From: "Tony Ingenoso" 

SCSI format and verification is usually an onboard drive controller
function. Typically the OS will only monitor for completion/error.  It
could be that initiating those isn't using all the wires on the cable that
actual data transfers use...

"Chris Robinson"  wrote in
message news:3E2D2F82.2468FE84{at}NOSPAMtotalise.co.uk...
> Hmmm - SCSI cable no.4 seems to have worked (had to reinstall NT though,
> otherwise I got a BSOD when I tried to boot).
>
> So it does appear to have been a cable problem after all.  But how are you
> supposed to be able to tell this because formats/ integrity checks all
> worked OK - I'd've thought that if the wrong cable was in, the HDD would've
> been inaccessible?  Are there any good SCSI utilities out there that you
> know of that'll help check for this kind of thing or is it just a case of
> trying umpteen cables 'til you get the right one?
>
> Sory to have wasted anyones time :o
>
> Chris.
>
> Chris Robinson wrote:
>
> > Hello again,
> >
> > I recently replaced two old(ish) HP workstations with two new ones.
> > This all went well (after some teething problems relating to Graphics
> > card drivers) but now I've come to sort out the one's I replaced (clean
> > them up/ redistribute them).  They both run NT4 SP6a and have SCSI Hard
> > Drives.  A dodgy SCSI cable in another PC ment I had to remove the SCSI
> > cable from one of these PC's temporarily so's I could get another PC up
> > and running.  I've now replaced the SCSI cable in the old HP and NT now
> > bluescreens on boot up* (I've tried 2 other different SCSI cables and
> > get the same result - all these cables work in the PC I had to
> > temporarily swap them into).  Here's what I've tried already (n.b.  It's
> > worth mentioning that I'm trying this on two identical HP Kayak XW
> > Workstations - I've tried everything below on BOTH of the PC's):
> >
> > - When I boot the PC I get the option to run SCSI disk utilities - I've
> > tried verifying the Hard Drive (this works fine).
> >
> > - I thought I'd try an NT repair - I don't have an ERD but it finds the
> > installation no porblems.  NT then says it's made changes to the disk
> > that require me to restart and re-run the repair process (no porbs
> > thinks me, I've seen this before) but I reboot and re-run the repair and
> > I get the same message - I'm stuck in an eternal loop here.
> >
> > - I then thought I might aswell try to reinstall NT from scratch.  I
> > boot to the NT CD, select to format in NTFS (this goes OK).  NT then
> > starts to copy files.  It goes fine but it fails to copy some files
> > (always the same files - NTOSKRNL.EXE, NTFS.SYS) - is this because these
> > reside on a particular part of the disk?.
> >
> > * There is one of the cables that I get:
> >     "TRAP 0000000E ====== PAGE FAULT =======
> >     ** At liniar address 00000000"
> >  This isn't an NT BSOD though - it's just a regular Black screen before
> > NT even loads.
> >
> > I completely confused - my knowledge of SCSI is far from vast and my
> > experience with it so far has had me wanting to break things ;o)  The
> > thing I find odd about it is that a cable could be screwed but could
> > still work... a bit - that's the nice thing about IDE - if it doesn't
> > work, it doesn't work...
> >
> > Appologies for making you all read this mini-novel of a post ;o)
> >
> > Chris.
>

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