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Anyone have a suggestion on how to connect SCSI external drives to current iMacs?

macnicol

macnicol

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 1, 2006
52
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Does anyone have a suggestion on how to connect SCSI external drives to current iMacs? I have several old SCSI drives that I used with my Power Macintosh 7600/120 that I would like to check for any archiveable files and then erase and reformat before discarding. Are there adapters that convert SCSI to either USB or FireWire (1394)?
 
There are USB to SCSI solutions out there, but being a niche product, they're expensive.

Do you know anyone local who is into retrocomputing? It's become popular among many nerds today and anyone into retro computing will absolutely JUMP at the chance to help you with your problem. They take a lot of pride in recovering old data and such.
 
Would a multi-adapter-converter combination be a possible way? SCSI-50 to DB25 to USB? or SCSI-50 to IDE to USB?
 
macnicol said:
Would a multi-adapter-converter combination be a possible way? SCSI-50 to DB25 to USB? or SCSI-50 to IDE to USB?
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"DB-25" is very probably a parallel (printer) port to USB adapter (these are very common). No good.
And there are no adapters that connect SCSI devices to IDE controllers as far as I know. The other way round (IDE to SCSI) is possible, however, that's not what you need.

Your best bet is an older Mac with a native SCSI controller, or maybe a straight Firewire (or USB) to SCSI adapter.
 
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macnicol said:
Would a multi-adapter-converter combination be a possible way? SCSI-50 to DB25 to USB? or SCSI-50 to IDE to USB?
Click to expand...

I don't know the answer to that, but from having some legacy hardware that I continue to use from time to time, I can say that just getting the plugs to match up usually isn't enough. Often there has to be an additional interface in between to convert the signals.
 
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Another thing to keep in mind is that if your old drives are formatted as plain old HFS a.k.a. Mac OS Standard, Catalina or Big Sur will not be able to access them without some trickery. (I have no experience with that.)
 
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Best bet is to get a working PowerPC running OS 8 or 9 and install the scsi drives in it or externally, put it on a ethernet network and access them that way. Maybe there is a legacy Mac fan in your area that would loan you one to retrieve your data. You can use a FTP client to access a "web" folder set up on the old mac. Use Web Share Control Panel on the OS9 machine to set it up
 
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Justashooter has the correct answer.

You're going to have to find someone with an old Mac who can mount the drives and access them that way.

Perhaps the files could be burned to a CD (do you have access to a DVD/CD drive?). Or perhaps they could get onto a USB flashdrive.

There are probably data recovery outfits that could get the data for you, but be prepared to pay.

There might be an "independent Mac repair shop" around that has an old Mac that could be used for this job.
 
Contact David, The Eight Bit Guy, on YouTube. He has restored many old macs and may be able to help you. He is in Dallas, so if you live near there I am sure you can arrange something.
 
zorinlynx said:
There are USB to SCSI solutions out there, but being a niche product, they're expensive.

Do you know anyone local who is into retrocomputing? It's become popular among many nerds today and anyone into retro computing will absolutely JUMP at the chance to help you with your problem. They take a lot of pride in recovering old data and such.
Click to expand...
I've yet to find one. There are many advertised but they turn out to be SATA and not SCSI. If you see one, please add a link to it.
 
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