Question(s) - SCSI controller card
 

I'm looking into getting a SCSI controller card to retrieve some data off an old 50pin SCSI Mac HDD (160MB).
I don't have a Mac, but I do have linux (and windows).

I'm not sure which controller card I should get.
The two I'm trying to choose between that "I think should work" are:
Adaptec AHA-2930CU PCI SCSI card
Adaptec AHA-2940/2940U SCSI card

My questions are:
Will these cards work?
What the difference between the two?
Which one should I get?
How will I be able to retrieve the old Mac data (hope linux will save the day)?


Thank you kindly for any assistance you provide.

You will need something that can read the file system on the HDD. Last I checked pretty much any recentish linux install will be able to do that but for windows you will need something like MacDrive or HsomethingExplorer IIRC.

Now, what do you hope to gain from this though? Because if you move any applications and stuff onto a FAT16/32 or NTFS or ext2/3 drive you will lose the resource fork of the file and render it useless. Anything without a resource fork is immune to that though.. like text files, jpegs and other standard image files or .sit, .bin, and a some other archive formats so you can safely copy those to your PC.


I think I will just suggest that you find someone locally who has some old Macs who can retrieve your files for you and slap em on a CD or disk image or something.

btw
You should be able to get a 50 pin -> newer SCSI connector adapter unless I am mistaken. Some people with old Macs get the reverse of that so they can use newish drives pulled from servers with the 50 pin SCSI port of their old Mac. Personally, I like to just use an old Mac with IDE and a CF to IDE adapter. :P (you can get SCSI -> IDE adapters as well but they are uncommon and expensive)


*Edit
Actually, you could setup an emulator and just copy the files over to it's disk image directly and then you would always have the files and related apps on hand.

Thank you for you input MacJunky.

All I need from the HDD is some data.
I'm not really sure what the data is actually, I'm retrieving the data for a friend.

So far my plan is to install the controller card in my old P3 box and access the HDD via linux. Burn the Data to CD.
Failing that I was considering using Mac-On-Stick. I figure OS7 is about the same era as the Data on the HDD.

I'm still unsure as to which controller card of the two I should request.
I still need to research the difference between the two controller cards.

Thanks again.

This is out of left field, but if you're just trying to pull raw data, is it possible that a data recovery service might charge less than what an expansion card would cost? By their standards, I imagine it'd be a pretty dead simple procedure.

But you can go and resell the card when you are done.. (like to me or something)
Just make sure that if you burn anything with a resource fork to a CD it is in HFS (aka Mac OS Standard) format. I guess you could use HFS+ (aka Mac OS Extended) if you wanted to. But the latter will not be accessible from Mac OS 7.6.1 and lower.(possibly even 8.0 and lower but I am not exactly sure, 8.1 *should* be able to read it)

What OS does this person plan on using to access the data btw?

And yes, System 7.1-7.5 is from the time when 160MB HDDs were shipping in Macs. But you can access it with later versions of Mac OS.
Hell, I have been known to attach the CF card I use as a boot device for one of my old Macs (running 7.6.1) to a PowerMac G4 running Mac OS X 10.5 to copy some files to it and back it up conveniently.

The person uses XP and Vista now.

If my Tux and Mac-On-Stick don't work out I may end up waiting longer till I put OSX on as one of the boot options (different rig).

Could you please tell me which controller card is the better choice?

Thanks again for your help. :biggrin:

Looks like the AHA-2930CU is for old Macs.. so it would have PPC compatible firmware and might not work in a PC. In fact, it looks like Apple shipped them with Macs in 1998 and 1999 or so as a BTO option.

On the other hand the AHA-2940/2940U looks PC compatible.

Sounds like I'll go for the AHA-2940/2940U.
Dude, you rock!