JAZ nightmare
Andreas Huber
- I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
- both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
- read and/or write errors
- access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
deteriorates too.
- sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
window)
Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
thsi long format fails after about 10%
So my 2 weeks old 2G cartridge is broken. I am not willing to reformat
anything else before the reasons become clear.
My questions:
- is the Adaptec AHA 2930 suited for a Jaz drive? My retailer sais so, but
who knows?
- what else might cause the erratic behavior?
Any help welcome
Andreas
mailto:a.h...@kabsi.at
Brian Austin
See my other post in this group: Re: 2GB Internal Jaz disks cannot carry out
long/full format. Crazy isn't it. I'll try and get some answers from Iomega next
week.
Brian
---------
Jared Annes
Your problem sounds a little different (than Brians) to me. The problems you
described lead me to believe that your SCSI controller and your drive are
not talking to each other very nicely. I would try changing the transfer
rate of the JAZ drive down to 10 mb/s in the Adaptec SCSI BIOS utility.
Also, change the transfer method from Synchronous to Asynchronous, and try
formatting again.
The 2930 is fine for a JAZ drive, but it sometimes likes to go a little
faster than a JAZ drive can handle.
Jared Annes
Andreas Huber
thanks for your help. However the broken cartridge is a 2GB (the one that
came with the drive). Should be able to format that one?
Andreas
Brian Austin schrieb in Nachricht <36611C74...@btinternet.com>...
Andreas Huber
thanks for your help, but this did not change anything (still stopping
formatting at 10% making ugly noises).
I think I'll ask Iomega for a replacement drive, I have used if for 3 weeks
only.
Do you think it could be the COD story? Strange though that 2 drives are
damaged.
Andreas
Jared Annes schrieb in Nachricht <73reoh$fp$1...@nnrp02.primenet.com>...
Andreas Huber
it is not working
Dee...@ix.netcom.com
>This is my story:
>- I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
>- both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
>
>Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
>- read and/or write errors
>- access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
>deteriorates too.
That sounds rather like what happened with my 1GB Jaz drive when I
first tried to write to the Tools disk. So I used the Iomega Tools
software to perform a long format on that disk, and it has worked
perfectly ever since.
>- sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
>window)
These symptoms also sound like something that might happen if you had
a SCSI termination problem. If you're using the Auto termination
setting on the external Jaz, I suggest you try setting it manually to
whatever is appropriate for your system.
>Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
>thsi long format fails after about 10%
Did you try it more than once?
>So my 2 weeks old 2G cartridge is broken. I am not willing to reformat
>anything else before the reasons become clear.
>
>My questions:
>- is the Adaptec AHA 2930 suited for a Jaz drive? My retailer sais so, but
>who knows?
>- what else might cause the erratic behavior?
Have you checked my website for configuration tips?
--
Coping With Zip And Jaz Drives
http://www.netcom.com/~deepone/zipjaz/index.html
Errol Sandler
addition, if one copies BIG files to an mt disk, say about .5gb and above
(avi's in my case) the thing kinda quits and hangs and complains about write
errors. That's when I decided to format, and it quits at 10%. Anyone find
a solution yet??
Errol Sandler
removenos...@msn.com
Andreas Huber wrote in message <36617...@news.kabsi.at>...
Sam Horne
So far, I've had similar errors and format failures with two 2GB cartridges
(except that I never noticed any unusual noise from the drive). The first
problem I had was, within a month, with the original disk!
I thought this was very unusual since I had never heard of any problems with
the jaz system. Also, I used an external parallel Zip for over a year with no
problems what-so-ever. This week I've blown two evenings to extract the data
off the latest cartridge to die. Considering the potential amount of data that's
at risk and media cost (relative to the Zip), I find this unacceptable.
Anybody had any luck getting their cartridges replaced? I'm about ready to
chuck this thing.
Andreas Huber wrote:
> This is my story:
> - I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
> - both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
>
> Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
> - read and/or write errors
> - access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
> deteriorates too.
> - sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
> window)
>
> Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
> thsi long format fails after about 10%
>
> So my 2 weeks old 2G cartridge is broken. I am not willing to reformat
> anything else before the reasons become clear.
