somebody Help this NEWBIE w/ SCSI

Yo, i just got my mpc 2000xl, so im new to all this stuff. Ive read some of the post but most of it seems chinese. could someone please get me a quick rundown of how to hook up my external zip drive.

for the past couple of weeks ive been doing beats, then throwing them away. i somewhat know how to save sounds on on floppy, but i just got a external zip drive and my common sense plus the manual aint addin up.

Couple of questions/ problems:
Please bear w/ me

1. when i turn on the machine, and it loading, it says "no SCSI device" before, it even gets to the main screen. is that normal?

2. when i go to the disk mode screen, and i try to change the device, i can only shuffle throught the different SCSI's once, then im back to the only options of SCSI-1, floppy, or flash.

3. When i try to format the SCSI, which i pretty much know i not supposed to without it being doin anyway, after i press "do it", it says error OOOO:D144. what' s that?

4. i may sound like a ****head, but isn't the cable on the zip drive supposed to be on the zip(left) side?

one more
5. i noticed in the manual, on pg 155, the partition size is 100M, the
parts: A-A, and the Ver.=D.08
mine says partition size=050, Parts:A-Y, and the Ver.=D.144(i think)
wassup wit that?

Please help the NEWBIE distress!!!
thanx in advance

It sounds like you have purchased a non scsi unit. Scsi zips only operate on 5 and 6 scsi Id channel. I normally rock mine on 5