I've got a real hairy problem and am hoping one of you guys in the Forum can help me solve it.

I need to run a Syquest EZflyer 230Mb parallel-port cartridge backup unit with my WindowsXP laptop. I have a lot of
important files backed up to the Syquest, and my Win98 computer that it was originally connected to isn't working.

I got the last driver files - PHDW2K.inf and EPHDW2K.SYS - written by SCM Micro (who merged with Shuttle, the original
driver designer for Syquest) while they were still available. They can also be downloaded from a place called syquestrepair.com.

These drivers were written for Win2000 and are supposed to also work with WinXP. However, my computer doesn't recognize
the Syquest drive when it's plugged into the parallel port, either on boot or hot plug. Device Manager and the Add New
Hardware Wizard can't find it either.

Needless to say, the Syquest unit and the drivers aren't supported any more, as Syquest went out of business long ago and
SCM isn't interested. Syquestrepair.com has some setup info on their website, but they don't know what to do if a computer
doesn't recognize the hardware.

A fella named Stephen Smith, who has done extensive work with the Shuttle and SCM drivers for parallel port peripherals,
especially the card readers, has some info on the HD adapter drivers at http://wa8lmf.net/D700/index.htm; but, once again, his notes aren't much help if the computer can't find the peripheral. He does say that if the usual procedure doesn't work "enter the motherboard BIOS setup utility..., select "Integrated Peripherals" or something similar, and ensure that the built-in LPT port is LPT1 set to an address of 378 with IRQ7.", and SyquestRepair says that the Parallel Printer Port should be set up in BIOS as EPP. Well, I spent the past two days trying every possible combination of BIOS settings for the Parallel Port, and I tried everything you can do using the Add New Hardware Wizard, but my computer still couldn't find the Syquest device.

In Device Manager, on the Resources tab of Parallel Printer Port properties, there's a checkbox for Legacy Plug And Play. If I
check it the computer does find a new hardware device on the next boot, but it calls the Syquest unit an IOmega drive and gives it an error message. Device Manager then lists an IOmega drive under Disk Drives, but says it isn't working because the driver is wrong.

There are a lot of peripheral devices listed in the Add New Hardware Wizard, but the Syquest drives are not among them.

However, I did try force loading the ephdw2k.inf and ephdw2k.sys driver files using the Add New Hardware Wizard, which
has an entry stored in it for an "SCM PPort CF Adapter", in the section for SCM Micro, so I used that. The files appeared to
load alright, and there is now a new entry for "SCM PPort HD Adapter" in the "Manufacturers and Models" list of hardware devices of the Wizard. But for some reason when I get the Wizard to install the files and then check in Device Manager, although there's a listing for "SCM PPort HD Adapter" it has a yellow exclamation mark next to it and the properties popup says "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device." Which is weird, because ephdw2k.sys does seem to be loaded, since it appears on the Driver tab for the device.

It's all extremely frustrating. I can't understand why the plug and play search on boot can't see the Syquest drive. I've tried every combination for the Parallel Port in BIOS. Is it possible that the Parallel Port device in my computer is so configured that it just doesn't see that the Syquest is there? That hardly seems likely with all thoe configuration choices in the BIOS I've tried and all the peripheral devices listed in the Add New Hardware Wizard. I just can't figure it out.

Anybody have an idea?

Mike S.

You wouldn't want to do a hot plug-in on a parallel port device.

I'd think an 'add new hardware' search would see it as a non-PnP device. That is, your OS won't find it as a 'new device' on it's own. I think your ticking the legacy device option in printer port options gets around that. XP is probably defaulting to seeing it as IOmega because they're similar and XP doesn't have built in syquest support.

What remains of the syquest site says 2000 and XP use the same drivers so you should be OK there.

You might try a new cable. Make sure it's an IEEE 1284. The syqust may not need it but your laptop may expect it.

Probably use the simplest bidirectional printer port setting in cmos/bios setup. If all else fails it may be easier to fix the 98 PC and copy the files to it and then to your laptop via a cd-r or whatever you have available.

Hi, Dave.

What about trying to boot the Pc into DOS mode, and then using the Syquest DOS setup diskette? You think that might work/

The trouble with copying the files to a Win98 machine and then trasnferring them, is that i can't find anyone with Win98 <grin>.

M.

Booting into dos from a bootdisk? I think that would be the only way on an XP machine. I don't think the XP dos command prompt would be enough.

The only problem with a dos bootdisk is it won't recognize the XP hard drive if it's partitioned as NTFS. If it's on a fat32 partition then it should be OK with a 98 bootdisk.

Since you could only use a bootdisk you'd need to modify yours to include the EZflyer drivers. Then boot up with it and copy whatever files you need from the syquest to the hard drive. Then reboot normally into XP and you should have access to the files. It's kind of complicated but I guess it could be done--if the hard drive is fat32.

Uh-oh. I just checked, using the Logical Disk Manager service in the Windows Computer Management suite, and it says the file system is NTFS. So does that mean it won't recognize the hard drive if I boot with a Win98 DOS diskette?

How about this: I might be able to boot from a Win98 DOS boot diskette and then run the Syquest installation diskette for DOS, don't you think? I've still got the original Syquest diskettes, for DOS, Win3.1, and Win95. If I could run the Syquest DOS installation, at least I'd have the drivers installed, which seems to be the main problem.

What do you think?

If it's NTFS, 98 can't access the drive.

You could try installing the dos drivers in XP. I doubt they would work but I don't think it would hurt to try.

Dave-

I think I'm going to try installing the Syquest DOS drivers in XP using the Program Compatability Wizard. No one else seems to have tried that and it might just work.

If not, I found the following:
http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm
It's a bootable DOS NTFS reader floppy. Scroll down to the middle of the page and click on "Self-extracting bootable floppy disk creator for NFTS reader". Looks like it might do the job, huh?

MikeyS

It may read the drive but probably can't write to it.

I've used something called NTFS4DOS to read and write to an NTFS drive but that was just to copy files from a messed up drive. I suppose it might work if you added the syquest dos drivers to it.

You can probably google NTFS4DOS to find a download if you want to try it.

Dave-

I found a site called bootdisk.com that has a whole slew of downloadable bootdisks, including one that reads and writes NTFS. I'll give this a try (as soon as I get clear of some bad dental problems) and post back.

Thanks a lot for your help with this!

MikeyS

Yeah, I'm familiar with that site. I didn't know they had a download like that but they are constantly adding to their inventory.