SCSI2SD: Is it worth a try?

[Jim Stefanik]

I too have been using these for a few years; also on mostly 90s workstations and servers (Sun, SGI, Alpha, Apple, etc). I think I have about a dozen or so V5 boards.


I've not tried the V6, as I've heard numerous stories of poor compability.


The multi-mode emulation works fine. I booted my Sun SPARCStation 10 from a Solaris ISO using CD-ROM emulation mode and installed the OS onto an emulated HDD running on the same SCSI2SD.



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Jim Stefanik
Dallas Vintage Computing Center
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From: Sophie Haskins via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, 19 March 2019 07:58
To: Charles Dickman; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: SCSI2SD: Is it worth a try?

I've had pretty great luck with using SCSI2SDs in my various mostly-90s workstations (https://blog.pizzabox.computer/, among a few others). In a few cases (VAXstation 4000 VLC, Quadra 610) you need to put the settings to emulate a "real" model of drive, but otherwise compatibility has been pretty good. 

Someone later in the thread mentioned tape support - I haven't used it, but the configuration utility has the option to set a given SCSI ID to present itself as a tape drive. I have a feeling I'm gonna need to explore this when I get around to trying to get my Sun 3/80 running... 

Sophie 

-----Original Message----- 
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Charles Dickman via cctalk 
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2019 10:16 PM 
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> 
Subject: SCSI2SD: Is it worth a try? 

What is the experience with the SCSI2SD with old computers? It looks to be 
SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 compatible and I see a lot of reports of usage on this list. I am curious about how well it works and which version to get. 

Versions up to 5 seem to be GPLed and reasonably available. V6 does not seem to have schematics or boards open sourced and I haven't seen a supplier for them. The web page lists some sources, but they don't have the 
V6 available. 

It looks like the V6 is not open because someone used the design without following the GPL. 

V6 claims synchronous transfers, but I don't think most of my hardware supports it. That consists of VAXstations and qbus scsi cards. If I was after speed I wouldn't be using old hardware, but the speed has to be consistent with the era. 

Chuck