Using 90's tech to connect SCSI devices to modern computers in 2022

#usb #scsi

Back in the 80s and 90s, it was common to use SCSI devices on Macintosh and Amiga computers. Can we use these on Windows 10 and MacOS in 2022?

--- Info

Microtech XpressSCSI USB to SCSI adapter
Belkin USB to SCSI Adapter
Shuttle eUSCSI Bridge
Castlewood ORB SCSI to USB adapter

--- Video Links

RaSCSI project and an issue about giving it a similar feature to this device:

DD for windows:

Adrian's Digital Basement ][ (Second Channel)

Support the channel on Patreon:

-- Tools

Deoxit D5:

O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)

Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:

Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:

Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:

Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:

TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)

TS100 Soldering Iron:

EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:

DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:

Magnetic Screw Holder:

Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)

RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)

Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)

Heat Sinks:

Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)

--- Links

My GitHub repository:

Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA – Portland, OR – PDX Commodore Users Group

--- Instructional videos

My video on damage-free chip removal:

--- Music

Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[talideon]

*Parallel* SCSI might be dead, but SCSI itself is still very much alive in the form of iSCSI, SAS, UAS and USB Mass Storage, &c.

[kjtroj]

"It freakin' works!" -Adrian's standard reaction :)

Trying to remember, MOST SCSI controllers were set to ID 7. I wonder if for some reason, that interface uses ID 1.

[StevenSmyth]

The reason they banged on the iMac was it took SCSI ports, serial and ADB ports off the computer, but if you were a dedicated Mac user you probably had SCSI peripherals like external drives and scanners that you needed until you could get USB stuff. These were quite valuable for that reason.

[FrankGevaerts]

I'll admit I'm not entirely surprised that it works just fine on modern systems. USB Mass Storage *is* SCSI after all, USB to SCSI adapters are much simpler internally than USB to ATA adapters, they basically just have to pass data through in both directions.

[admirerofclassicalelectron]

I used SCSI very much in the nineties on my PC using an Adaptec 2940 controller. If bus termination was right, there were much less problems as with IDE. SCSI-HDDs were very reliable. I still have an Adaptec 29160 controller in my Windows 10 PC, connected via a PCIe to PCI adapter, to read my 25 years old HDDs and DDS tapes. It simply works.
I like the idea that the old SCSI command set survived in so many technologies, such as SAS, USB mass storage, ...

[Eyetrauma]

You'd asked why we didn't see more of these adapters anymore and I think it's just a consequence of it being the nexus of
a) reading/imaging SCSI drives is the kind of thing you'd ask someone with technical know-how to do
b) the person in (a) is likely to look at their options and realize that it's easier to add a SCSI PCI card to a spare Linux box than buy one of these USB adapters (especially for scalper's prices)

When they were still new I'm sure you'd had a lot of semi-technical people that needed to do SCSI-to-iMac/non-SCSI PC migration but today it's like a niche within a niche.

Also: it looked like that dd error you'd seen happened at the end of the drive. It might have been that dd just 'ran off the end of the runway' as it was making that image rather than there being an error.

Great video as always!

[djdublo]

One of the things I enjoy about this channel, is Adrian's joyous laughter when something works. Always cheers me up!

[eg]

I love this kind of experimentation. Forcing legacy hardware onto modern OS.

[BinaryCounter]

If you ever have a situation where you don't have working drivers for modern windows, it's very easy to set up a VirtualBox VM with e.g. Windows XP and route the USB device to that. You can also setup shared folders to easily transfer over any data or other stuff you might need to interact with the device. Much more convenient than using a seperate machine and USB dongle.
Saved me a couple of times with an old printer, and also with my super old IP security cam that only supported super old Internet Explorer.

[alerey]

1:26 on the high-end workstations the default standard was in fact SCSI; IBM, Silicon Graphics, Sun, besides Macs and Amigas all had variants of SCSI (wide, ultrawide, lvds with all sorts of adapters, terminators and IDs, along with thick strong cables)

[JosiahGould]

I'd imagine the adapter requiring ID 0 for the bare drives is because it does support daisy-chaining from what the manual said. If you're able, try using that SyQuest drive again as the first in the chain, and add a second device off of there as ID 1.

[dave]

For Linux it might have been worth using a proper distro through a Live USB image.The Linux kernels on most smartphones I would imagine have a bunch of drivers not built when they are making the image.

[dosgos]

On the enterprise side, high-performance SCSI HDD systems were widely deployed.

[smunaut]

USB MSC (Mass Storage Class standard) is actually tunneled SCSI commands through USB and all thumbdrives actually emulate the SCSI command set, just over USB requests instead of a SCSI electrical connection. So it's not too surprising that this adapter just implements MSC standard and as such should work out of the box.

[xliquidflames]

I must have said, "Whoa, " out loud half a dozen times watching this. It just kept getting better every step. That is _so cool._

[EdwinSteiner]

The most sensational thing in this video is that Windows finally managed to estimate a time to completion correctly in version 10.

[andyjdhurley]

Not sure if someone has mentioned this in the comments but there could well be an issue with device 1 as the SCSI adaptor itself could be calling itself device 1. Try 2+ and if they all work that would confirm this. I beleive this is why SCSI allows 7 devices, it's actually 8 but the controller itself is always one of them (or something like that - it's been a long time).

[bgoins]

This is something that needs to make a comeback. I searched on eBay real quick and the only ones on there are in China and they are all WAY overpriced. Hopefully someone eventually designs one to work with modern machines. We 68k Mac guys REALLY need them! Great video as always!

[erinwiebe]

I could have guessed, but it never occurred to me that there's a dd version for Windows. I may just back up my Amiga CF card in the same way. Super useful!

[MrDAndersson]

The original RaSCSI for Raspberry Pi shall support creating images of SCSI HDDs, I have not tested it myself but is part of the Japanese documentation mentioned as initiator mode..