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General discussion

Ext. SCSI Drive or SCSI (host)-to-USB Adapter Needed

Aug 10, 2006 10:24AM PDT

I have an industrial application (measurement instrument) which has a SCSI-2 connector (HD-50 male) which is used to connect to an external SCSI drive. Since the external SCSI drive we used is no longer available, I need to find either:

(a) An external drive that has a SCSI-2 interface (or one which I can adapt to), or

(b) A SCSI-2 to USB converter to allow the use of a USB drive or stick.

For (a), I have not been able to find anything other than SCSI drives which have VHDCI connectors, which I'm told cannot be adapted to a 50-pin SCSI-2 interface. Is this correct?

For (b), all I can find are adapters which treat SCSI as the peripheral, not the host (i.e. the host is our instrument with the SCSI interface, and the peripheral would be a USB device).

Any suggestions for either solution? No, we cannot re-design our product to use a different bus architecture (too costly, and the product is going EOL shortly). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Discussion is locked

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Ebay.
Aug 10, 2006 11:06AM PDT

I still have some scsi drives in the closet and see numerous scsi drives on ebay. Some companies insist on new parts but as such fall out of production you have to get the used parts.

You are right about the lack of new hardware or adapter.

Bob

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ebay or 2nd hand
Aug 10, 2006 11:23AM PDT

as profitt said, ebay is the best place to get legacy equipment.

i think have a couple of scsi-2 drives, a 4gb and something else that are in working order. pay for shipping and i'll give them to you... my wife is pleased when i reduce my inventory Wink

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Thanks, but I need NIB
Aug 10, 2006 12:18PM PDT

Thanks guys, if it were for my personal use I'd take your offers, but this is for a customer who would expect a brand new product, not used.

I did find an internal SCSI drive from Adtron which uses Compact Flash media (http://www.adtron.com/products/Sdds.html), but I need an external drive. I looked for a drive enclosure for SCSI, but all are either IDE, USB or SATA. The SCSI drive enclosures I saw were not the right form factor ... bummer.

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Time to call drive makers.
Aug 10, 2006 12:40PM PDT

No more emails, hitting their websites, etc.

Most have some reserve for situations like this. They may have refurbs too. I know we had to do this for SUN machines.

Bob

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Sorry... Forgot.
Aug 10, 2006 12:46PM PDT
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time to bite the bullet and change your hardware
Aug 10, 2006 11:55PM PDT
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I apologise. One more time.
Aug 11, 2006 12:18AM PDT

I forgot to mention that to replace that 25 pin boxed SCSI drive you'll likely have to piecemeal a solution from a few makers.

I'd look to GRANITE for their adapters from 50 or 68 pin SCSI drives I see for sale all over (Newegg.com has those drives) to the 25 pin outlet. You'll either find a new drive housing or modify one to get over your last run.

You can finish this but I doubt you will find NIB ready to use 25 pin SCSI drive in a box like we did 10 years ago.

This is going to be not so much fun but is par for the course as old technology exits.

Bob