[Scott in NYC]

Does anyone have enough technical knowledge to know how I can get a Power Computing PowerBase to recognize an internal SCSI ribbon and an internal IDE ribbon for internal drives of both types at the same time?

I originally got the machine with a choice of which internal interface to use, and I chose SCSI. Now I tried hooking up the internal ATA drive from my Blue & White G3 (12 GB) with a brand new ATA/IDE ribbon cable, and the PowerBase won't even boot! once I remove the cable from the IDE slot on the Power Base, it reboots with the SCSI drive no problem. Tried PRAM, everything. I figure maybe only one port could be used at one time, but removing SCSI did not work either. (IDE drive has a bootable system folder on 3 partitions, but the thing never even got far enough to look for that. My monitor stays in power saving mode when rebooting).

I need to access this drive, and can't hook it up to the G3 because I just installed a new 40 GB drive to replace the 12 GB drive, and the Rev. A G3 doesn't let you have more than one ATA drive on the chain (and the 12 GB drive is supposed to be backed up onto the new 40 GB drive. yes the two machines are networked). So, any ideas on how to get both internal SCSI and ATA/IDE to recognize internal drives on the PowerBase that originally shipped with SCSI "activated"?

Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

-Scott

[Paul S]

The B&W G3 had a system enabler file in the System Folder specific to that machine. Maybe the PowerBase is trying to boot from that but hangs because the enabler isn't for that unit. Also check your master/slave settings on the drive and that you are plugging the drive into the right connector on the cable.

[Scott in NYC]

Paul,

I have tried and considered everything you wrote. The real problem is that once I plug in an internal cable to the IDE interface inside the PowerBase, even if no drive is connected to it, the machine doesn't do anything beyond initial power-up and startup chime. The monitor never zaps from sleep into awake status. once i remove the ISE cable, it will boot normally. I am confident that it has something to do with having both the SCSI and IDE interfaces active/plugged into at the same time. I hope it's possible to do this somehow... if nothing else, i'd like to know how to get IDE working INSTEAD of SCSI just to transfer my files over to my new hard drive on my G3.

Thanks.

[Paul S]

I'm reaching with this one. Newer IDE cables are 40 pin, 80 conductor cable (required for ATA66 or faster connections). Your PowerBase is likely EIDE or maybe ATA33. Maybe your computer doesn't like 80 conductor cable but would work with a 40 conductor cable. That limits speeds to 33MB/s, but I'm sure your IDE controller isn't faster than that anyway. If that doesn't do it, I can't think of anything else right now. Please keep us updated on your progress.