Here's a fail-safe way to see if your SCSI Device is compatible or working with your EPS or ASR-10. This can be for straight access, or if you want to format the drive.

• Turn EVERYTHING off.
• Make sure your SCSI drive is plugged into the EPS/ASR, and the cable is screwed in and tight.
• Make sure it's a SCSI DRIVE! A 25-pin port may be a parallel port, not a SCSI port.
• Turn on the drive.
• (Concerning removeable cartridge drives) If it does not have a cart in it, put it in now. Wait for the disk to spin up and click into it's "READY" state.
• Now, turn on the EPS/ASR, with a floppy with the operating system inserted.
• As the EPS/ASR prompt says SEARCHING FOR SCSI DEVICE, look at the drive, and watch it to blink. This is called the NEGOTIATION PHASE. The EPS/ASR looks for devices on the SCSI chain, and tries to get an acknowledgement from them. If it does, the busy light on the drive "blinks" as it gives the EPS/ASR it's acknowledgement. The EPS/ASR adds that device to it's "list", and goes on checking the next SCSI ID number.

If your SCSI Device did not blink (don't worry if your drive didn't blink; just assume it did and see what your results from CHANGE STORAGE DEVICE are):

• Something is mechanically wrong with your drive
• The drive is not compatible with your specific Ensoniq sampler - check our SCSI Drive Compatibility Page for a semi-complete list of drives
• The drive is on SCSI ID #3 (that's a no-no, that's the Ensoniq's number)
• The cable is bad
• The Ensoniq's SCSI Interface is bad
• Some SCSI Device physically ahead or behind that SCSI Drive in question could be interfering with the SCSI communication
• If you have a ZipDrive, there is no ZipDisk in the ZipDrive - you must have one inserted during bootup.
• Your drive needs to be terminated, or there is another device ahead of it in the chain which is terminated.

If your SCSI Device did blink:

• Wait for the EPS/ASR to boot the OS up and run
• Go to CMD-SYS/MIDI-CHANGE STORAGE DEVICE, and switch to the desired SCSI ID number.
• If you get DISK COMMAND COMPLETED, you are successful!
• If you didn't, see below on what the other CHANGE STORAGE DEVICE messages mean.
  

Here's what the other messages mean:

• INVALID LOAD DEVICE: The EPS/ASR did not add this to it's "list" during the Negotiation Phase
• DISK NOT RESPONDING: Something "jammed" the communications of the SCSI Device, usually in the Negotiation phase, or with your accessing. Anything from a termination problem, bad cartridge/CD, or incompatible drive could be the cause. Also this sometimes happens when you try to access the drive when it's busy doing something else.
• NOT EPS DEV or NOT ASR DEV: The command was successful, but the cart/drive is not formatted for the EPS/ASR - it probably PC formatted or Mac formatted
• It freezes: something is really wrong.
• BAD DEVICE ID: The command was successful, but the cart/drive is not formatted for any device.
• DISK NOT READY: There is no Cartridge or CD in your SCSI Device., or it's still spinning up.

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