1. Start the NT installation by booting from the Microsoft Setup floppy disk.
   
2. Press Enter when the Welcome to Setup screen appears.
   
3. On the Setup Method screen, choose Custom Setup by pressing C. (If Express    Setup is chosen, the installation program scans for SCSI adapters and finds the Symbios PCI (53C810) driver (NCRC810.SYS for NT 3.5x,   SYMC810.SYS for NT 4.0), which is an older version of the SYMC8XX.SYS driver. Let the installation continue. When installation completes, change the driver. To change the driver, see the "Existing System Installation" section.)
   
4. Press S to skip mass storage device detection. (If Enter is pressed, the installation program scans for SCSI adapters and finds the Symbios PCI (53C810) driver (NCRC810.SYS for NT 3.5x, SYMC810.SYS for NT 4.0), which is an older version of the SYMC8XX.SYS driver. Let installation continue. When the installation completes, change the driver. To change the driver, see the "Existing System Installation" section.)
   
5. When a screen displays the SCSI adapters found, choose S to configure additional SCSI adapters.
   
6. Move the highlight bar to Other and press Enter.
   
7. When prompted for the manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk, insert your Symbios Driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver and press Enter. The diskette is distributed with the board. To obtain the Windows NT driver from the Symbios Web Site to use as the installation disk, see "Obtaining Drivers from Symbios Web Site" for more information.
   
8. The Symbios PCI (53C8XX) Miniport driver, Symbios PCI <53C8XX>, is shown   highlighted. Press Enter to proceed.
   
9. NT should now recognize the Miniport driver and the SCSI hardware. Press Enter to continue.

   At this point, simply follow the Microsoft Windows NT installation procedure.

This procedure installs the SYMC8XX.SYS driver onto a Windows NT system. Use this procedure when installing NT onto an unused SCSI drive. NT automatically adds the driver to the registry and copies the driver to the appropriate directories.

1. Start the NT installation by booting from the Microsoft CD.
   
2. Press and hold down the F6 key while NT Setup Loads. The first screen you should see will have the following statement:

"Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices installed in your system, or you have chosen to manually specify an adapter."

The screen will also display a list of "Supported SCSI Adapters"

If you do not get the screen with this statement and list, reboot, and try this step over. Press the F6 key right after the Symbios SCSI adapter information displays, and hold it down until the screen loads!

3. Press S to configure additional SCSI adapters.
   
4. Move the highlight bar to Other and press Enter.
   
5. When prompted for the manufacturer-supplied driver disk, insert your Symbios Driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver and press Enter.
   
6. The Symbios PCI (53C8XX) Miniport driver, Symbios PCI <53C8XX>, is shown   highlighted. Press Enter to proceed.
   
7. NT should now recognize the Miniport driver and the SCSI hardware. Press Enter to continue.

   At this point, simply follow the Microsoft Windows NT installation procedure.

This procedure installs the SYMC8XX.SYS driver onto an existing Windows NT system.

1. Boot NT and log on as Administrator.
   
2. Click the Start button, move to Settings, then to Control Panel, and click.
   
3. Double-click on SCSI Adapters.
   
4. Click the Drivers tab. If NCRSDMS.SYS, NCRC810.SYS, NCRC8XX.SYS, or   SYMC8XX.SYS drivers are listed, select the driver(s) and choose Remove before adding the new driver. Select OK when the Remove Driver message prompts, "Are you sure you want to remove this driver?". Another message may display saying "The SCSI Adapter has been marked as a boot device ...". Click OK.
   
5. Click Add. A list of installed adapters is displayed.
   
6. Click the Have Disk button.
   
7. When prompted, insert your Symbios Driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver. For the path to copy manufacturer's files from, enter
    

     A:\WINNT\MINIPORT and select OK.

8. On the Install Driver menu, the Miniport driver, Symbios PCI (53C8XX), is shown highlighted. If it is not highlighted, select it. Choose OK.
   

   At this point, the following message may occur:

   "The driver(s) for this SCSI Adapter are already on the system. Do you
   want to use the currently installed driver(s) or install new one(s)?"

Selecting Current uses the driver already on the system, and selecting New uses the driver on the floppy disk. Unless you want to use the older version already on the system, choose New. If you chose Current, go to step 10.

9. For the path to the OEM SCSI Adapter files, A:\WINNT\MINIPORT should be   displayed.  Select Continue.
   
10. A System Settings Change message displays "You must restart your computer     before the new settings take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now?" Choose OK to restart and reboot NT. If you choose Cancel, remember that you must restart before the new driver is loaded.
    
11. Rebooting loads your new Miniport driver.
    

Note: This section applies only to Intel x86-platforms where the Symbios 4.xx PCI SCSI BIOS is used.

Symbios 4.xx PCI SCSI BIOS loads only one image in the memory when the system boots regardless of how many host bus adapters (HBAs) are used in the system. All of the disk drives on all HBAs will be recognized through the INT13h function call. Because of this implementation, disk mirroring under NT needs to be done via the following instructions which might be different from Microsoft's documentation.

Here's how to create an NT Fault Tolerant (FT) floppy so that you can boot from the mirrored partition in case the primary partition fails.

