Installing Win NT using SCSI CDROM

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Robert Ramsey - 09 Dec 2003 19:25 GMT

Hello,

I'm trying to install Windows NT using a SCSI CDROM. I'm
using an Adaptec AHA-1540CF SCSI card and a Toshiba SCSI
CDROM. During system POST the SCSI card reports that it
sees my SCSI CDROM and SCSI Hard drive (on different
targets). I boot the system using the three Win NT
instillation disks. The system loads the drivers for my
SCSI controller card but doesn't see the CDROM. At that
point it can not continue. What do I have to do to get NT
installed? Using an IDE CDROM is not an option.

I've tried using a Win98 startup disk to see if the
generic oak CDROM drivers would see the CDROM drive but I
haven't had any luck with that either.

I know that the controller and SCSI hardware is good
because I've tested it on another system.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Haggis - 09 Dec 2003 19:44 GMT

I think you have to make sure that the card/cdrom is bootable.

check the card config at boot

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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Robert Ramsey - 09 Dec 2003 20:35 GMT

The Win NT CDROM is bootable and the SCSI card says that
during the computer POST. However, when I set the PC BIOS
to boot SCSI or CDROM first it doesn't boot off the Win NT
CD.

>-----Original Message-----
>I think you have to make sure that the card/cdrom is bootable.
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
>.

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Ghostrider - 10 Dec 2003 07:46 GMT

The problem is the Adaptec AHA-1540 card and its physical settings. The
most important is that the card needs to be set up for IRQ 11. The second
issue is that the card needs a special NT driver, aka "sparrow", that may or
may not be installed during the initial setup. The solution in 1996, with the
introduction of NT 4.0, was to replace the AHA-1540 card with its PCI
equivalent, the Adaptec 2940. But if this is not feasible, then somewhere
in the setup routine using the 3 diskettes, the AHA-1540 driver needs to
be installed from the EZ-SCSI diskette that came with it.

> The Win NT CDROM is bootable and the SCSI card says that
> during the computer POST. However, when I set the PC BIOS
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
> >
> >.

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xe77 - 09 Dec 2003 21:32 GMT

Obtain a copy of the Adaptec SCSI controller card's driver
for Windows NT.
During bootup, before hte blue setup screen appears and
during hte message 'setup is detecting your hardware'
press F6 repeatedly. Specify the drivers from your
diskette. You may need to use 'S' to specify additional
devices.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hello,
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
>.

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John Wirt - 31 Dec 2003 18:51 GMT

I cannot really help you (the recommendation about the Sparrow deriver is what it takes in my recollection as a former NT user) but I have recently experienced a smiliar problem with Win2K + Adaptec 2940UW.

The Win2K 4 setup disks loaded fine and copied all the necessary Windows files to the C: drive from the SCSI CDRom (Plextor 40X) and announced its time to reboot. The only warning message was to remove disk #4 in the flioppy drive. I did this, rebooted, and the BIOS booted, and the SCSI adapter booted, but the boot sequence then stopped dead. Something new was that after booting the SCSI board a message appeared saying that a bootable CD-ROM was detected. I'd never seen that before.

I tried and tried to get through thiis problem by just trying again with the 4 setup disks but the result was the same.

FInally, I simply removed both the Windows CD and the floppy disk before initiating the reboot and everything went fine. Upon rebooting, the Windows files copied from the CD were installed and Windows 2000 sprang to life.

I later thought that maybe waht I should have done is first change the bootable SCSI device in the SCSI configuration (before starting the installation) from the C: drive (SCSI ID=0) to the CDROM (SCSI ID=3). Then insert the WIndows CD in the SCSI CDRom and boot. Then the installation would occur totally from the CDRom. No setup disks would be needed. At the end of the initial phase of installation, the message would then probably appear to remove the Windwos CD and reboot. On reboot, one would have to reset the SCSI Boot device to SCSI ID=0. No?

John

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