Installing Scsi Devices; Scsi Configuration Guidelines; Scsi Id Numbers; Scsi Cable And Scsi Termination - Dell OptiPlex GXi Reference And Installation Manual

For OS/2, see the discussion on partitioning and logical
formatting in the documentation that came with the oper-
ating system.
CAUTION: If you format your hard-disk drive
under the OS/2 High Performance File System
(HPFS), you cannot reformat the drive for
MS-DOS without losing all HPFS data. See your
OS/2 documentation for details.
For Windows NT, see the discussion on partitioning and
logical formatting in the documentation that came with
the operating system.
CAUTION: If you format your hard-disk drive
under the Windows NT File System (NTFS), you
cannot reformat the drive for MS-DOS without los-
ing all NTFS data. See your Windows NT
documentation for details.
®
For the UNIX operating system, refer to your UNIX
documentation.
I
nstalling SCSI Devices
To use SCSI devices in your Dell computer, you must
have a SCSI host adapter card, which comes with its own
SCSI cable. This cable can be used to attach a variety of
SCSI devices (hard-disk drives, tape drives, and so on).
The SCSI host adapter configures the devices attached to
it as one subsystem—not as independent devices.
Although SCSI devices are installed essentially the same
way as other devices, their configuration requirements
are different.

SCSI Configuration Guidelines

For details on configuring your SCSI subsystem, refer to
the documentation that came with your SCSI devices
and/or your host adapter card. The following subsections
offer some general guidelines.

SCSI ID Numbers

Each device attached to a SCSI host adapter card, as well
as the card itself, must have a unique SCSI identification
(SCSI ID) number from 0 to 7. When SCSI devices are
shipped from Dell, the default SCSI ID numbers are
assigned as follows:
•
A SCSI host adapter card is configured as SCSI ID 7
(the default ID for a host adapter card).
•
A SCSI tape drive is configured as SCSI ID 6 (the
default ID number for a tape drive).
•
SCSI hard-disk drives are usually configured as
SCSI ID 0. (The drive used to boot your system
should always be configured as SCSI ID 0.)
NOTE: There is no requirement that SCSI ID numbers be
assigned sequentially or that devices be attached to the
cable in order by ID number.

SCSI Cable and SCSI Termination

The type of cabling you receive with your SCSI device
depends on the type of device you are installing, as fol-
lows:
•
If you are installing an internal narrow SCSI device
(such as a CD-ROM drive or tape drive), you have a
50-pin internal SCSI cable as shown in Figure 7-14.
One end of this cable attaches to the narrow SCSI
device and the other end attaches to the narrow SCSI
connector on your SCSI host adapter card.
68-pin SCSI cable
(to hard-disk
drive)

Figure 7-14. Internal SCSI Cable

50-pin SCSI cable (to
device in externally
accessible drive bay)
Installing Drives 7-9