Adaptec Powerdomain 39160

[bowb4cisco]

I have a dual g4 1 gig. I installed an adaptec powerdomain when I first got it and I remember going nuts trying to install jaguar to my drive. Well 3 years later.......

I have the original 80 gig ATA..strictly for file storage...I have a 36gb cheetah (10k) that has my current osx 10.2 on it...I want to install 10.3 fresh on my 18 gig cheetah (15krpm) since I will run only Logic off the Mac. I ran the panther setup disc, selected the 18 gig as the install drive and upon rebooting it just hanged. I booted with the option key and waited forever for it to populate the drives. Then I selected the 18 gig and it loaded my 10.2..... what is that about? I remember it doing this to me the first time around, but that was years ago.

Basically I burned to CD any files I might need. I need instructions on how to format the two scsi drives as i have no idea how to do this in a mac environment. Then install panther clean on the 18 gig (and also have it successfully boot to it!!!!) Since im honestly not adept with MAC yet (I bought the OSX bible - reading as much as I can around work!) I'm not to sure how this is done. I recall adaptec having me change a fprot in the flash rom to get my power domain to boot the right drive, but im really drawing blanks.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bowb4cisco]

Hi all, Ive been messing around and still no luck. Basically i have this scsi card with two scsi drives. I did get jaguar to install with adaptec supports help, but that was 3 years ago!!

Now im trying to install panther on the other scsi drive. Heres what happens. The first panther cd runs its course and restarts. Upon restarting my system just hangs on the gray apple with the animated circle to indicate activity, but thats it. I let it sit for 20 minutes...no go. So at that point i tried to do a option boot to the drive. It will boot....but it boots to the older scsi drive with jaguar....even tho i picked the drive with the first panther disc installed. Also if i tried a second time...i get an error when its loading that i have to restart the Mac, and its an endless loop.

After this i detached the Scsi drive with jaguar installed and did a fresh install on the scsi drive i want panther on. Again it just hangs after the first CD installs. If i reboot again i get the restart error.

Im pretty sure its a 'driver' issue, and if i barely recall adaptec 3 years back had me boot into os9 on my old ide and move/change their driver files on the scsi. Does anyone know how to remedy this? I can easily attach my jaguar drive now and repair whatever needs to be on the panther drive, but I honestly dont remember how or where. (im a pc guy attempting mac). I think it was something to that effect.

Sorry for the novel, but the more details the more we can diagnose right?! Does anyone else use this card with osx and experienced a similiar issue? I know I documented this as well, but I cant find my notes =/ I cant be the only one with this scenario!

Thanks for the assistance!

[DeltaMac]

There's pretty good support information if you look at the Adaptec web site. An example would be this Driver for OS X that you could download and install.
I've also read about some who cannot install Panther without removing the SCSI adapter card, and reinstalling the card after the OS X install is completed.
hint: OS X seems to install best to an IDE bus. If you have ONLY SCSI drives, this could be a challenge.

[bowb4cisco]

I posted a more accurate description in the peripheral forum! Its pretty much a driver issue now that my brain is turning back on. Hopefully someone around here knows otherwise ill call good ol adaptec. Thanks folks!

[bowb4cisco]

WOW Adaptec wants $80 to try and support me, and ill be they will weasle out by saying we dont support OS X 10.3

Im pretty sure i just need to remove the generic drive apple loads and replace it with their latest driver. Has anyone ever done this??? Im in a catch 22.

[bowb4cisco]

I figured part of it out. I had to go into the extensions folder. Apple has a few older 29160 ext in there. I deleted them and copied the 39160 file from my scsi that does work with 10.2 to the scsi that has disc 1 of 10.3 installed. Well heres the bad part. It still doesnt work, however instead of the boot screen (greay apple with the animated circle) just hanigng forever this time someting sort of loads... but the gray apple turns to a no smoking symbol thingy...... So I def know those ext have something to do with it. Now its do there latest non supported beta drivers actually work in 10.3??

Doesnt anyone use a Adaptec powerdomain 39160 in the OSX panther?

I could use any advice. What does that symbol mean?

Please help!

[DeltaMac]

Now you know what _doesn't_ work!
The 'prohibitory' sign is fairly new for Apple, but is similar to the 'broken folder' that sometimes appears at boot for similar reasons, usually parts of the system have been moved.
Here's an ARTICLE that discusses some possible causes, and a good start on fixing it. Generally, you will need to reinstall the OS X, using the Archive and Install option.
BTW, Panther already has drivers installed by default for the PowerDomain 39160. Check in your /System/Library/Extensions folder for a file named Adaptec39160.kext

[tumbleguts]

Hey... I just might have the trick.

First things first...
I think it's a shame that the Mac has moved away from SCSI.
SCSI was once what made Macs so special.
It was (and still is in some cases) a great interface.
Especially, not having that initial lag in responsiveness that you get with ATA drives because the ATA interface is CPU dependent...
And personally, I've always preffered the 'tempermentals' of the SCSI setup.
Cos' once you get it set-up right - nothing compares...

So... with my G4 (digital audio) I decided to put in fast SCSI drives.
Got myself an Adaptec 39160 and a couple of ibm 10,000rpm drives.
Anyway, not too long into the whole process did I soon discover that it was nearly impossible to make any SCSI drive attached to the 39160 a startup disk.
Eventually... found a link to xlr8yourmac that featured an OF tweak to allow Adaptec cards to drives to boot in Quicksilver, MDD and G5 Macs. And even though my G4 was an earlier model - this turned out to do the trick:

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/action...=34084&-search

I don't know? Somehow it works...
Go figure...