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Date:	Thu, 09 Oct 2003 14:11:55 +0200
From:	Matthias Paul <Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Subject:	Re: SyQuest SCSI w/DR-DOS 7.03
To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
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Organization:	Aachen University of Technology (RWTH), Germany
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On 2003-09-22, Gary Welles wrote:

Catching up pending e-mail... 

Thanks for the update, Gary.

> [...] XCOPY command stopped with "Not ready error reading
> drive C / Abort, Retry, Fail?" and would hang after keypress.
>
> [...] "could not update destination disk backup file" [...]
>
> [...] "Unable to properly access backup destination (reason:
> non available)" error. [...]
>
> So far it seems that anything that slows the rate of transfer
> with the SyQuest will extend the amount of data that can be
> transferred before the machine hangs.

Hm, XCOPY produced a DOS critical error, the two backup utilities
displayed proprietary messages. In either case (and as the first
message suggests), it appears as if the medium is not ready for
read/write access when these tools attempt to access it.

Since even under MS-DOS it does not seem to work reliable,
I assume, the whole issue is more down to a hardware or
general software configuration problem rather than an
actual incompatibility with DR-DOS.

One reason for such an error could be a timeout problem.
I assume, the Adaptec drivers have options to change the
spin-up delay time, the spin-down timeout and the timers
for SCSI scattering/gathering etc. Does changing these
settings make a difference? Are there any other speed-
or protocol-dependent settings?

I do have a few (older) Adaptec host adapters laying around
here, but at present none of them is set up to work in one
of my few test machines here, and I'm more familiar with
LSI Logic based SCSI adapters, anyway.
(So far I have had no actual problems using various
removable drives under DR-DOS (Iomega Bernoulli-150;
Iomega ZIP-100, ZIP-250 (external); Iomega JAZ-1, JAZ-2;
Mitsubishi LS-120 (ATAPI) with Adaptec SCSI converter;
Noma:i MCD750c/i; Nakamichi MJ-5.16 5x CD changer;
PlexWriter 12/10/32S CD-ROM (not yet used as writer under
DOS), and various other drives) in my main machine using
an Asus SC-875 host adapter with LSI Logic SCSI controller
and DOS drivers.)

Maybe someone else with an Adaptec controller could be so
kind to list the timeout configuration options of their
cards and drivers?

(Thanks, Leonard, for the SyQuest offer, but as time allows
I may pick up some old SyQuest drives on (German) eBay, so
that shipping cost won't be an issue - however, I don't have
/any/ time for it now, so this won't be an immediate help for
Gary's problem.)

> When both SCSI SyQuest cartridge and SCSI Harddisk on under BIOS
> control there are no problems.  I'm beginning to think the
> problem is related to having one under ASPI management and the
> other under BIOS.  The problems look like flow control problems
> with serial transfers between two machines.

Well, it ought not to be so, but it cannot harm to put them
both under ASPI control at least for testing.

Is someone else here using SyQuest drives and having problems
accessing them under (DR-)DOS?

Good luck,

 Matthias

-- 
<mailto:Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>; <mailto:mpaul AT drdos DOT org>
http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzs180/mpdokeng.html; http://mpaul.drdos.org

"Programs are poems for computers."

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