans for all of the devices connected to the two channel it has, and finally the mother board stars to look for the CD to boot from it (because I put it first on the boot priority on my mobo).
Then it comes the error code.

*** From edfair ***
Suspicion that the SCSI controller bios is set to force boot from the SCSI drive. And it doesn't have an OS. Remove the drive and it goes to the CD.

destr0 -> The Card BIOS only scans for devices, the mobo is the one that looks for the CD, the thing is that removing the hard drive only lets the CD to boot correctly. In both ways the CD is booting but one gives me an error (With the SCSI Drive connected) and the other not (without the SCSI drive)
-----------------------------------------------------------

Now im going to try what you tell me edfair, cheking the card BIOS for something related to boot.

 

[smah]

Have you used the scsi bios / configuration to set the drive properly, including initializing the drive? Have you found out any more info about the drive itself?

 

[destr0]

I played around with the BIOS of the card and check for error and made a low-level format to the disk from the card (This are the only tools that the card has).
I haven`t found info of the drive because is to old.
But the problem is still there...

 

[destr0]

Hello... I borrowed an IDE hard drive an installed it on the PC (Now I have one IDE hard drive, wich is working, and one SCSI hard drive, not working at all)

Well as I tried to boot from the IDE drive the were a lot of frezzes... to correct this I had to shoutdown the SCSI boot options, so that the IDE drive could work.
Then the card is detected by Windows, but the drive is not listed in "My CP" window.

I installed a tool called "SCSI Utility for windows" by Moojit.net and showed all of my drives properties, including the SCSI drive. I can se some info on the card too.

How can this tool sees the drive but I can`t see it from windows. I thought that with this IDE drive I could get to the SCSI drive and format it.

What can I do, now? how can I tell if the drive is working OK?

 

[Freestone]

The SCSI drive will not shjow up in My Computer until it is partitioned and formatted. Use Disk Management to accomplish this...Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc

 

[smah]

Now that you have Windows installed, is the SCSI controller card listed correctly in Device manager? If it is, then Windows has the drivers built-in. If it is listed with a question mark or as an unknown device, then there's a driver problem. Freestone is right about the drive not appearing in My Computer with a letter until it is partitioned & formatted.

 

[destr0]

Yes I will try dislmgmt.msc... but now im booting from the IDE wich is not mine...

How can I make the SCSI drive to boot. It seems to work OK (The SCSI drive) but when it comes to boot the problems begin...
I thought it was the drive that was making all the problems but is working OK.

 

[destr0]

Hello... I used the diskmgmt.msc tool and partitioned and formated the SCSI drive.
Using the IDE drive to boot and with all this changes I can see and use my SCSI drive now on windows.

Tried booting with the scsi (detached the IDE drive power cord) drive with this new changes but with no luck.

 

[smah]

Very odd. The fact that it's working OK under Windows seems to indicate that the bus termination & ID are OK.

Will it boot with no IDE devices connected (including your CD)? In fact, disconnect the IDE cables & disable the IDE controller in your bios. I realize that you'll get a 'no operating system' error or something, but it might be interesting to see what happens.