Tape drive not shown in list of devices

Another person's question on this topic was answered recently, but my situation is different and I don't think his answer applies.

The tape drive is an IBM DLT type 1. It is not new; I used it with Windows XP Professional and NovaBACKUP 10.

I'm now running Windows 7 Professional and NovaBACKUP 12.5. Nothing else has changed. NovaBACKUP does not see the drive.

Device Manager doesn't list the drive either, but I don't know whether that's because Windows 7 has an issue with it or because Device Manager has a cockeyed view of the world. (It definitely has a cockeyed view of the world; it lists my printer under "Disk drives.")

The tape drive is attached to a SCSI controller that's old enough for me to have forgotten the make and model. (I can pull it out and check if that's useful, but not tonight.) It's not configured for RAID... at least, I don't know how it could be... I've never used it to operate a disk drive, only the tape.

The tape drive is seen through the SCSI controller to which it's attached. So check in Device Manager to be sure your SCSI controller is installed correctly (i.e. it has a proper name shown as well as drivers, and is not in "other devices" with a yellow exclamation mark, indicating that it is NOT installed correctly).

If you need drivers for the SCSI controller (which handles nothing but your tape drive), and they're not automatically installed by Win7, you're going to have to try and find them on the SCSI card's manufacturer's web site... assuming it's still in business and the SCSI card is supported with Win7 drivers.

Otherwise, if you still want to use that tape drive you may be SOL if the hardware is not supported by Win7 drivers. Could be a hardware upgrade is appropriate to newer SCSI card and tape drive.

Or, you might consider simply going with a 2TB external USB drive and let that replace your tape drive and tape media.

The adapter is an LSI Logic Sym22910. I visited the mfr's web site and couldn't find a Windows 7 driver for it, although the web site is poorly organized and indexed, so I may have missed it.

However, MS's Hardware Compatibility List lists this adapter, without comment. From this I infer that LSI Logic does not provide a driver for the adapter because MS includes one in its distribution.

Now I'm back to the fact that my copy of Windows 7 does not have the adapter's driver even though the adapter was present when it was installed. Apart from the puzzle of "why?" it's not clear how to make Windows 7 install a built-in driver for an installed device when it doesn't detect the device on its own.

Sometimes it helps to completely remove the scsi card, restart, and then shut Windows down again. Then reinsert the card and try again ...

bob

The adapter is an LSI Logic Sym22910. I visited the mfr's web site and couldn't find a Windows 7 driver for it, although the web site is poorly organized and indexed, so I may have missed it.

And there's also nothing shown on the Microsoft Update Catalog site, so it looks like this card is simply not supported under Win7.

However, MS's Hardware Compatibility List lists this adapter, without comment. From this I infer that LSI Logic does not provide a driver for the adapter because MS includes one in its distribution.

Seems reasonable. And yet you say that you do NOT have a driver, which I assume means you have a yellow exclamation mark on it under "other hardware" from Device Manager, and that it does not show up properly installed under "SCSI adapters".

Now I'm back to the fact that my copy of Windows 7 does not have the adapter's driver even though the adapter was present when it was installed. Apart from the puzzle of "why?" it's not clear how to make Windows 7 install a built-in driver for an installed device when it doesn't detect the device on its own.

Shouldn't work that way.

If you have "check Windows Update" during Win7's install, even if no built-in driver is on the installation DVD the installer will check the Microsoft Update Catalog site for the device's PnP ID, and will retrieve that driver and use it if available. But I couldn't find one, so it's either on the DVD or nowhere.

I'd take the "course of least resistance" at this point, and replace the card with an Adaptec 29160 family SCSI adapter that you can find for around $40. You only need it for your tape drive. Initially when Win7 came out, the 29160 family was not supported but the 29320/39320 family was. Subsequently Adaptec finally came out with a 29160 driver for Win7, so either card will solve your current problem. Best price probably determines your choice.

I'd give up on the LSI card.

You might also consider a more "modern" tape drive, like a DAT device from HP (DAT40-DDS4, DAT72-DDS5, DAT160-DDS6) although they're not cheap, and you'd have to buy new blank media. But depending on your current storage/backup needs the larger/faster tape drives may be more appropriate. They all work fine on those Adaptec SCSI cards I mentioned and also their HP drivers work fine under Win7.

