[SunHELP] Problem with External scsi Drive / Can no longer boot

[velociraptor]

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 16:48:00 -0500, Barry Skidmore
<skidmore at worldvenue.org> wrote:
> I am having a problem detecting an external scsi drive connected to the
> scsi port on the system board of a SPARCstation 20 - Solaris 9 - SunOS
> 5.9.  Also, I can no longer boot the system, even with this external
> drive disconnected.
[original text email re-arranged a little] 

> Now I can not even boot the system from the ok prompt.  Normally, I do:
> 'boot disk1:a'
> 
> but get an error that the boot program can not be found.
> 
> The external drive is not connected when I try to boot.  I have powered
> down the system several times, but I am still unable to boot.
> 
I don't have a suggestion for your booting problem other than trying
to boot from a CD or netbooting and seeing if you can mount the root
file system to get a better idea of what is wrong with it.  You may
just need to fsck the root partition or it could be something more
egregious like a missing/corrupted boot block or similar.
> The external drive is a Sun X5237A 18.2GB 10K USCSI in a Sun 611 UniPack
> enclosure, with a 68/50 pin cable.  I have tried address 0 or 2 with the
> same results, described below.

[snipped test results]


I'd suggest that you try putting the disk which is acting squirrelly
onto a separate scsi chain (so it does not have other drives to
interfere with) if possible; that will give you a better idea of
whether you can get it mounted and get the data off of it.

Good luck with your further trouble-shooting.

=Nadine=