Owners of SCSI scanners often face problems after having migrated their systems to Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit. While Vuescan does support most SCSI scanners on these operating systems a suitable driver to keep using the required SCSI host adapter is often missing.
- Virtual Scsi Driver
- Adaptec Scsi Controller Driver
- Controller Scsi Driver Installer
- Vmware Scsi Controller Driver
Neither Microsoft nor Adaptec officially offer such a driver for download. Only more modern Ultra160 SCSI controllers received official drivers for 64 bit Windows. Cables to adapt scanners to such controllers tend to be expensive and even after successfully connecting a scanner it often would not work properly in our tests.
The missing driver that allows you to keep using the proven and nowadays cheap to obtain SCSI host adapters like the various versions of Adaptec's AHA-2940 does exist for both Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 8 64 bit though. In the following we will show you how to get your scanner operational again while keeping its original SCSI controller card.
Controller SCSI for Windows 7 Hello, I'm looking for drivers for an old SCSI card to install on Windows 7, the card was made for work in Windows 98, but I need to conect a filmscan in my computer with Windows 7, and the conection is an old SCSI plug, so I need the card for it, but Windows 7 doesn't recognize this old device. When Windows prompts for the driver, click on 'Load Driver', point the installer to drive A: and pick the SCSI controller driver for Windows Server 2012 R2/Windows Server 2012. Windows 2008 R2: Choose the AMD64 drivers. There is a known issue where the automatic driver scanning in Windows fails to detect the correct driver.
Please note that you are using this information at your own risk and that we can't provide support for this. Of course that doesn't mean we'll not answer questions or are not interested in any problems you might encounter.
Besides allowing you to use Vuescan the same method might also allow you to use the manufacturer's original scanner software. That should at least have been compatible with Windows Vista though because otherwise chances are that it won't even be possible install it anymore. Vuescan does include the required drivers for the scanner itself so that its recognition by the system should work without problems.
Our modified driver supports Adaptec's SCSI controller series AHA-29xx, AHA-39xx and AVA-29xx
| Adaptec AHA-2910C/2915C/2920C/2930C | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2930CU | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940/2940W | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940AU | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW/D | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-3940U/UW/UWD | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-3940U/UW | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-2944UW | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-3944U/UWD | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-4944UW | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940UW Pro | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AHA-2930UW | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-294x | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-3985 | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-2944/2944W | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-3944/3944W | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-4944W/UW | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-3940/3940W | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AVA-2902/2904/2906/2910 | (SUCCESSFULLY TESTED) |
| Adaptec AVA-2930 | (Detection not tested yet) |
| Adaptec AHA-2940U2W | (TESTED NOT TO WORK WITH THIS DRIVER) |
It would be appreciated if you would report to us if you were able to use this driver with another controller from our list. Also please let us know should we have missed to include one that uses an AIC-78xx chip as well.
Creating a driver for Adaptec's AHA-2940 SCSI host adapter et al. on Windows 7 64 bit & Windows 8 64 bit
Our base for the SCSI host adapter's driver is the emulated driver for these controllers that shipped with Windows Vista 64. That emulated driver is sufficient to run a scanner because doing such does not require an ASPI layer. Apart from this page's instructions you will require a *.sys file which can be obtained from any Windows Vista 64 bit DVD. That could be a recovery disk for Windows Vista Home 64 bit for example. On the disk you will find an archive file named install.wim from which we will have to extract two files.
In case you have misplaced your Windows Vista disk and require a trustworthy source to obtain this file on-line it can be noted that Microsoft used to sell Windows Vista through its partner store Digital River and that the according install files still reside on Digital River's servers. We found working download links from the official Microsoft partner's servers listed on a web page named HeiDoc.net.
After having located the install.wim file please download and install the universal archiving software 7-Zip. It allows you to open the install.wim file in which you'll find a folder structure. The two files djsvs.sys and djsvs.inf which we require are located in the folder: 1WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorydjsvs.inf_6451fbc2 Please create an empty folder anywhere you like on your systems and extract the two required files there. Note that the source must be a Windows Vista 64 bit disk (the djsvs.sys file is 87KB in size). The smaller djsvs.sys file included with Windows Vista's 32 bit versions is not suitable.
We will now modify the driver so that the supported SCSI controller cards will be recognized on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Please open the file 'djsvs.inf' in a text editor of your choice and replace its contents. In order to do so click into the text box below this paragraph, press Ctrl+A and the Ctrl+C to copy the text. After having done this switch to your text editor and inside of it press Ctrl+A followed by Ctrl+V to paste the copied text while replacing the old contents of the file.
Save the file, go to Windows' Control Panel and choose System > Device Manager. When using Windows 8 please follow the instructions at the bottom of this page (which will also let you end up in the Device Manager) before you go on with the instructions below the screen shot.
The screen shots for the following instructions were taken on a German copy of Windows 7. Because things will look extremely similar on an English OS we did not take them twice.
