The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under the
hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any kind of
adapter.

I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
there...
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email

In article <kd13djF2afuU1@mid.individual.net>, TimH
<thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

> The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
> like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under the
> hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any kind of
> adapter.
>
> I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
> there...

thunderbolt->firewire adapter + firewire-scsi enclosure.

another option is an old mac.

On 22 May 2023 at 1:55:25 pm BST, "nospam" <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <kd13djF2afuU1@mid.individual.net>, TimH
> <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
>> like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under the
>> hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any kind of
>> adapter.
>>
>> I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
>> there...
>
> thunderbolt->firewire adapter + firewire-scsi enclosure.

If you can find such a thing as a firewire to 50-pin scsi enclosure I'd love
to know where! I still have a firewire-equipped Mac so that bit's no problem.

> another option is an old mac.

Probably cheapest, I'm beginning to think.
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email

In article <kd17o1F2v0bU1@mid.individual.net>, TimH
<thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

> >> The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
> >> like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under
> >> the
> >> hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any
> >> kind of
> >> adapter.
> >>
> >> I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
> >> there...
> >
> > thunderbolt->firewire adapter + firewire-scsi enclosure.
>
> If you can find such a thing as a firewire to 50-pin scsi enclosure I'd love
> to know where!

i have several, in boxes, somewhere.

maybe there's some on ebay.

> I still have a firewire-equipped Mac so that bit's no problem.

even better, one less adapter.

> > another option is an old mac.
>
> Probably cheapest, I'm beginning to think.

probably.

even a mac plus would work, although something with ethernet would be a
much better choice so you can move the files to a more recent system.

yet another option is add a scsi card to a powermac g4/g5/mac pro.

TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
> On 22 May 2023 at 1:55:25 pm BST, "nospam" <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
> > In article <kd13djF2afuU1@mid.individual.net>, TimH
> > <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >> The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
> >> like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under the
> >> hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any kind of
> >> adapter.
> >>
> >> I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
> >> there...

40 pin is probably IDE, so not much help there. Different protocol, not
much bodging potential (apart from just stealing the plastics/metalwork and
maybe power supply).

> > thunderbolt->firewire adapter + firewire-scsi enclosure.
>
> If you can find such a thing as a firewire to 50-pin scsi enclosure I'd love
> to know where! I still have a firewire-equipped Mac so that bit's no problem.

I've had a look around for anything like a SCSI to USB adapter, and there's
not really anything. There's a project to allow USB sticks to appear as
SCSI drives on old computers, but that's the wrong way around.

> > another option is an old mac.
>
> Probably cheapest, I'm beginning to think.

Or a PC with a SCSI card. If you have a PC supporting PCI cards, they can
be picked up for not-much:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155564682793
or a PCI to PCIe adapter would make such a card work in a modern machine.

Beware that SCSI came in a variety of cabling formats, and getting the right
cabling if you don't have a 50 pin socket on the card could be annoying.
There are PCIe cards, but not with 50 pin sockets:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155563096745

I'd use them to take a full image of the HDD, and then either Linux or a Mac
should be able to mount the image. (Linux might be easier than Windows in
this regard, given the drivers may not exist for modern Windows)

Theo

In article <R+A*06Tgz@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

>
> Or a PC with a SCSI card.

and third party software to read mac formatted drives.

On 22 May 2023 at 3:23:15 pm BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
wrote:

> TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
>> On 22 May 2023 at 1:55:25 pm BST, "nospam" <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> In article <kd13djF2afuU1@mid.individual.net>, TimH
>>> <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The summer clearout has reached the 50-pin SCSI HDs from ancient Macs. I'd
>>>> like to be sure there's nothing interesting on them before they go under the
>>>> hammer, but how the hell do I look at them? No luck so far finding any kind of
>>>> adapter.
>>>>
>>>> I have an enclosure for 40-pin disks, if there's any bodging potential
>>>> there...
>
> 40 pin is probably IDE, so not much help there. Different protocol, not
> much bodging potential (apart from just stealing the plastics/metalwork and
> maybe power supply).
>
>>> thunderbolt->firewire adapter + firewire-scsi enclosure.
>>
>> If you can find such a thing as a firewire to 50-pin scsi enclosure I'd love
>> to know where! I still have a firewire-equipped Mac so that bit's no problem.
>
> I've had a look around for anything like a SCSI to USB adapter, and there's
> not really anything. There's a project to allow USB sticks to appear as
> SCSI drives on old computers, but that's the wrong way around.
>
>>> another option is an old mac.
>>
>> Probably cheapest, I'm beginning to think.
>
> Or a PC with a SCSI card. If you have a PC supporting PCI cards, they can
> be picked up for not-much:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155564682793
> or a PCI to PCIe adapter would make such a card work in a modern machine.
>
> Beware that SCSI came in a variety of cabling formats, and getting the right
> cabling if you don't have a 50 pin socket on the card could be annoying.
> There are PCIe cards, but not with 50 pin sockets:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155563096745
>
> I'd use them to take a full image of the HDD, and then either Linux or a Mac
> should be able to mount the image. (Linux might be easier than Windows in
> this regard, given the drivers may not exist for modern Windows)

Thanks Theo, that's all really helpful - saved for reference!

And the PCI card idea might be the answer; I have an old HP Microserver with a
couple of PCI slots of some kind. Will have to look up exactly what they are.
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email

TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
> On 22 May 2023 at 3:23:15 pm BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
> wrote:
> >
> > I've had a look around for anything like a SCSI to USB adapter, and there's
> > not really anything. There's a project to allow USB sticks to appear as
> > SCSI drives on old computers, but that's the wrong way around.

I forgot to check ebay for this bargain:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404255055026
Hurry while stocks last!

> Thanks Theo, that's all really helpful - saved for reference!
>
> And the PCI card idea might be the answer; I have an old HP Microserver with a
> couple of PCI slots of some kind. Will have to look up exactly what they are.

The Microservers have PCIe, so you'd either need a PCIe card or a PCI-PCIe
bridge plus a PCI card.

However that PCIe card I linked:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155563096745
says it supports 'Ultra Wide SE' (single ended, ie traditional 5 volt SCSI):
https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12352276
and has a 68 pin female connector on it, so I think a passive adapter may
work:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394486754753
or
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125777175716

But I stoppped paying attention to SCSI around the time of SCSI-2, so may
have it wrong.

Don't forget your termination resistors :-)

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
> > On 22 May 2023 at 3:23:15 pm BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I've had a look around for anything like a SCSI to USB adapter, and there's
> > > not really anything. There's a project to allow USB sticks to appear as
> > > SCSI drives on old computers, but that's the wrong way around.
>
> I forgot to check ebay for this bargain:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404255055026
> Hurry while stocks last!

Actually, I did just find a widget that allows reading SCSI hard drives:

https://github.com/zuluscsi/zuluscsi-firmware

see the RP2040 initiator instructions - it'll automatically image a HDD to
an SD card.

About $50 to buy:
https://store.rabbitholecomputing.com/ZuluSCSI-s/120.htm

Theo

On 22 May 2023 at 9:09:32 pm BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
wrote:

> TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:
>> On 22 May 2023 at 3:23:15 pm BST, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I've had a look around for anything like a SCSI to USB adapter, and there's
>>> not really anything. There's a project to allow USB sticks to appear as
>>> SCSI drives on old computers, but that's the wrong way around.
>
> I forgot to check ebay for this bargain:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404255055026
> Hurry while stocks last!
>
>> Thanks Theo, that's all really helpful - saved for reference!
>>
>> And the PCI card idea might be the answer; I have an old HP Microserver with a
>> couple of PCI slots of some kind. Will have to look up exactly what they are.
>
> The Microservers have PCIe, so you'd either need a PCIe card or a PCI-PCIe
> bridge plus a PCI card.
>
> However that PCIe card I linked:
>
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155563096745
> says it supports 'Ultra Wide SE' (single ended, ie traditional 5 volt SCSI):
> https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12352276
> and has a 68 pin female connector on it, so I think a passive adapter may
> work:
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394486754753
> or
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125777175716
>
> But I stoppped paying attention to SCSI around the time of SCSI-2, so may
> have it wrong.
>
> Don't forget your termination resistors :-)
>
> Theo

Thanks again! All filed away..
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email