>
> My questions:
> - is the Adaptec AHA 2930 suited for a Jaz drive? My retailer sais so, but
> who knows?
> - what else might cause the erratic behavior?
>
Brian Austin
I also bought a 2GB internal drive with the JazJet SCSI card and everything seemed
fine until I tried to perform a long / full format. Quick formats always work fine
but when I tried a long format, I could only get to about 28% and then the format
failed. This happened on two 'new' disks and the drive is only about 2 months old.
The odd thing is, I can write to and read from the disks normally providing they've
already been formatted.
As I live in the UK, I spoke to Technical Support in Dublin and they've agreed to
change the drive and three 2GB disks without any trouble - which rather surprised
me. I suspect there is a design fault here and it's obviously in their interests to
sort the problem without too much exposure.
Why not contact your nearest Iomega center and do the same. Hopefully second time
round ....
Good luck.
Brian.
-----
Richard B. McDonald
Andreas Huber <a.h...@kabsi.at> wrote in article
<36617...@news.kabsi.at>...
> Jared,
>
> thanks for your help, but this did not change anything (still stopping
> formatting at 10% making ugly noises).
>
> I think I'll ask Iomega for a replacement drive, I have used if for 3
weeks
> only.
One tip on dealing with Iomega tech support: Do your homework and have the
results ready.
I had a problem with a 1GB drive that was not being recognized by the ROM
routines in three different Adaptec interfaces. Oddly enough Windoze and
Linux would recognize the drive through those same adapters. I checked
terminations, SCSI addresses, cable lengths, and other SCSI devices, etc.
Armed with all of the test results and serial numbers, I called tech
support and calmly discussed the matter with the tech rep. Having parried
all of his questions, he readily agreed that my drive was behaving oddly
and arraigned for replacement. The new drive works fine.
Trainspotter
wrote:
>This is my story:
>- I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
>- both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
>
>Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
>- read and/or write errors
>- access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
>deteriorates too.
>- sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
>window)
>
>Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
>thsi long format fails after about 10%
>
>So my 2 weeks old 2G cartridge is broken. I am not willing to reformat
>anything else before the reasons become clear.
>
>My questions:
>- is the Adaptec AHA 2930 suited for a Jaz drive? My retailer sais so, but
>who knows?
>- what else might cause the erratic behavior?
>
>Any help welcome
>
>Andreas
>
>mailto:a.h...@kabsi.at
>
About 2 months ago, I had exactly the same problem with an external
2GB connected via Adaptec PCMCIA SCSI to ThinkPad. Drive was 3-4 weeks
old. Drive made lots of noise, got very sTlow, and was clearly doing
mulitiple retries on every read. Same thing with different cartridges.
Cartridges could no longer be read by my other 2GB Jaz (at home). Long
format failed after 10%. Thought maybe a batch of bad cartridges,
bought three more, same thing.
I called Iomega, spent some time with their tech support, and
eventually got replacement drive.
I have been able to reformat most but not all of the damaged
cartridges.
T
So far okay but my fingers are crossed. So
Michael Putzier
I have had an ongoing battle (over 1 year) with Iomega and my 1G drive.
Last month I finally got a replacement drive.......now it is doing the same
thing!!!!! Click of Death!?!?!?!?!
Michael Putzier
Trainspotter wrote in message <3673e342....@news.supernews.com>...
Michael
>
> On Sun, 29 Nov 1998 05:35:48 +0100, "Andreas Huber" <a.h...@kabsi.at>
> wrote:
>
> >This is my story:
> >- I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
> >- both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
> >
> >Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
> >- read and/or write errors
> >- access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
> >deteriorates too.
> >- sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
> >window)
> >
> >Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
> >thsi long format fails after about 10%
> >
> >anything else before the reasons become clear.
> >
> >My questions:
> >- is the Adaptec AHA 2930 suited for a Jaz drive? My retailer sais so, but
> >who knows?
> >- what else might cause the erratic behavior?
