Storecase DS351 data silo problems.

[rbeggs]

Has anybody had experience with the Storecase (formerly Kingston) DS351 four bay data silo? I am attempting to run four Cheetah 160 series drives on one buss of an Atto dual HBA card. After four months of insane vendor issues I can finally recognize all four drives on the desk top. I can record to and play from all four drives but can copy from one drive to another only if the remaining two drives are removed (not just shutdown with the key). If all four carriers are seated, the Mac freezes within a few seconds to 3 minutes after starting a copy function. All drivers and firmware are the latest. Cable lengths are spec. Is this an Atto issue? Storecase? Am I the only soul on the planet running this config? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

What SCSI ID numbers are you using?

Rail

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Recording Engineer

[rbeggs]

SCSI ID's are 1,2,3 and 4. Nothing else is on the buss save the host. Admittedly, I've been reluctant to subscribe to the SCSI voodoo cult and should start to change my ways by trying some numerological mumbo jumbo. 1,2,3,4 is ridiculously straight ahead.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

I just wanted to make sure you weren't using ID 7, which is normally reserved for the host card. I have the Glyph racks with an Adaptec card, so I'm not quite sure how your Data Silo's set up... but have you tried disconnecting one drive from the SCSI chain at a time? Try and see if it's one of the drives in the SCSI chain causeing the failure. I'm guessing you've already checked all your SCSI cables (I recommend Granite cables). What drive models are you using? I'm guessing you've already called the StorCase's 24/7 hotline at (888) 435-5460.

Good luck.

Rail

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[I]Recording Engineer

[This message has been edited by Rail Jon Rogut (edited January 27, 2001).]

[Gulliver]

You need to call ATTO tech support. It may not be their issue, but they may know about it.

[Mark Wheaton]

I have a similar issue with a dual bus ATTO and the Storcase Data silos. I thought one froma in the silo was bad since I would get errors on that drive and testing revealed bad media, then I put the "bad drive" in another slot and it was ok but any good drive in the bad slot was also bad. I then tested by switching cables and buses and discovered that one bus on the ATTO was bad. I have RMA'd the drive but have not had time to send it in. This is on a 9600 and I suspect that the PCI bridge chip problem with six slot machines is related to this... Curretnly I run all 4 slots of my Silo drives off one bus of the ATTO and all is fine.

[rbeggs]

Mark et al, Thanks for your notes. Mark your experience is the closest. I'm running two G4 dual 450's with two of the 4 bay silos. The bad behavior is present on both. This newly revealed copy issue was preceeded by months of incompatibility issues with 160 series carriers and frames. (noise in the carrier back plane ?) That was finally resolved by refitting with all 100 series frames and carriers. All four drives finally appeared on the desk top. Stability seemed fine. Also in the fray at one point was what appeared to be a bad internal SCSI cable which further confused things. The fact that both work stations manifest the same problems with all kinds of drive swapping etc I find very telling. What it's telling me I don't know. I'm currently awaiting calls from Atto and Storecase. I have a sinking feeling about how I'm spending this week and the next and the next and...