RHB
On Monday, October 4, 2004, at 11:00 AM, Ron wrote:
On Saturday, October 2, 2004, at 08:48 PM, Bolton Peck wrote:
Hi all
I've got this stack of SCSI hard drives on my PTP250, which now has a G3, and they seem to be formatted with something called 'FWB Async 2:ID 8 3 0:2' as a RAID array, one of the four SCSI drives shows in disk tools as not initialized, but if you try it warns that all data will be lost on the other three drives in the array, two 9 gig and two 4 gig total drives in this array. I know little about RAID arrays and less about those in a Mac. All I know is that once when I zapped the PRAM I lost the ability of these drives to be mounted automatically at boot time so I have to manually do it from disk tools every time the box is rebooted.
Also, this setup seems particularly likely to be blown to bits by any sort of printer software whatsoever. The Epson stuff I tried really screwed up the machine, the HP 932C software also seems to have whacked one of the async partitions but at least the printer sorta works :-/
I assume I need some sort of utility to make the PRAM know how to mount these drives, and to fix/maintain them. What would that be? Every time I think about buying a new computer there always seems to come an extra thousand dollars worth of unplanned expense of some kind, so its just me and this old thing for the forseeable future..
Bolton
I don't know much about RAID either but FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit is the application used to do the RAID and it sounds like the array is hosed if one drive is not showing in the array.
Have you tried to set the start-up disk from the control panels ?
I would:
Back-up all files you need to keep and wipe the drives clean. You may need a 3rd party app like FWB's to format the drives.
If you do not need RAID I would avoid it and use the drives as individuals. RAID will give a little speed boost but not so much you will notice for normal computing.
If one drive screws up it screws up all 4 drives in a way and I don't know if you can add a drive back into the array without starting over.
It's kinda like putting all your eggs in one basket, if you drop the basket they will all break.
Try to initialize the drives with Apple Disk Utility, install your OS on one drive and use the others for storage or back-up. If you don't need the 26 Gigs all on one disk keep them separate. Some SCSI drives need a 3rd party utility to format them but try the Apple application first.
I have a PTP 250 with a 4 9GB drives in an external case and a small 1GB drive inside the PTP. I use the 1GB internal drive as an emergency boot drive with all the disk utilities like DiskWarrior and Norton. The 9GB drives all have a specific function.
#1 - OS 9.2 boot drive and all applications
#2 - OS 8.1 boot drive for older applications and add-ons.
#3 - storage for all files I want to keep.
#4 - 2 partitions, one for a Photoshop scratch disk and one for backing up the main boot drive.
If the PRAM battery has not been replaced or you don't know I would replace it to avoid possible issues.
Do a fresh install of your OS and start fresh with your printer.
I know this seems extreme but it eliminates a lot of possible problems. You will need an install disk though at the very least.
HTH,
Ron
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