On 10 Jan 2007 at 13:58, Tim wrote:

> I was given an IBM Pc server 310, It has no hard drive. The drive that
> goes into it is a  (scuzy drive ? ) It is a 50 pin hookup. I want to
> switch it to a regular HD. Can I bypass that by  Placing a PCI IDE
> controller card in it ?  Or is there a patch cord for it. I have no
> idea. Thanks for your help. 

  Although it's often pronounced "scuzzy", it's actually spelled SCSI.  
There have been about as many generations of SCSI as of IDE/EIDE/ATAPI/PATA, 
but while the latter has maintained compatibility with a single 40-pin 
connector, practically every generation of SCSI introduced a different 
connector.
  A PCI IDE controller card *should* allow you to avoid having to learn the 
details of SCSI, and at this point that's probably a pretty good idea.

  It's *possible* that IBM has done something in the BIOS of the machine to 
require that the boot drive be attached to the built-in SCSI controller.  
There are justifications both for and against this, and I don't know what 
IBM finally decided on.
  If you're going to buy a PCI controller card, you might want to think 
about going SATA instead.  You might have a reason not to do that -- just so 
you consider it and don't later wish you had!

David Gillett

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