1. Format a floppy disk in drive A: using NT (File Manager or Windows Explorer) for use as a Fault Tolerant boot floppy.
   
2. From the root directory of the primary partition, copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI to this floppy disk.
   
3. Temporarily remove the read-only attribute of the BOOT.INI file so that it can be modified and saved.
   
4. Edit BOOT.INI on the FT floppy and modify the following line where you want to boot the mirrored partition.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(x)partition(y)\<winnt_directory>

where   
     multi(0) and disk(0) should always remain same.

     x = (the drive number of the mirrored partition in the INT13 chain - 80h).

The drive number of the mirrored partition can be found during system bootup of the Symbios 4.xx PCI SCSI BIOS when the primary partition does not exist. It should say either BOOT (=80h), 81h, 82h, and higher. Therefore the value of x would be 0 when BOOT, 1 when 81h, 2 when 82h, etc.

y = the partition number on the drive (starts at 1 which equals single    partition on the drive)

For example, let's say there are two Symbios 8xx HBAs in the system. The   first HBA, HBA #0 which is the boot path, has two SCSI hard drives on ID 0   and ID 5. The second HBA, HBA #1, has two SCSI hard drives on ID 2 and ID   4. Assuming that the SCSI bus scan starts from ID 0 and goes up, the drive number of INT13h will look like this:

HBA #0, ID 0= BOOT (which is 80h)   
HBA #0, ID 5= 81h 
HBA #1, ID 2= 82h   
HBA #1, ID 4= 83h   

Now NT is installed on the boot drive, HBA #0 ID 0, and a mirrored   partition is established on HBA #1 ID 2. If the primary partition fails, for example due to power failure, then the drive number of INT13h will change:

HBA #0, ID 5= BOOT (which is 80h)  
HBA #1, ID 2= 81h   
HBA #1, ID 4= 82h   

Therefore, the following line should be used in the BOOT.INI on the NT    Fault Tolerant boot floppy to boot from the mirrored partition, HBA #1ID 2. Note that rdisk(1) was calculated from x=81h-80h.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\<winnt_directory>

5. Save the BOOT.INI and restore the "read-only" attribute.
   

The following are some potential problems and their suggested solutions:

Problem

During installation, no SCSI devices are found.

Solution

a. Ensure that the custom setup is chosen on the Setup Method screen.

b. Ensure that all devices are powered on and terminated correctly.

c. Check that no devices have duplicate SCSI IDs.

d. Make sure INT A is assigned for the PCI slot(s) where your SCSI host
   adapter(s) are installed.

Problem

System crashes during installation with a message indicating inaccessible
boot device.

Solution

a. This error is usually associated with an IRQ, DMA channel, I/O (chip)
   address, or BIOS address conflict. Set the SCSI host adapter to use a
   different interrupt.

b. This error is sometimes caused by a virus infecting the Master Boot Record
   of the boot device. Use a write-protected DOS bootable flex containing
   virus scanning and cleaning software to check for any viruses on the boot
   device, and remove if any are found.

Problem

A disk drive is recognized as seven different devices when only one is
physically connected to the SCSI bus.

Solution

a. This error is usually caused by older SCSI devices incorrectly indicating
   to NT that they support multiple LUNs. Contact the device manufacturer for
   a firmware upgrade.

Problem

Problems with SCSI devices installation or operation

Solution

a. If a SCSI device is not operating properly (either the device is not found
   or a SCSI interface error occurs during scanning), it is possible that the
   third-party device drivers do not support the auto request sense feature
   of Symbios host adapters. Disable the auto request sense feature as
   described below and try the device operation again.

b. Using the file "symno_ar.reg" (supplied with the Symbios NT driver
   files), either double click the file in Windows Explorer or File Manager
   or type "regedit symno_ar.reg" at the command prompt. This inserts a
   registry entry that disables the auto request sense feature. The system
   system must be rebooted for this change to take effect.

c. To re-enable the auto request sense feature, use the file "sym_auto.reg"
   and perform one of the update methods in step b. above.

Problem

Problems with certain SCSI devices when using an Ultra SCSI adapter.

Solution

a. Some SCSI devices do not function properly when the adapter attempts to
   negotiate Ultra SCSI transfer rates. If a device is not operating
   properly, check the transfer speed setting using the 4.xx PCI BIOS
   Configuration Utility (press Control-C when the Symbios PCI BIOS
   banner is displayed during the system boot process). Devices that do not
   support Ultra SCSI should be set to a maximum of 10 MB/sec for narrow (8
   bits), 20 MB/sec for wide (16 bits).

Problem

Problems with Ultra SCSI devices using Ultra SCSI protocol.

Solution

a. If the system is configured with a Symbios host adapter that supports Ultra
   SCSI and an Ultra SCSI device is on the SCSI bus, intermittent problems and
   possible system crashes can occur if the SCSI bus cable and terminators do
   not conform to the Ultra SCSI specification.

b. Disable Ultra SCSI support for all devices via the SDMS 4.xx PCI BIOS
   Configuration Utility (press Control-C when the Symbios PCI BIOS banner is
   displayed during the system boot process).

c. If the system operates properly without Ultra SCSI enabled, it is highly
   likely that the SCSI bus cable and terminators are not configured
   correctly for Ultra SCSI. See the Symbios host adapter User's Guide
   for information on Ultra SCSI cabling requirements.