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Lisa Jane

Q: SCSI 25 pin adapter to USB or Firewire needed

I'm not sure if this is the right forum, but I need to locate an adapter cable for a SCSI 25 pin external hard drive that I used to use with a 12 year old Performa- I don't have the Performa anymore. I now have an iMac and an iBook and neither one has a SCSI port. The old hard drive has a lot of data that I want to transfer. Thanks for any suggestions anyone has.

iMac 600 mhz and iBook G4 1.33GHZ combo drive, Mac OS X (10.4), Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Feb 18, 2007 8:08 PM

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Q: SCSI 25 pin adapter to USB or Firewire needed

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  • by Alex Dawson,Solvedanswer

    Alex Dawson Alex Dawson Feb 19, 2007 4:32 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Level 4 (2,515 points)
    Feb 19, 2007 4:32 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    You'd probably find it much cheaper to get a mac with both ethernet and SCSI and transferring files across the network to your new systems.
  • by Appaloosa mac man,Helpful

    Appaloosa mac man Appaloosa mac man Feb 19, 2007 8:43 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Level 5 (4,330 points)
    Feb 19, 2007 8:43 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Lisa Jane,

    After finding the cheapest adapter, namely an older Mac, do not forget to open files and save them as RTF or other generic formats that can be opened by newer software.

    Jim
  • by JustSomeGuy,Helpful

    JustSomeGuy JustSomeGuy Feb 19, 2007 9:55 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Level 3 (586 points)
    Feb 19, 2007 9:55 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Lisa Jane -

    A neighbor with an old Mac would of course be the cheapest option. There are a couple of transfer services out there, but shipping the heavy drive will probably be expensive:

    http://retrofloppy.com
    http://rich12345.tripod.com/disktransfer/index.html

    iMac 17"   Mac OS X (10.3.9)   Mac IIci, Mac SE, Apple IIgs, Apple //e, Apple ][+
  • by Lisa Jane,

    Lisa Jane Lisa Jane Feb 21, 2007 6:55 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Feb 21, 2007 6:55 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    I actually found a Firewire to SCSI cable from MacGurus.com and the price was cheaper. They give great customer support, too. Oh yeah, MacGurus clued me in to the fact that the port on my drive is actually a 50DB female port.

    If you need anything you can't find, try: www.macgurus.com
  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Feb 21, 2007 7:37 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    Level 9 (61,297 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 21, 2007 7:37 AM in response to Lisa Jane
    The "standard" first cable from the DB-25 that was used on the back of older Macs to the Centronics-50 that was used on earlier drive enclosures is called a "Mac SCSI System cable". The cable connects the roughly 5 grounds available at the 25-pin end to many more in the cable that are connected at the 50-pin end, such that each signal can be twisted around a ground for good quiet performance. If you ever find yourself needing to go back down to 25-pins to pick up a 25-pin device at the end of the chain, that cable can be used facing the other direction.

    The 50-pin connecter that is about the same overall size as the DB-25 is called the HP DB-50. The HP in this case, does not actually refer to Hewlett Packard, but Half Pitch, meaning that the distance between the pins is half the dimension in the standard DB-connecters. These cables, and the terminators used with them are a little more expensive than Centronics-50.