[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Using Mac External Hard Drives

dbucciar@nyx.UUCP (Dominick J. Bucciarelli ) (07/09/90)

Is anyone using a Macintosh external SCSI drive with their Amiga?  I have a 
Supra SCSI controller/RAM expansion for my A500 that I'm just using as a 
RAM expansion right now.  I'm starting to look for an external drive/chassis/
power supply, and there's lot's of 'em out for the Mac.  I was wondering if 
these would be a problem to get to work with the Supra controller.

I guess my real question is "is the Supra controller a generic SCSI controller?"
and, "will an external drive system designed to be used with a Mac work with the
Supra controller?"

If it's just a matter of hacking the cable connections, that's no problem. I'm
concerned that there's some strangeness with the Mac SCSI port that the 3rd 
party manufacturers have had to deal with and which make their drives incom-
patible with a "standard" SCSI controller like the Supra.

I'd appreciate any advice or horror stories :)

flutter@vtcc1.cc.vt.edu (Lloyd Eldred) (07/10/90)

In article <1450@nyx.UUCP>, dbucciar@nyx.UUCP (Dominick J. Bucciarelli ) writes...
>Is anyone using a Macintosh external SCSI drive with their Amiga?

I have an Amiga 1000 with a StarBoard II with the StarDrive SCSI module.

I bought my hard drive from a Mac vendor called Tulin in San Jose Ca.
Basically, I got a Seagate ST277N-1(65 meg), a 65W two drive case (for future
expansion), and a normal Mac SCSI cable. They can be reached at
(408) 432-9025.

The drive has worked flawlessly. I had a little problem with installing
the drive while simultaneously upgrading to AmigaDos 1.3. It took about
three days of fiddling and a couple of other people's mountlists to 
finally get things working properly.

So, Hard drives intended for the Mac can work very nicely. My recommendation
is to locate some configurations that others have used with the Supra
controller and match one that makes sense to you. These things are
not precise by any means. Every Amiga HD installation that I have been
involved in (about 5) has had their own particular problems and have
taken a few days to get up to speed. Don't get overly frustrated.

%% Lloyd Eldred -- The Coconut Telegraph BBS (703) 953-1214
                   Your source for Amiga, Mac, and ST
                   Soon to have 180 meg.

mrr@mrsoft.Newport.RI.US (Mark Rinfret) (07/10/90)

>In article <1450@nyx.UUCP> dbucciar@nyx.UUCP (Dominick J. Bucciarelli ) writes:
>Is anyone using a Macintosh external SCSI drive with their Amiga?  

This doesn't answer your question fully (I don't have a Supra controller), but I
bought a Quantum 105 which was packaged for a Mac and it works beautifully with
my A2091 controller. The DB25-SCSI cable which came with the drive worked 
perfectly, without modification.
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