Accessing data from old SCSI drive

GoJeff!

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I found a hard drive in a closet that uses an old Mac SCSI interface. I don't really know what is on the drive, but it is from a fairly interesting time in my work life, so I'm somewhat curious.

Any idea how to access the data? I don't have a computer even close to that era. I would be willing to pay something for a service that would access it, but not a ton because there might be nothing there.
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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View attachment 54768I

I found a hard drive in a closet that uses an old Mac SCSI interface. I don't really know what is on the drive, but it is from a fairly interesting time in my work life, so I'm somewhat curious.

Any idea how to access the data? I don't have a computer even close to that era. I would be willing to pay something for a service that would access it, but not a ton because there might be nothing there.
I had the same situation come up about 6 months ago, so I looked into it. There is no easy way with current equipment. Didn't find a definitive answer in my research, but it seems like there used to be a SCSI to USB converter w/ cable that was available briefly but now is rare and goes for exorbitant prices in the used market. For similar money, one could buy a compatible functioning vintage computer from that era and pull the data that way.
 

InstaFace

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(roughly) where are you located? If in Boston, my techno-hoarder dad has all manner of archival computer hardware, and I believe he still runs a server off of his SCSI array in his office closet.

Failing that, he'd tell you to go to You-Do-It Electronics in Needham, which has every part known to man, and quite a few that aren't.
 

GoJeff!

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(roughly) where are you located? If in Boston, my techno-hoarder dad has all manner of archival computer hardware, and I believe he still runs a server off of his SCSI array in his office closet.

Failing that, he'd tell you to go to You-Do-It Electronics in Needham, which has every part known to man, and quite a few that aren't.
I’m in LA, but could mail it to your dad if he wouldn’t mind pulling the files off it.

Somewhat amazed you-do-it is still around.
 

SumnerH

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Pulling data from SATA/IDE drives has tons of solutions like that. But it won't work for a SCSI drive. That page even warns of that in borked up English:

Why the adapter not work with my drive?
...
wrong hard drive type - Your drive interface may be the SCSI interface; the SAS interface, the adapter not work with them
Be careful with SCSI to IDE adapters, too; most of them won't work with standard desktop IDE controllers.
 

cgori

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You need to find someone with one of these - it would do the job, I think. This is the one @The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa referred to.

In theory I have a PC that would connect to that drive, it has a fancy SCSI controller from that era, and I have a bunch of internal and external drives for it plus a random box-o'-cables that would probably get it done. I last booted that PC 4-5 years ago to finally dump all the contents of its SCSI drives onto my NAS, before I was moving houses. It's a Linux box so I believe it could read an HFS drive, which is probably how that is formatted. It would take me several hours to get it back up and running again, assuming that it still works. Likewise there is a chance that your drive is just totally dead - I had that happen to me with at least one of the drives I tried to hook up to it back in 2017/18.

Probably your best bet to do this super-cheap is find someone who is into vintage Macs semi-nearby to where you are located. Maybe call Mac Enthusiasts (on Pico) and see if they have a suggestion.

EDIT: I found this article pretty helpful.
 
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brandonchristensen

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Oh. I guess I didn't know what a SCSI drive was - apologies.

I got one of those for my old drives. Regardless, surely there's something similar to adapt with?
 

SumnerH

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Oh. I guess I didn't know what a SCSI drive was - apologies.

I got one of those for my old drives. Regardless, surely there's something similar to adapt with?
There used to be, but SCSI was never nearly as prevalent as IDE and is pretty old now, so they've all been discontinued.

The cheapest I could find was $450+ for a used one. That's maybe worth paying if you have some weird old SCSI peripheral you want to control, like a laser disc jukebox or something.

But for a one-time pull from a hard drive you're better off buying an old machine and pulling the data that way, finding someone who's still set up to read it, or even buying a PCIe SCSI card if you or someone you know has a slot—those you can get for under $200, maybe cheaper if you look around.
 

GoJeff!

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The cheapest I could find was $450+ for a used one. That's maybe worth paying if you have some weird old SCSI peripheral you want to control, like a laser disc jukebox or something.
Would the one @cgori listed above work? At $170 I'd be up for just buying it and trying to resell it later.
 

saintnick912

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Asked a friend who worked with a lot of Mac and SCSI stuff back in the days. Various options:

The USB to SCSI is the easiest solution but not very cost effective.

Booting up an old Mac is a thorny thing, none newer than 1999 have SCSI built in and when various batteries die they don't like to start. Plus none that old have USB natively so you'd need a USB card.

Probably the most cost effective is to open up the enclosure and take the drive out. It probably has a 50 or 68 pin connector. There are SCSI cards that will work in modern-ish computers, and software to read HFS formatted drives.

Because of the data vs resource fork thing in old Mac file systems, the files may act "funny" if you mount it on a Windows machine. So you may have another adventure once you get the drive copied.
 

cgori

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Ugh, I just looked at that Adaptec thing more closely after thinking about the driver situation and realizing something wasn't right. It's the opposite of what you want. It lets you hook up a USB drive to an old Mac's SCSI port. Don't buy it.

You need something that hooks up a SCSI drive to a new Mac's USB port. Which is that $450+ item @SumnerH mentioned above.

I would still try calling some place and see if they know someone who has a Mac already set up to do this. Basically it's "find your nerdiest friend, and ask them who their nerdiest friend is" and that person might have the right gear.
 

GoJeff!

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Ugh, I just looked at that Adaptec thing more closely after thinking about the driver situation and realizing something wasn't right. It's the opposite of what you want. It lets you hook up a USB drive to an old Mac's SCSI port. Don't buy it.
Thanks for checking. I was about to get it.