> >
> >Any help welcome
> >
> >Andreas
> >
> >mailto:a.h...@kabsi.at
> >
>
> About 2 months ago, I had exactly the same problem with an external
> 2GB connected via Adaptec PCMCIA SCSI to ThinkPad. Drive was 3-4 weeks
> old. Drive made lots of noise, got very sTlow, and was clearly doing
> mulitiple retries on every read. Same thing with different cartridges.
> Cartridges could no longer be read by my other 2GB Jaz (at home). Long
> format failed after 10%. Thought maybe a batch of bad cartridges,
> bought three more, same thing.
>
> I called Iomega, spent some time with their tech support, and
> eventually got replacement drive.
>
> I have been able to reformat most but not all of the damaged
> cartridges.
>
> T
>
> So far okay but my fingers are crossed. So
One year ago last month, when my Jaz was 4 weeks old, it quit with a
BANG one day, like the actuator struck a mechanical stop. Could no
longer access the cartridge. Got a replacement for both cartridge and
drive fro Iomega, but had same problem after several weeks. I tossed
the cartridge, sold the drive, and will never -ever- put so much as one
byte of my data on a Jaz.
My 2 year old PP Zip hasn't stumbled at all .... knock on wood.
--
Michael
Responses to this NG, please.
Mark Wilson
Experiencing exactly the same behaviour with an Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter and an
external 2GB Jaz drive. My drive is only 3 months old and worked reliably until
about 2 weeks ago when all hell let loose and one cartridge is dead; i/o-errors
etc. (no long-format (died at 12%) and low-level Adaptec format failed!!).
Another cartridge is also playing up; it doesn´t look at all good!
Has anybody heard anything from iomega on this?
Is it a problem with the drive or with the cartridges?
Please keep me informed on any developments.
Cheers,
Mark
Trainspotter
Same problem here. I actually have two ext drives , one has already
been replaced by Iomega. Same age as yours. (Bad batch?) I'm watching
the other very carefully.. was purchased in another city so it may
not be part of the bad batch.
hart...@uni-freiburg.de
Mark Wilson <MarkW...@WilsonSoft.SU.EUnet.de> wrote:
> Experiencing exactly the same behaviour with an Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter
> reliably until about 2 weeks ago when all hell let loose and one cartridge
> is dead; i/o-errors etc. (no long-format (died at 12%) and low-level
> Adaptec format failed!!).
> Another cartridge is also playing up; it doesn´t look at all good!
Have you tried with a SLOWER scsi controller
or since you write the problem occurs since two weeks,
have you got a new PC recently?
I found that my Jaz drive DESTROYS disks since I attached it
to my new faster PC. A friend who has also purchased a new pc recently
has exactly the same problem with his jaz drive too!
The drive worked perfectly fine for several years on an old
Adaptec 1542 controller, but on a faster controller it can
only read. As soon as I write anything to a disk, the disk goes bad.
That disk will later not work on the slow computer either.
Neither is it possible to format it. Not with Dos, not with Iomega
tools, not even with the format procedure of the controller bios.
The drive moved back to the old PC still works fine there.
Just yesterday I wrote 800 Megs on a disk without problems.
On the new PC each disk immediately goes bad when writing
just one small file.
Iomega refuses to believe me but the problem is 100% reproducable.
Have others made similar experiences?
Klaus
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
Dee...@ix.netcom.com
[snip]
>I found that my Jaz drive DESTROYS disks since I attached it
>to my new faster PC. A friend who has also purchased a new pc recently
>has exactly the same problem with his jaz drive too!
>
>The drive worked perfectly fine for several years on an old
>Adaptec 1542 controller, but on a faster controller it can
>only read. As soon as I write anything to a disk, the disk goes bad.
>That disk will later not work on the slow computer either.
>Neither is it possible to format it. Not with Dos, not with Iomega
>tools, not even with the format procedure of the controller bios.
>
>The drive moved back to the old PC still works fine there.
>Just yesterday I wrote 800 Megs on a disk without problems.
>On the new PC each disk immediately goes bad when writing
>just one small file.
>
>Iomega refuses to believe me but the problem is 100% reproducable.
