kevin@litle.litle.com (kevin p burke) (08/14/90)
has anyone interfaced a pc style harddrive (mfm, rll etc) to work with a mac?
a friend has a couple he picked up real cheap and was wondering if it could
be done...also what is involved in writing a driver for such a beast?
-k
--
Kevin P. Burke, Corporate Mystic, Litle & Co. | POB C26, Hanover, NH 03755-6000
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"Just Do It."
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kevin@litle.com {backbone}!dartvax.dartmouth.edu!litle!kevinsteve@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Steve Mitchell) (08/15/90)
kevin@litle.litle.com (kevin p burke) writes: >has anyone interfaced a pc style harddrive (mfm, rll etc) to work with a mac? >a friend has a couple he picked up real cheap and was wondering if it could >be done...also what is involved in writing a driver for such a beast? It's not too bad - all you have to do is put a SCSI controller on top of your drive, drop it into a box w/ powersupply (and old PC chassis will work, or you can pick up a box designed for the job for about $80), then rig the cables. I've heard that the Adaptec controllers are about the best. The least expensive ones I've seen are Xebec 1410a's (recently about $200). I used one of those for years to interface an old Rodime 204E to an H89 CP/M-80 machine, and it worked like a champ. If you want to make your own cables, call Digi-Key (800-344-4539) for the parts. (just another satisfied customer...;{) >Kevin P. Burke, Corporate Mystic, Litle & Co. | POB C26, Hanover, NH 03755-6000 Enjoy! -- - Steve Mitchell steve@cps.altadena.ca.us grian!steve@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov ames!elroy!grian!steve "God is licht, an in him there is nae mirkness ava." -- 1 John 1:5
mlg@cbnews.att.com (Mike Goodrich) (08/15/90)
In article <505@litle.litle.com> kevin@litle.litle.com (kevin p burke) writes: >has anyone interfaced a pc style harddrive (mfm, rll etc) to work with a mac? >a friend has a couple he picked up real cheap and was wondering if it could >be done...also what is involved in writing a driver for such a beast? Yes, you can interface a pc style drive to a Mac. You can use the Adaptec 4000A SCSI conversion board. This board will allow you to use an ESDI disk drive on a SCSI bus. The are a few things you need to know about though. You need an OEM guide for both the Adaptec 4000A controller and for the ESDI disk drive you are using. The reason you need these documents is you need to know things like the number of heads, cylinders and blocks per cylinder the disk drive uses and also you must know the various command opcodes that the Adaptec controller uses. The driver software is available from most of the big archives like sumex or simtel. There are a couple of different software packages that you can use I have tryed the following software drivers with some success: 1. The Vishniac SF&I (SCSI Formating & Initialization) tools (pretty good docs) 2. The Apple Compter PD source code example for a scsi driver. 3. The Silverlining disk management software available for LaCie for $99.00 (includes shipping) My current setup is a Mac Plus with 2.5 MB a 20MB GCC FX20 Harddisk and a do it your self 80MB Micropolis 1355 ESDI disk controlled by an Adaptec 4000A. This project took me about 3 months to complete (when I started I knew nothing about how to do it) but it was worth every minute of it. One real good source of information was the Computer Shopper article about how to build your own SCSI disk drive. (I don't recall the issue that this article appeared in.) Good Luck Mike Goodrich mlg@cblph.att.com
kevin@litle.litle.com (kevin p burke) (08/20/90)
first: thanx to all who replied to my first posts
second: after aquireing an adaptec acb 4010 board, I've connected my drive
and built the scsi cable needed to connect it to my mac...while formatting
it I get the error: "scsi bus is out of phase, no drives" needless to say,
I'm clueless to what this means...also I'm without the docs for the 4010
board...if anyone has these docs I'd love to get a copy...
thanx
-k
--
Kevin P. Burke, Corporate Mystic, Litle & Co. | POB C26, Hanover, NH 03755-6000
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"Just Do It."
