zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) (03/23/91)
I have a Spectre GCR and would like to connect a Mac hard disk to my ST. Unfortunately, I'm basically ignorant about hardware, and so would like any input more experienced people have on this subject. I already have a hard disk with ICD controller, so it shouldn't be too tough to do; there even seems to be some kind of SCSI plug on the back of my hard disk. In any event, the Spectre manual indicates that one must do two things: 1) get a 50 pin SCSI to 25 pin (Mac) SCSI cable; 2) Make sure that the last drive in the chain is properly terminated. Where would I get this cable? Will it plug right into the back of my ST hard drive? How do I go about doing 2)? What is the chance that this won't work at all? (The hard drive I'm planning to connect is one of the Syquest 44 meg removable's; probably the one made by Jasmine.) Any pointers would be *much* appreciated. Of course, I'll summarize to the net if there's interest. Dylan zimm@leland.stanford.edu
hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken) (03/24/91)
zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: >I already have a hard disk with ICD controller, so it shouldn't be too >tough to do; there even seems to be some kind of SCSI plug on the back of my >hard disk. If that SCSI connector is an 25 pin SUB D connector (the same as the printer port of the ST), You will need nothing but the Macintosh harddisk susbsystem. The 25 pin connector "standard" is set by the Mac; cables from this connector to the drive should be included with the drive. You have the ICD software to format and partition the disk, ans Spectre will use it fine. If You have a 50 pin (well, the contacts are not pins really) Amphenol connector (the "real" SCSI connector), that looks like the parallel connector of Your parallel printer, Youll probably need an adaptor. 50 to 25 pin adaptors are pretty much nonstandard, but Your Mac drive will probably have the same 50 pin connector, ans 50 to 50 pin cables *are* standard. Termination of the cables *is* a problem. Refer to your ICD manual and the manual of Your Mac drive. >my ST hard drive? How do I go about doing 2)? What is the chance >that this won't work at all? (The hard drive I'm planning to connect >is one of the Syquest 44 meg removable's; probably the one made >by Jasmine.) If it does not work, the drive is broken. Mine works fine. If You format the cartridge on the Mac, You can even exchange it with a "real" Mac (I am doing this sometimes). hase -- Hartmut Semken, Lupsteiner Weg 67, 1000 Berlin 37 hase@netmbx.UUCP Hi! (Zaphod Beeblebrox)
boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Mickey Boyd) (03/24/91)
zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: >my ST hard drive? How do I go about doing 2)? What is the chance >that this won't work at all? (The hard drive I'm planning to connect >is one of the Syquest 44 meg removable's; probably the one made >by Jasmine.) ^^^^^^^ Huh? I thought they were all made by Syquest! I am soon to purchase one of these units, any history/information would be appreciated. I know that there was an upgrade in design at some point, and that there is some way of telling if a particular unit is the newer (better, faster) design or not. Something about the color of LED's or something. Also, it was announced that at least two totally new mechs are to be introduced, one a 3.5" device, the other 5.25" (like the old one), but capable of using both 120mb and the old 44mb cartridges. When this occurs, they also announced that they will still sell the old 44mb-only mechs for $200 less (and the new 5.25" mech will cost the same list price as the old). Can anyone confirm any of this (it was gleaned mostly from the nets, and Computer Shopper)? Has anyone seen either of the two new mechs, or more importantly a lower price on the old one? Does Syquest have a 1-800 number? What is the cheapest price quoted to you for just the bare mech (the lowest I have heard is $519)? -- ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- Mickey R. Boyd | "Kirk to Enterprise. All clear FSU Computer Science | down here. Beam down Technical Support Group | yeoman Rand and a six-pack . ." email: boyd@fsucs.cs.fsu.edu | ---------------------------------+-------------------------------------
s37837k@saha.hut.fi (Jari Lehto) (03/25/91)
In article <1991Mar24.104528.13341@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu writes: >zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: >>my ST hard drive? How do I go about doing 2)? What is the chance >>that this won't work at all? (The hard drive I'm planning to connect >>is one of the Syquest 44 meg removable's; probably the one made >>by Jasmine.) > > ^^^^^^^ > >Huh? I thought they were all made by Syquest! I am soon to purchase one of There are many removables with different names, but the mechanism is always by SyQuest. How about Atari Megafile 44? It is an example of this... Under the name of SyQuest there are only the base SCSI-units... The drives (if external) are always named after the maker of the housing... Jartsu *** Jari Lehto, jartsu@otax.hut.fi, s37837k@saha.hut.fi ***
fortinp@bwdls56.Berkeley.EDU (Pierre Fortin) (03/26/91)
In article <2127@netmbx.UUCP>, hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken) writes: |>zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: |>>I already have a hard disk with ICD controller, so it shouldn't be too |>>tough to do; there even seems to be some kind of SCSI plug on the back of my |>>hard disk. [stuff deleted] |>If You have a 50 pin (well, the contacts are not pins really) Amphenol |>connector (the "real" SCSI connector), that looks like the parallel |>connector of Your parallel printer, Youll probably need an adaptor. Actually, this is (according to the SCSI-1 spec) the "alternative 2" connector. The "real" connector is a double-row "header"-type connector. [stuff deleted] |>Termination of the cables *is* a problem. Refer to your ICD manual and |>the manual of Your Mac drive. I had to modify my ICD HA (just last night) to allow the use of a cable terminator; ICD does (did?) not provide TERMPWR (+5V on pin 26). The result was that a SCSI terminator would kill the SCSI bus. |>hase |>-- |>Hartmut Semken, Lupsteiner Weg 67, 1000 Berlin 37 hase@netmbx.UUCP |>Hi! (Zaphod Beeblebrox) Cheers, Pierre Fortin fortinp@bnr.ca (613)763-2598
jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu (John Bruno) (03/26/91)
