Mulitple identical icons

[mrmxed]

Here's something I've never seen before. An 18 GB SCSI hard drive suddenly shows up on the desktop as 4 identical icons (ATTO Volume A). Double clicking on each opens a window with identical information. Running ATTO ExpressPro-Tools 2.7 reveals that the icons are assigned to Bus 1, Bus 2, Bus 5, and Bus 6. When 3 of the 4 icons are dismounted, the remaining icon remains unaffected. ProTools accesses the sessions without any problems. Even though the extra 3 icons are dismounted, ATTO Express still shows them as valid unmounted volumes. Apple System Profiler shows ALL IDs on the SCSI bus (0 thru 15) as the same SCSI drive (ATTO Volume A). None of my other SCSI drives behaves this way. What is going on?

System: G4 733 MHz, 640 MB RAM, OS 9.2.2 , ProTools v5.3.1

[PTLance]

Try running Disk Warrior. It sounds like your directory structure got messed up. This should solve it.

[the dude]

you will know what damaged files look like soon if you are still using the drive without fixing that directory. the session you are working on may work for now but you will be cross-linking files all across the drive if it is not fixed ASAP. and you will not get them back
DISKWARRIOR

[mrmxed]

DiskWarrior found numerous errors, then the computer crashed. So I punted:

Launched ATTO Express ProTools, and erased the offending SCSI drive, created new volume (initialized with a driver). Everything looked great. Apple System Profiler showed one SCSI drive only. Restarted the computer - and four identical icons appeared on the desktop once again. Apple system profiler also showed all SCSI IDs occupied with the same SCSI drive. This looks like a hardware issue(???).

Firewire drives look more attractive these days. At least they don't cost as much as SCSI drives when they fail.

- Mark

[David Schober]

Sounds like your problem could be hardware or software as your Mac crashed. When you ran Disk Warrior, did you boot up with the DW disk? (v 3.0 will do that w/ OSX) If so, it's very odd you crashed. You need to be sure the Mac is happy living alone, before the SCSI drive is hooked up.

I'd want to make sure the Mac is okay on it's own. I'd recommend boot up and run DW with the SCSI off and disconneted. Check the pins and make sure they're okay. I've seen simply disconnecting and reconnecting solve SCSI problems. Once your sure the Mac is good then reboot from the Mac and run DW on the SCSI drive.
If you still have a problem, try a different drive. If it's still doing it, it may be a hardware issue on the Mac side or SCSI enclosure.
As for firewire, I've had more problems with them than SCSI. And the problems firewire gave me were more disasterous than the SCSI ones. I use internal ATA and it works great. Firewire I find good for transfers and quick backups....not permanant tho.

[the dude]

I also seen this when the drive is set to ID7 7 is reserved for the controller ID and it kinda acts like a feedback loop when an drive is to ID 7
also make sure that the atto card is set back to default and then try it again

[anal-log]

I also seen this when the drive is set to ID7 7 is reserved for the controller ID and it kinda acts like a feedback loop when an drive is to ID 7
also make sure that the atto card is set back to default and then try it again

Just as "the dude" said. I had the same thing happen to me this morning. I had six identical drive icons show up on the desktop. I noticed for some reason that the Kingston drive carrier for some reason was set ot ID 7. Change it to ID 1 and that solved all the problems.

[mrmxed]

Thank you everyone for your input. The Mac works very well without this particular drive. My rig has a dual bay Kingston chassis set to IDs 5 & 6. Three other drives in Kingston carriers labled as ATTO Volumes B, C, and D work great. ATTO Volume A has this quirky problem.

I had neglected to mention that the hard drive in the same ATTO Volume A carrier failed several months ago. It was returned under warranty to IBM, who sent me the current (refurbished) drive to reinstall in the Kingston carrier. The good folks (I mean that) at StorCase Technology talked me through reattaching the cables in the carrier. The drive was then put through its paces on a film project. It performed as expected. The problem became apparant only after returning from vacation after not using the rig for 2 weeks.

I will call StorCase Technology on Monday when the tech person there can verify the jumper cable connections are correct. Perhaps an answer will be forthcoming then.

- MG

[mrmxed]

The likely answer to the problem: a drive gone bad. StoreCase confirmed the jumper cables were correctly wired . ATTO updated the SCSI firmware from Rev 1.44 to 1.66. Initiated the drive once again to reaffirm that directory information was not the culprit. Nothing helped.

Meanwhile, three other SCSI drives run perfectly. The conclusion: another IBM Ultrastar 18 GB has gone south.

[mrmxed]

IBM tech support (Hitachi) fixed the problem over the phone. It seems that there are yet more jumpers underneath the drive that conflicted with the drive's ID in the system. I removed one jumper and changed location of a second jumper. All is well.