The controller is listed under "Other devices" (twice, since it has two channels) with manufacturer unknown, but with no yellow symbol. The status says "not installed, code 28). I clicked the "update driver" button but it found nothing.

I tried restarting with the controller removed, then with it reinserted, but that made no difference.

All indications are that the controller is unsupported, yet Microsoft's HCI says flatly that it is. This doesn't make sense.

DSperber, the suggestion that I replace the LSI Logic adapter with a 29160 is not the cheeriest one I could receive, because some years ago I installed the LSI Logic to replace a 29160 which I could not get to work properly. That was so long ago that I don't remember details, but the situation pointed clearly to an incompatibility, not a malfunction.

I've still got the old 29160, so I can stick it back in and see if it works better now. However, I do remember being stunned by how fast my backups ran when I first tried the LSI Logic adapter, so dropping back to the 29160 will be a step down even if it works.

A few comments on the other solutions that were suggested... I know that external disks have pretty much replaced tape for single-system backup, but I'm sticking with tape for the sake of reliability. I've heard too many horror stories about external disks that crashed, taking the family jewels down with them, despite apparently careful handling. Tape makes me feel much more secure.

My current, rather antiquated LTO drive is quite sufficient for my needs, though. Actually, it's overkill. I bought it when I started having persistent reliability problems with DAT and found that I couldn't get a DLT drive to work reliably either. I later learned that the problem was software, not hardware or media, but by then I had the LTO, so I use it.

I've had an extended correspondence with LSI support, and I understand what is wrong, although I don't have a solution.

Although my card is labeled as an LSI, it was OEMed by IBM. It has custom firmware, and Windows doesn't recognize it as an LSI card.

Neither LSI nor IBM has a Win7 driver for it.

LSI invited me to try some a driver for one of their similar cards, but their web site doesn't list any similar cards with Win7 drivers -- presumably because Microsoft provides the drivers.

Is there a way I can force Windows to install its 22910 driver for this card? That may or may not work, but I'd like to try it before giving up.

It took me quite a while to find time for this, but tonight I swapped in my old 29160 in place of the LSI card that Windows 7 won't support.

I'll make the story short. Windows 7 doesn't want to support the 29160, either. Device Manager wanted to get a driver from Adaptec's web site, not the Windows DVD. The driver it chose was named u160_xp_2000_sp4.exe... not a promising start. Having downloaded the driver, Device Manager refused to install it. I visited Adaptec's web site and found that they provide drivers for the 29160 only through Windows XP.

So I'm back where I was a few months ago: I need to ask whether there's a way to trick Windows 7 into installing a usable driver for this card.

I'll make the story short. Windows 7 doesn't want to support the 29160, either. Device Manager wanted to get a driver from Adaptec's web site, not the Windows DVD. The driver it chose was named u160_xp_2000_sp4.exe... not a promising start. Having downloaded the driver, Device Manager refused to install it. I visited Adaptec's web site and found that they provide drivers for the 29160 only through Windows XP.

Clearly the WinXP drivers are inappropriate for Win7.

When I first upgraded to Win7 and still had a 29160 in my machine, I could not install Win7 because at the time there were no drivers for it present on the Win7 installation DVD nor were there drivers for the 29160 available from Adaptec that you could provide at install time.

I opened a ticket with Adaptec on the subject, and this was December 2009. Sometime after that, in January 2010, I received notification from Adaptec that the problem had been resolved:

Hello Mr. Sperber,

This message is in response to your questions concerning Windows 7 x64 driver support for the Adaptec ASC-29160N.

We posted Windows 7 x64 drivers for this product today and you should be able to download these drivers from the link below.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/downloads/ ... ard+29160N

Dave Ross
Adaptec Technical Support


Well, while the mentioned page may have existed back in January 2010, clicking on that link finds that it no longer exists. Don't understand why, since it looks right.

However there ARE Win7 (x86 and x64) drivers available from Adaptec simply by searching the product page for U160 devices.

http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/scsi/#u160


And in fact, HERE is the page for the x64 Win7 driver for the 29160n (and the other 29160x products in the family, I believe):

http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/downloads/ ... 9160n.html

Thank you! I'm glad they have it, but they sure don't make it easy to get. I've downloaded the installer, and I'll try it as soon as I have a chance.