Cheap test bed

[Reo51st]

The test bed is made from Compaq DeskPro PIII, Adaptec 2940U #1 is a 68 Pin SCSI cable and #2 is an IDE cable. #3 is 68 Pin to 80 Pin converter and #4 is IDE to Laptop IDE converter #5 is extended power plug. This will let you test 68/80 Pin SCSI's and desktop and laptop IDE drives. Make sure you use MHDD seems to be the best for all. No internal HDD or CD. Install SCSI controller and loop 68 Pin cable out the back. Install IDE cable and loop out threw front bay. Install extended power threw same bay. Attach converter when needed. Boot from MHDD floppy and your in business. Total cost less than $100.00 US. Have tested 100+ from each test bed and have only replaced a few cables and converters. There are 16 test beds.

[rameez]

Cool setup i have the same setup with dell gx1 ..


Good very good

[mkc_vx]

good job dude, thanx for sharing.

[Dmitry Postrigan]

Umm... where's 21" TFT LCDs? Aren't you going to show my precious MHDD on that?

[Reo51st]

Sorry Maysoft wasn't thinking.

[Dmitry Postrigan]

ROFL

[jimmsta]

I WISH I had a nice setup like that... I probably WILL have a decent setup in the future... At the moment, my work area is very small, and the system I use for disk testing is an old Sempron 3000+, with a motherboard that incorrectly detects it as a sempron 2300+. The machine is not fit for Windows USE, as it tends to crash for no good reason when using XP or 2000. So, I've deemed it the "SpinRite box", despite the fact that I really don't use SpinRite all that much anymore.

Lately, I've been seeing many Maxtor and WD hdd's with Firmware corruption, so I'm looking at solutions to this problem. (PC3000 type solutions).

[pasleeben]

Reo51st
I am new in this area of Hard drive recovery. I am impressed with your set up. I was wondering if there is a DOS version of the SCSI driver for Adaptec 29320A card. I have tried using the latest version of MHDD (ver 4.6) with the SCSI driver but I still could not read my SCSI drives.

How long does it take to scan through a 73 GB SCSi drive?

Thanks

[Reo51st]

Using scan 73GB drives take about 30-45 min. Erase about twice as long.
Ask Maysoft about the ASPI manager for the 29320A. MHDD supports the 2940U thats what I use. Works GREAT.

[weaker]

Didn't you run into issues with that IDE cable length (surely >44cm) and Modes higher than UDMA33?

[Reo51st]

So if you're fooling around with, say, a double-the-rated-length 900mm IDE lead, there's an end-to-end signal delay in it of about a tenth of a clock pulse. The signals you want your drives and your motherboard to be able to hear will be significantly blurred by delayed reflections from each end of the cable.

Transfer your data at twice or three times the UDMA/33 speed - as UDMA/66 and 100 do - and reflected signals get more and more out of step with the real signal, and do it more and more harm.

The faster the transfer mode your drives use, the more susceptible they'll be to cable problems, all other things being equal. That's why the 80 wire cable standard for UDMA/66 and UDMAA/100 exists at all; it makes the cables less error-prone. Each end of an 80 wire IDE cable has only 40 terminals. The extra interleaved wires are all earths, electrically tied together at each end.

These are only for testing. They are not used for data recovery. But I will say this that we are looking into reducing the cable by 1/2 to reduce noise and improve on quality assurance.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Reo51st]

Hi everyone.

Its been 8 years.

Just moved the test room and upgraded the test beds.

Now using IBM P4's.

But still using MHDD.

Attachments

[labtech]

MHDD has been great. Hands down.

Is that the same room though?
Edit: never mind, seems like not. Thought you said "moved the stuff in the test room.."

[Reo51st]

Labtech

Its a new room to expand the amount of test beds. "30 or more"

We used that other room for 8 years.

Just shows how good MHDD is.

New room new test beds good old MHDD.

REO

[HaQue]

Nice, and if anyone things it is out of reach, at another edu site there were 24 free core2 duo based PCs for give away with widescreen LCD's. first few days - no takers!, previously there have been 2 laptop trolleys full of laptops, server racks, servers etc etc

you just need to keep your eyes open.

building from new isn't really that bad either, mobo/low end cpu ram with flash as boot media is quite affordable.

I love Lab shots!! cheers

[einstein9]

Hi everyone.

Its been 8 years.

Just moved the test room and upgraded the test beds.

Now using IBM P4's.

But still using MHDD.

20+ Stations and not even a Single chair?
heheh

[HaQue]

Hi everyone.

Its been 8 years.

Just moved the test room and upgraded the test beds.

Now using IBM P4's.

But still using MHDD.

20+ Stations and not even a Single chair?
heheh

what are you going to do, sit down and play Angry Birds for 6 hours while it chugs away?!

[Reo51st]

In the picture you can see a white table.

There will be a chair there for the tester to remove the caddies from the drives.

With 30+ test beds there won’t be much time to sit.

Just a little side note.

I am testing a SyStor Eraser/Duplicator.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SySTOR-1-11-SAT ... 20cf1950c6

Good old MHDD is turning out to be much more reliable and faster.

REO

[labtech]

Good old MHDD is turning out to be much more reliable and faster.

Hey, make the money while you can..