In article <1991Mar23.002657.10286@leland.Stanford.EDU> you write: >I have a Spectre GCR and would like to connect a Mac hard disk to my ST. >Unfortunately, I'm basically ignorant about hardware, and so would like >any input more experienced people have on this subject. >I already have a hard disk with ICD controller, so it shouldn't be too >tough to do; there even seems to be some kind of SCSI plug on the back of my >hard disk. > I've done this with a ClubMac hard drive. I have the ICD Advantage+ Host Adapter. First, you need to get a cable that is standard SCSI on one end (50 pin, this end plugs into your ICD board) and "Mac-SCSI" on the other end (50 pin Centronics type - it fits into the connector on the back of your hard drive case). What I did was put the ICD board right inside of the drive (I was lucky, it fit) and run the SCSI cable outside the back of the drive and plug the other end into the SCSI connector on the back of the drive. I had to make a hole in the side of the drive case for access to the Atari in/out plugs. So basically, I have an Atari drive now, but I can just reach around the back of it and unplug the SCSI connector and be able to use it fine on a Mac. I got my cable from ICD. It was about 18 feet long, so I cut off about 17 feet. The power supply adapter they give you works fine, so running power to the ICD board is no problem. >[Rest deleted] > >Dylan >zimm@leland.stanford.edu ---jb (jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu)
jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu (John Bruno) (03/26/91)
In article <1991Mar24.104528.13341@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu writes: >Huh? I thought they were all made by Syquest! They are, but Jasmine and tons of other VARS add a case and power supply, as well as a little sticker that says "Jasmine". >I am soon to purchase one of >these units, any history/information would be appreciated. I know that there >was an upgrade in design at some point, and that there is some way of telling >if a particular unit is the newer (better, faster) design or not. The older units have a red access LED, the newer ones have an orange LED. The newer ones have a rated 20ms access time compared to 25ms for the older ones. The newer ones also have twice the MTBF rating (Mean Time Between Fukups). I advise anyone who wants one of these to pick up a MacWeek and order from somebody that explicitly states a 20ms access time in their ad, I'm sure that there are some older mechs still out there, and there was no change in model number from SyQuest, so there's no other way to tell. These drives are now well under $500 (WITH case and power supply and mac cable and formatting software). >Also, it was announced that at least >two totally new mechs are to be introduced, one a 3.5" device, the other >5.25" (like the old one), but capable of using both 120mb and the old 44mb >cartridges. When this occurs, they also announced that they will still sell >the old 44mb-only mechs for $200 less (and the new 5.25" mech will cost the same >list price as the old). Can anyone confirm any of this (it was gleaned mostly >from the nets, and Computer Shopper)? Has anyone seen either of the two new >mechs, or more importantly a lower price on the old one? I heard about the $200 thing about 6 months ago, at least. But I couldn't wait any longer. I never heard about the 3.5" device. In this week's MacWeek, 2 different vendors have 88MB versions using a new SyQuest mechanism. One ad has a picture and the newer drives apparently use the old cartridges! The ad also states that "The 88MB drive can even read data from a 44MB cartridge" (but they don't say "write") If you want one of the 88MB versions, expect to pay out the old wa-zoo, no prices were stated in the ads. >Does Syquest have a 1-800 number? Forget about ever calling SyQuest. No 800 number, and they won't talk to you unless you're a VAR. >What is the cheapest price quoted to >you for just the bare >mech (the lowest I have heard is $519)? That's about the lowest I've seen for a bare mech, but as I said, you can get a complete drive w/power case & cable for about $30-$40 less, and have a case and power supply left over to boot (well, you can boot it if you put another drive in it.) >-- > ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- > Mickey R. Boyd | "Kirk to Enterprise. All clear > FSU Computer Science | down here. Beam down > Technical Support Group | yeoman Rand and a six-pack . ." > email: boyd@fsucs.cs.fsu.edu | > ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- ---jb (jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu)
laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) (04/05/91)
In article <1991Mar25.130049.11679@santra.uucp> s37837k@saha.hut.fi (Jari Lehto) writes: >In article <1991Mar24.104528.13341@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu writes: >>zimm@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dylan Yolles) writes: >>>my ST hard drive? How do I go about doing 2)? What is the chance >>>that this won't work at all? (The hard drive I'm planning to connect >>>is one of the Syquest 44 meg removable's; probably the one made >>>by Jasmine.) >> >> ^^^^^^^ >> >>Huh? I thought they were all made by Syquest! I am soon to purchase one of > >There are many removables with different names, but the mechanism is always >by SyQuest. How about Atari Megafile 44? It is an example of this... >Under the name of SyQuest there are only the base SCSI-units... The drives >(if external) are always named after the maker of the housing... > > Jartsu > Actually, there are a number of manufacturers of removable mechanisms (Bernoulli, Syquest, and Ricoh are most popular). Each of these mechanisms have their own advantages and disadvantages. Syquests are cheapest and most common, but are relatively unreliable, causing a number of companies in the Mac market to avoid or drop them. Ricohs are a new technology which promises to be quite reliable, but are also more expensive. Bernoullis are the most expensive, but are an established, reliable technology. There are also more "exotic" technologies such as megneto-optical drives, flopticals, and so on. > ... the maker of the housing ... Those mechanisms are used by a large number of companies, who add a case, power supply, cables, driver software, documentation, and perhaps other bundled software. The other factors are how much testing the company does on the mechanisms it ships (to weed out failures), the quality of their engineering, and the warranty and service that they provide. While some companies may just be "the maker of the housing" there is a lot more than that going on at any quality drive vendor. - Laird "I spent years working in the Mac hard drive industry" Popkin