newly installed SCSI drives not fully recognized...firmware missing?

UNRECOGNIZED - 146GB Maxtor 10K IV (model 8B0146JO)

 

After adding them to their carriers and physically installing them and booting up the system, the BIOS lists each SCSI ID# in order and sees the existing 2 drives and ONE of the new drives (the 2nd 73GB drive just added is listed just like existing two) but says "Device Name Not available" for the other 2 new 146GB drives. It also shows the number "160" after each of the 3 recognized drives (I assume to indicate the Ultra160 speed/type of interface) but displays "ASYN" next to the "Device Name Not Available" for new drives. What does ASYN mean (I saw it as speed setting in SCSISelect, but I have no idea what it is indicating beyond "asynchronous"?)

 

So, I go into SCSISelect and check out the drives and see that the 1st "correct" 3 drives have a "Device Name: XXXX" and "Firmware: XXX" while the other 2 which are not fully recognized have an blank/empty label after "Firmware:" and "Device Name:". The size of the drive is correct at 137 GB (so it obviously sees it) but there is no firmware and thus no ability to interact w/ the drive. Right?

 

After installing the OS (windows SBS2003 = Windows Server 2003) I check the disk management and see that the 2 big/broken/new drives are showing up as "Removable Media" as opposed to just "Disk Drive" for the other correct SCSI drives. The drives are supposedly hot-swappable, but I assume that does not mean they should be recognized as "removable media".

 

What I have done to try and fix this:

Installed Latest Drivers for Adaptec AIC-7899 on both instances in Device Manager (1 for each channel...A/B)...DID NOT change anything...though it accepted the drivers and updated the device name.

 

Formatted the SCSI drives and "Verified integrity"...worked fine (How can I format/check a disk without a firmware/device name for it?)

 

My questions:

Do I have to manually install SCSI drivers/firmware for each new drive (I dont' think I do)? OR, does the AIC-7899 controller have (or in this case, doesn't have) all drivers/firmware it needs to interface w/ any compatible SCSI hard drives? I'm pretty sure the drives are good, and if they are not compatible, I need to know why?

 

Did the 1 of the 3 new drives install correctly (recognized just like existing drives) because it already had the firmware from the existing 73GB maxtor drive and so it wasn't anything "new"?

 

Is this some sort of Ultra320 (Newer Maxtor 10k IV....not Older Maxtor 10k III) SCSI protocol/weird incompatibility or other drive incompatibility that means I cannot use this drive? Where is hardware compatibility list? I picked a hard drive that was the same as an existing working 1 but just twice the size....is there a better way to guarantee it works before buying?

 

Do I have to have a PERC 3/XX additional raid controller (I don't want any more hardware issues, and I am satisfied w/ software RAID disaster recovery options)? (I don't think I do as other drives are fine w/o the PERC raid stuff)

 

Why is it so hard to "install" a SCSI drive w/o the PERC extra raid hardware?

 

Am I missing something in the OS I need to do (I reinstalled the OS for other reasons so the drives firmware has been missing w/ and w/o the OS installed...)?

 

I am desperate here as I am not a hardware expert by any means but feeel completely helpless as I don't seem to understand the underlying system and what I am missing in the installation process (I obviously missed something since most people just plug it in and format it and it works).

 

Thanks for any help!