>Have others made similar experiences?
I moved my Jaz drive from a P90 system to a PII300 with an Adaptec
2940UW controller, and it still works fine. Are you sure you have it
configured correctly? You can find some configuration tips at my
website.
Paris Pasvantis
hart...@uni-freiburg.de wrote:
>
> Iomega refuses to believe me but the problem is 100% reproducable.
> Have others made similar experiences?
>
> Klaus
>
I have almost exactly the same experience. The jaz drive worked fine with a
486/133 machine and a 2920 Adaptec controller. When I got it to a 233 k6
machine, the exact problems you mentioned began : Difficulty to write on the
disk, less difficulty to read, disks destroyed by writing on them, formating
fails etc etc. Iomega will of course deny it, as they denied COD sometime ago
-actually the local reps still do- but I think that the jaz drive can run
reliably only with a lower spec machine. With a lower spec machine it delivers
less speed, perhaps that is what protects it.
>
> -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
> http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
--
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<-------------------http://pasvantis.cjb.net/------------------->
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Richard B. McDonald
Last summer I purchased an OEM 1 GB Jaz at a very nice price. I first put
it up on a LINUX system with an Adaptec 1520 controller. It worked fine.
I recently purchased a new K6-2 350 MHz system with an Adaptec 2940UW
controller and moved the drive to the new machine. The Adaptec ROM
routines would not recognize the Jaz drive which caused me to run extensive
tests with 3 different Adaptec adapters on 3 different machines (AHA-1520,
Slim SCSI PCMCIA, AHA-2940). None of the Adaptec ROM routines would
recognize the Jaz drive no matter what the AHA speed parameters. However,
I accidentally let the Win98 installation proceed, and the standard Win98
hardware installation wizards recognized it just fine and installed the
driver that shipped with Win98. The drive worked just fine under
Win98/AHA-2940. It wouldn't work at all with the Slim SCSI.
I managed to convince Iomega tech support that this was indeed a strange
problem, and they sent me a replacement drive. The replacement drive had a
newer manufacturing date code. And all three adapter ROMs recognized the
replacement drive. My conclusion is that the older firmware has a SCSI
timing problem that they have fixed (or at least tried to fix). Since the
Win98 drivers are supplied to Microsoft by Iomega, I wonder if the drivers
that shipped with Win98 are tuned to "fix" or at least tolerate my firmware
problem.
Since all of these writing problems involve shifting existing drives to
faster machines, I wonder if this isn't a similar timing problem. Have any
of you having these write problems tried using the Cntl-A to start the
Adaptec ROM routines during boot-up? Do these write problems show up using
the Win98 drivers?
One other note: I have never installed or used the Iomega tools on my home
machines. I have installed it on one of my machines at work (a 233 MHz DEC
with an AHA-2940 and Win95 OSR-2), but I don't use guest. The only
difference seems to be an automatic eject of zip cartridges on shutdown.
Unfortunately, I don't have a 1GB Jaz to test on the work machine, although
a co-worker uses a 2GB on a similar machine.
Paris Pasvantis <pasv...@usa.net> wrote in article
<36804153...@usa.net>...
hart...@uni-freiburg.de
Dee...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> hart...@uni-freiburg.de wrote:
> >I found that my Jaz drive DESTROYS disks since I attached it
> >to my new faster PC. A friend who has also purchased a new pc recently
> >has exactly the same problem with his jaz drive too!
>
> 2940UW controller, and it still works fine. Are you sure you have it
> configured correctly? You can find some configuration tips at my
> website.
SCSI ID, Termination etc. are all perfect.
My only hope is that switching the controller to
a lower speed for this device may help.
It seems I have to risk ruining yet another disk
to check this.
Klaus
Evad Yenomit
>
> Dee...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>
> >I moved my Jaz drive from a P90 system to a PII300 with an Adaptec
>
> > 2940UW controller, and it still works fine. Are you sure you have it
> > configured correctly? You can find some configuration tips at my
> > website.
