apple scsi hdd compatible with my p4?

Question

i recently bought an Apple 40MB scsi hdd which was Pulled from an old Mac[50 pin].im using a p4, windows xp pc with ide hdds.
i'm not really sure about the compatibility. the item hasn't arrived yet. do u think it will work? and will it work if i use a usb hdd enclosure?

Answer 1

YES.

SCSI is compatible with all Operating systems.

SCSI has been around for a LONG time, and is still used in the high end server field, since the latest, and best SCSI drives, still outperform SATA RAID systems -- SCSI is "designed" from the start to be HARDWARE raid ( as opposed to silly software -so-called RAID often used on PC's ) The only thing faster than SCSI RAID, is solid state harddrives. I just checked into the price for 1 T of Solid state harddrive, and it was 1.3 Million US $, but
SAMSUNG and other companies are putting out 30 and 60 GIG solid state, pin to pin harddrive cards for ATA replacement for about $3000 and $6000.
As one answer stated, you MUST have a SCSI driver card, either onboard ( I have many motherboards with SCSI connectors for RAID, onboard, beside the ATA connectors), or, you must get a standard PCI SCSI card. The standard 50 pin SCSI is absolutely ordinary, and the 40 MB is the " old " style with jumper pins for SCSI ID from 0 to 7. The Driver chip onboard, or on the SCSI PCI card, is usually set to 7, since the highest number takes priority in servicing the interrupts. You must set the BIOS SCSI settings to TERMINATE the card, or the onboard controller chip, or, if there are physical resistors on the card, terminate them. The drive you are getting, again, either must have the TERMINATE JUMPER set ( electronic termination of the drive ) or a set of termination resistors put in place. A standard, off the shelf, USB enclosure today would not be SCSI, although they are probably available somewhere- I have never seen one. You are better off just to get a cheap, used PCI SCSI card ( I get them for $10 -- in used parts bins at computer shops, few people want, or know what SCSI is, so the cards are cheap) and a 50 Pin cable, set your SCSI ID numbers on the drive, and the card ( or chipset), and use the device internally. 40 Megs today is just a toy to play with, but you will learn about SCSI.

I just answered another question about SCSI, and the link below has references to articles on SASI and SCSI drives that you will find helpful.

You do not state your Operating System.
As the other answerer stated, you MUST FORMAT the drive, since, coming from an APPLE, your operating system, ( I am guessing, since you do not state what ) probably will not read the MAC formatting on the drive.

I use IBM formatted drives crossing over to MAC, and MAC formatted drives, crossing over to PC, all the time, and usually in Win 98, which requires a bit of work to get the OS to actually SEE the drive. The worst case is a Factory Formatted to ZERO SCSI drive, since you really have to work to see it, and to format it, since PCs usually "see" the device in the SCSI BIOS, but the Operating System will ignore the drive completely - it just does not exist!

The link to the last question on SCSI, is:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnN15A5mzuPkl7MGKeFivfXsy6IX?qid=20061201095242AAfnQNY&show=7#profile-info-AA10806350

This link above has a lot of information that would help...

Link to USB to MD50M SCSI COnnector US $74.99 on Cablestogo.com

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5fid=1501&sku=21400

You will need another adapter to go from the MD50M SCSI end, to the
50 pin cable Connector on the SCSI drive... Somewhat expensive
for a little harddrive... ! I suspect that the shipping was more than the price of the drive, or at least it should have been, since everyone throws out complete MACS all the time, for lack of a "use" for them. My tiny, free info, website, kidbots.com, uses the 25 pin parallel port to control toy robots - a parallel port can be programmed on a green screen, 16K ram, original PC ( no mouse, no CD, no Sound, no Harddrive, no anything) with only a floppy, by a 10 year old, in an hour. You can turn on and off 12 LEDs from the port, with just 12 LEDs and 12 resistors.
MACs, on the other hand have Serial ports which require complex interfaces ( a 10 year old could not build one ), and complex programming that is machine specific ( a 10 year old could not program one ), so that even I have not found a really neat, inexpensive, way to use the power of old MACs. "paying" money for a used, old, MAC harddrive, is something I would not consider, since I can get them free, and people are glad to have me take them away...

Link to other adapters to change gender and plug configs:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=70

Note that the price is only $69.99 ( CDN ) here for the $74.99
adapter above. I still think you should just get a cheapo $10 SCSI card,
and connect with a standard, internal, 50 pin ribbon cable -
much easier, and much less expensive!

Here is a typical $9.99 card which would work just fine:


Adaptec AHA-2940AU Ultra SCSI PCI Card. The AHA-2940 Ultra host adapter is the ideal PCI-to-SCSI host adapter for entry-level servers and workstations. It moves data fast -- up to 20 MByte/sec. And it connects up to 7 SCSI devices for expanded storage capacity. In addition, the AHA-2940 Ultra adapter delivers unrivaled system and peripheral compatibility.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Adaptec-AHA-2940AU-Ultra-SCSI-PCI-Card_W0QQitemZ120060677416QQihZ002QQcategoryZ39969QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Have fun with the SCSI drive, you never know when you need the knowledge to set up a real, SCSI, hardware RAID! The 40 Meg drives I get from APPLES are usually QUANTUM, aluminum standard, SCSI, and are on the quantum website with jumper settings. Since you do not state the manufacture and model, I cannot help you further with jumpers, settings, formatting, or web links. Knowing your OS would help as well. If you post more information before the question expires, I will try to answer.

good luck

robin

Answer 2

You'll need a scsi card and reformat the drive.

Answer 3

maximum video games are unlike minded. to discover which of them are, seem for the video games "equipment standards." besides, be sure you recognize what version of the Mac OS you have -- you have gotten version 10.3, and a clean interest might basically be compabible with 10.4 or greater moderen. seem on your Apple menu, and "approximately this Mac" to verify precisely what you have in the previous you pass identifying to purchase.

Answer 4

It will work ok with a USB scsii adaptor. We have to check out old PBX voice mail scsii drives that way.
cablestogo.com has them