Installing and Configuring a SCSI Tape Drive

Installing and configuring a SCSI tape drive is a bit more complicated than installing an ATAPI model. Rather than attempting to provide step-by-step instructions, which vary according to the specific drive and adapter, we’ve chosen to illustrate a typical installation using a Seagate Hornet NS20 drive and an Adaptec 2930 SCSI host adapter, both representative selections.

  • If you have not already done so, install the SCSI host adapter. To do so, power down the system, remove the cover, and locate an available bus-mastering PCI slot. (Some older systems don’t support bus mastering on all slots. Bus-mastering slots are usually white or ivory; non-bus-mastering slots are brown or black.) Remove the slot cover for the selected slot, align the bus connector with the slot, and press down firmly to seat the adapter. Use the screw that secured the slot cover to secure the adapter. If you have a spare drive activity indicator LED, connect it to J2 on the host adapter to indicate SCSI bus activity.

  • The Adaptec host adapter supports SCAM (SCSI Configured Auto-Magically)—a kind of Plug and Play for SCSI that automatically configures SCSI ID and termination. (SCAM is described in Section 10.4). Like most tape drives, the Seagate Travan NS20 does not support SCAM, so we’ll have to set jumpers manually to assign SCSI ID and set termination.

    Like most manually configured SCSI devices, the Seagate Travan NS20 drive has three jumpers—ID0 (SCSI ID 1), ID1 ...

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