Re: RAMFast and Adaptec ACB SCSI controllers?

[skadesh@mv.us.adobe.com (Seth Kadesh)]

In article <30572q$sh9@blkbox.blkbox.COM> jdb8042@blkbox.COM (John D. Baker) writes:
>
>Just out of curiousity, I tried hooking one of my Adaptec ACB
>4010 (MFM) and 4070 (RLL) SCSI hard disk controllers to my
>RamFAST/SCSI card (Rev. C, v3.01b EPROM).

[snip]

>I went ahead and tried to format it (as a tape drive and as a
>Sider D4).  Each time, the Adaptec card would flash its activity
>light as "dim-bright-off" about 10 times and then the RamFAST
>would report:
>
>     RamFAST MLI Error
>              Command 03-04 80 00 00 80 01 00 00 00
>                Error 27
>
>I think I recognize the first line as the Smartport FORMAT command
>code followed by a SCSI/SASI DCB for sending the FORMAT DISK
>command.  Why is is sending a LUN of 4?  Why an interleave
>of 0 and why bother setting the upper nybble to 8?
>
>No wonder it can't format.  It's being sent a bad LUN.

[snip]

>I would really appreciate a modified version of the RAMFAST.SYSTEM
>utility program that would let me specify my own disk parameters
>rather than having to choose from that limited list of hard disks,
>none of which I have.

Interesting.  I think this would explain why I went through two different
SCSI drives before getting one to work on my RamFAST (rev C, v3.01e).

The first drive I tried was a Maxtor (345 mb?).
The second drive I tried was a Conner (245 mb?).

After having the same problem (RamFAST MLI error, looked very similar to
what John wrote above), I went with a Quantum (which is what I originally
had, before it died).

Of course, it's POSSIBLE that the drives I had were just bad (as I couldn't
format them on a Mac either), but I find it strange that I had such a
similar problem.

On the other hand, John may not know what he's talking about :-)

I wonder what types of drives people are using on their RamFASTs?

-seth
skadesh@adobe.com