On Device Manager's device list look for the 'Other Devices' category where you will find your SCSI host adapter’. The corresponding entry will be named 'SCSI Controller' or something like that. Right click this entry and select 'Update Driver Software'. Next select 'Browse My Computer' and specify the folder you created before. A warning message will be displayed which you will need to disregard - telling the system to go on with the installation. Afterwards your SCSI host adapter should be listed under its correct name , e. g. 'Adaptec AHA-2940/2940W (AIC-7871 PCI SCSI Controller Emulated)'. If a scanner is connected it should now show up in the imaging devices category and a corresponding driver that was installed with Vuescan should get installed automatically. If the driver does not get installed you can always install it manually from your Vuescan folder.
Installing and using unsigned drivers on Windows 8
We don't use our scanners on Windows 8 but user feedback tells us that in order to install the driver created above one needs to start Windows 8 in a special mode first. Getting Windows 8 to boot in that mode involves a series of steps of which we provide screen captures below. The screen captures come from a virtual Windows 8 machine and since FireWire devices can't be passed through to that virtual system we won't show the actual driver installation.
First get the Windows 8 menu to show and click the gear icon at its bottom. On the settings screen click the 'Change PC settings' entry. There choose the General category from the 'PC settings' list and scroll down all the way to the end of that category to reach the 'Advanced startup' entry as shown. There press the 'Restart now' button.
Your system will restart and after a while you'll get to this option screen. On it choose Troubleshoot, then choose 'Advanced options' and finally choose 'Startup Settings' where you'll find yet another Restart button. Press it to reboot to the 'Startup Settings' screen and on it press either 7 or F7 on your keyboard to boot Windows 8 with its driver signature enforcement disabled.
After booting Windows 8 that way choose Search from the Windows 8 menu, enter 'devmgmt.msc' and click on the App found to get to the Device Manager. Now install your driver as detailed above for Windows 7.
With this information you should be able to get the SCSI host adapters AHA-2930CU, AHA-2940/2940W, AHA-2940AU, AHA-2940U/UW, AHA-2940U/UW/D, AHA-3940U/UW/UWD, AHA-3940U/UW, AHA-2944UW, AHA-3944U/UWD, AHA-4944UW, AHA-2940UW Pro, AHA-2930UW, AHA-294x, AHA-3985, AHA-2944/2944W, AHA-3944/3944W, AHA-4944W/UW, AHA-3940/3940W and AVA-2902, AVA-2904, AVA-2906, AVA-2930 operational on Windows 7 64 bit and Windows 8 64 bit even though Microsoft and Adaptec have officially decided not to support them anymore.
Virtual Scsi Driver
When you select a custom configuration, the New Virtual Machine wizard prompts you to select the I/O controller type for the virtual machine. Workstation Pro automatically configures your virtual machine with the SCSI controller best suited for the guest operating system, but you can change the controller.
Workstation Pro installs an IDE controller and a SCSI controller in the virtual machine. SATA controllers are supported for some guest operating systems. The IDE controller is always ATAPI. For the SCSI controller, you can choose BusLogic, LSI Logic, LSI Logic SAS, or VMware Paravirtual (PVSCSI) adapter. If you are creating a remote virtual machine on an ESX host, you can also select a VMware Paravirtual SCSI adapter.
BusLogic and LSI Logic adapters have parallel interfaces. The LSI Logic SAS adapter has a serial interface. The LSI Logic adapter has improved performance and works better with generic SCSI devices. The LSI Logic adapter is also compatible with ESX Server 2.0 and later.
PVSCSI adapters are high-performance storage adapters that can provide greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. They are best suited for environments where hardware or applications drive a high amount of I/O throughput, such as SAN environments. PVSCSI adapters are not suited for DAS environments.
Some guest operating systems, such as Windows XP, do not include a driver for the LSI Logic or LSI Logic SAS adapter. You must download the driver from the LSI Logic website. Drivers for a Mylex (BusLogic) compatible host bus adapter are not obvious on the LSI Logic website. Search the support area for the numeric string in the model number, for example, search for 958 for BT/KT-958 drivers.
Selecting the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) Adapter
In a Windows virtual machine:
Adaptec Scsi Controller Driver
Since the Windows ISO does not include a driver for the VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapter.Controller Scsi Driver Installer
Add a Floppy Drive and select the driver file from the C:Program Files (x86)VMwareVMware WorkstationResources*.flp folder on the Windows host.
If you are running a Windows virtual machine on a Linux host, the driver is saved in the /usr/lib/vmware/resources folder by default.
- During the Windows setup, select Load Driver > Browse and select the PVSCSI adapter driver file.
In a Linux virtual machine:
The Linux distribution already includes the PVSCSI driver.
Vmware Scsi Controller Driver
For more information about driver support, see the VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide. For guest operating system support information, known issues, and SATA support, see the VMware Compatibility Guide available on the VMware website.