Help, please, on SCSI Bays/Drive Size

[Bodhisan]

I've got a DPS12i, and am planning on getting a dual SCSI bay to house an additional hard drive and CDRW.

I know nothing.

From what "research" I've done, it appears that most of these bays fit 5.25" (I don't know if that means wide or long) drives. I've seen some bays that says fits full, 1/3, 1/2 height. Well.

The plan is to find a Yamaha burner and a compatible hard drive that are the typical size, and when I measure the CD burner in our computer, it's literally 5.75" x 1 5/8," which I assume is a typical size.

Do I get the dual bay that says "fits standard 5.25 drives," and is 1/2 height a standard height for most of these burners/drives?

My DPS12i has a 50-pin SCSI connector, so I assume it would be best to get a 50-pin bay, and then would I get a cord with a male connector on both ends?

Please bare with me.

THANKS.

Bodhisan

 

[Havoc]

Your research is well done! 5.25" is the width of a single station. This is the same as a standard CDRW. The height you measured is half height (is I remember correctly). This is what is reffered to as "standard 5.25".

For a disk this means you will need an adaptor as almost all disk are 3.5" these days. An other possibility is that you get a frame for a removable disk. This will let you swap the disk without having to disassemble your bay (if you have a second disk with a frame), you only have to shut-down, swap and restart.

It is indeed the most convenient to use the same type of connector on your bay and drives as the one you have on the DPS12i. You will indeed need a cable with both male connectors. By a good quality of a reasonable lenght (no to short, but not overly long).

Now most of these bays have 2 SCSI connectors at the back. This is to daisy-chain several together. The last (unused) of these connectors should be terminated with a terminator. The type you want here is an "active" one. If you put a terminator on the unused connector of the bay, you do not need to terminate the devices inside the bay.

Rests only to set the SCSI-id on both devices. I don't know what the DPS12i expects as id's (RTFM). The thing to remember is that all id's on a SCSI chain have to be different.

Check out the www.adaptec.com site for far more info and white papers how to set up a working SCSI device.