> >
> any problem. Are you the one posing with a disk in the recent Jaz ad? :-))
Sorry I missed all the thread here, but I also recently (in last month)
moved
my re-conditioned Jaz 1 gig drive & 2940UW from one machine P166 to
another
P400 and it works fine (which is more than I can say for the 2 Gig drive
at
work!).
Dave
Humongous Entertainment
Paris Pasvantis
Dee...@ix.netcom.com
>I don't know how you manage, but your drives seem to be the only without
>any problem.
Lots of people use their drives without problems, but few of them hang
around here. Most people don't come here unless/until they have a
problem.
Scott
I also have no problems with my ZIP Drive, and I love its portability,
Guest 95 works on all my friends computers.
Regards Scott
JR
> - I have two JAZ drives, one older 1G external, one brand new 2G internal
> - both connected to an Adaptec AHA 2930 PCI SCSI adapter
>
> Most of the time both drives work fine but sometimes out of the blue I have
> - read and/or write errors
> - access becomes very, very slow, drives become noisy, Windows performance
> deteriorates too.
> - sometimes read/write even fails (interrupted by Win95, blue backgound
> window)
>
> Now viewing the disk status on the 2G cartridge suggested a long format, but
> thsi long format fails after about 10%
I got a new 1 GB internal JAZ model V1000Sl (call it #1) a few months
ago. After a few minutes use, the cart ejected but would not release
completely from the drive. I returned it to the supplier and got a new
one (#2).
After a month of normal use, I found #2 would not complete a long format.
Hung at 63 %. Iomega techsupport said probs with 3rd read-write head and
arranged a replacement (#3) - factory reconditioned (equivalent
model/age)/tested. Well I thought, at least it's been tested.
I checked #3 when first received on long format - completed OK. After six
weeks of normal use, I found #3 would not complete a long format. Again
stalled at 63 %!
Iomega arranged another replacement (#4). Same experience. I checked #4
on long format when first received - completed OK. After a month of
normal use, I found #3 would not complete a long format. Again stalled at
63 %! I have to speak to them about this tomorrow.
In all cases at least two carts have been tested (I have 6). Since an
incomplete fong format means an unusable disk, I don't pursue it further
than I have to.
They replaced the last two drives without question - did not even ask for
proof of purchase! But it costs me about $13 including insurance to
return a drive. So far I've spent almost $50 in postage.
But wait, there's more ...
I have a 2nd 1 GB internal JAZ drive, purchased about 2 years ago, a
V1000Si model which is slower than the V1000Sl but to date had been
reliable. Until last weekend. It now also fails on long format, at 63 %
(2 carts). Or Norton's Disk Doctor surface test at 69 % (a third cart).
It had been showing signs of failing over a month ago but I ignored it.
I don't do long-formats very often as they take about 20 minutes. And if
your 1 GB JAZ cart contains only some 600 MB unfragged all will appear
well. Until you get into the region where the 3rd rw head takes over,
then you'll have probs copying to and from the cart.
No one seems to have mentioned the 63 % limit so you probs may be
different to mine, but could have something to do with a different rw
head rather than a SCSI conflict.
Feel free to mail me.
Dee...@ix.netcom.com
[snip]
>I have a 2nd 1 GB internal JAZ drive, purchased about 2 years ago, a
>V1000Si model which is slower than the V1000Sl but to date had been
>reliable. Until last weekend. It now also fails on long format, at 63 %
>(2 carts). Or Norton's Disk Doctor surface test at 69 % (a third cart).
>It had been showing signs of failing over a month ago but I ignored it.
Are you aware that Norton Disk Doctor is not compatible with Jaz (or
Zip) disks? It can reportedly render them unusable; the same is true
for ScanDisk when used in Thorough mode.
The Jaz has its own proprietary method for reallocating bad sectors on
the fly (see Refman.exe). You can use Steve Gibson's free TIP
diagnostic utility to safely test your drive/disks; it's also full of
good information. See http://grc.com/clickdeath.htm
Brett Slattery
Are you sure you have enough space on your Windows Temp Drive?
--
Brett Slattery
JR
says...
Yes, usually at least 500 MB.