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kevin@litle.com {backbone}!dartvax.dartmouth.edu!litle!kevinchad@norge.enet.dec.com (Chad Leigh) (08/22/90)
>Yes, you can interface a pc style drive to a Mac. You can use the Adaptec >4000A SCSI conversion board. This board will allow you to use an ESDI >disk drive on a SCSI bus. The are a few things you need to know about >though. You need an OEM guide for both the Adaptec 4000A controller and >for the ESDI disk drive you are using. The reason you need these documents >is you need to know things like the number of heads, cylinders and blocks >per cylinder the disk drive uses and also you must know the various command >opcodes that the Adaptec controller uses. Are you sure the Adaptec 4000(a) board allows ESDI drives? My Adaptec 4000 board allows ST506/412 compatible drives to be controlled. I have a 5 1/4 Micropolis (OEMed by DEC as RD53) and a Quantum 5 1/4 Q540 (OEMed by DEC as RD52) running (The RD52 won't boot but otherwise works -- the RD53 will boot). I am using the Vishniac driver (Yes, I'm sending the shareware fee in as soon as I settle on using this drive setup as my permanent drive set up and not just as an experiment). Also, you don't really need the OEM guide for either. If you are using someone elses driver you don't need to know much about the adaptec board (you need to know about the jumpers and stuff but a query here on the net could probably help you there). You do need to know things about the drive but there are a lot of sources for things like num of heads, cylinders etc. There are plenty of places to get that info -- for example, I have a listing for almost every drive from every manufacturer that came from a western digital bbs. It doesn't hurt to have the adaptec manual (my board came with it -- i bought it used) and the drive guide -- they just aren't necesarry as the amount of info needed isn't that great. Good luck Chad chad@norge.enet.dec.com Vi elsker dette landet! -------------------------------------------------------------- DEC has its opinions, I have mine. --------------------------------------------------------------
ken@dali.gatech.edu (Ken Seefried iii) (08/22/90)
In article <1990Aug15.123628.12944@cbnews.att.com> mlg@cbnews.att.com (Mike Goodrich) writes: > >Yes, you can interface a pc style drive to a Mac. You can use the Adaptec >4000A SCSI conversion board. This board will allow you to use an ESDI >disk drive on a SCSI bus. > I'm about 99.9% sure that the 4000A is an ST506 to SCSI adapter (I have one in my ISI driving a couple of CDC Wren II's (ST-506). I know the 4070A is an RLL to SCSI, but I forget the ESDI to SCSI board. Also note that Adaptec has a newer generation of these boards (the 5000 series?), and they might be worth checking out. The 4000 stuff came out in '84, I think. > > You need an OEM guide for both the Adaptec 4000A controller and >for the ESDI disk drive you are using. > You can get the Adaptec manual by sending $5 to: Adaptec, Inc. attn: JG 691 Milpitas Blvd. Milpitas, CA 95035 +1 408 945 8600 x2739 (for literature) Or, at least you could a year or so ago. You mileage may vary. -- ken seefried iii ken@dali.gatech.edu "Vee haf veyz off making you talk...release da veasles..."
johan@dutnak2.tudelft.nl (Johan de Haas) (08/23/90)
In <14802@shlump.nac.dec.com> chad@norge.enet.dec.com (Chad Leigh) writes:
.... (description of how to make non SCSI PC harddisks into Mac
SCSI harddisks)
We have some Control Data SMD interface drives lying around here.
Is there a SCSI interface for these drives available?
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Johan de Haas tel. +31 15 785188 E-mail: johan@dutnak2.tudelft.nl
Lab. of Seismics & Acoustics Delft University of Technology
P.O Box 5046, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
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Johan de Haas tel. +31 15 785188 E-mail: johan@dutnak2.tudelft.nl
Lab. of Seismics & Acoustics Delft University of Technology
P.O Box 5046, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands