Installing internal HD in a II GS?

[meall]

Hi,

I have a II GS with an Apple SCSI card hook to an external HD and ZIP drive. For the moment I have to disconnect the ZIP because it is somehow interfering with the HD, don't know why because it use to work before I move the II GS in the house.

But anyway, my question is more related to the IIGS, Apple SCSI card and the possibility of putting a 40 meg Internal SCSI disk in it. The card does not have a standard internal SCSI port, so, that make it a bit more complex to do. But I'd like to know if anyone did that successfully and how?

 

[II2II]

I have a II GS with an Apple SCSI card hook to an external HD and ZIP drive. For the moment I have to disconnect the ZIP because it is somehow interfering with the HD, don't know why because it use to work before I move the II GS in the house.

If I recall correctly, SCSI Zip drives have two little switches on the back to set the SCSI ID and the termination. You should ensure that the SCSI ID of the Zip drive and the hard drive do not overlap (in case the SCSI ID switch was accidentally flipped). Also ensure that the chain is terminated exactly once. Check the termination switch on the Zip drive, and see how/if the hard drive is terminated (sometimes they use resistor packets, and sometimes they use jumpers).

But anyway, my question is more related to the IIGS, Apple SCSI card and the possibility of putting a 40 meg Internal SCSI disk in it. The card does not have a standard internal SCSI port, so, that make it a bit more complex to do. But I'd like to know if anyone did that successfully and how?

I don't see why you couldn't do it. Just get an old 50 pin ribbon cable, chop off one end; get a DB25 socket, map the correct pins from the DB25 socket to the ribbon cable, and solder everything up. Also draw out 5 and 12 V from the power supply, to actually power up the drive. Doing it that way avoids the possibility of botching the card. Would I suggest placing a hard drive in the IIgs case? Not really. The IIgs has a feeble power supply and the IIgs case may not be able to handle the heat generated by a drive.

 

[waynestewart]

I did it for a IIe a number of years ago. I mounted the drive under the IIe keyboard and made up a custom cable. Instead of mounting the SCSI cards DB25 on the back I ran it inside and made up a custom cable that had a male DB25 connector at one end to connect to the SCSI card. Then it went to the hard drive and ended in a female DB25 connector which mounted on the back of the IIe. The drive wasn't terminated and I used a DB25 terminator which I could remove to connect other SCSI devices.

With a IIgs there isn't a lot of room inside without blocking most of the slots. Short of finding a Vulcan power supply, you could move the power supply outside the IIgs or better yet use a PC power supply outside the IIgs. Both these would let the IIgs run cooler.

If you don't like those ideas then since you're making a custom cable anyways, I'd scrounge up a 2.5 inch SCSI hard drive from an older Mac powerbook. It'll use less power than a 3.5" drive and it's small enough to mount on the side of the power supply.

Wayne

 

[meall]

Hi,

I've looked at what I have, and I'm unsure how to follow this project. Let's see:

I reopen my IIgs and looked inside it. There is no such thing as a way to get a 3.5" HD power from the internal PS, and I want something clean, not an external PS to replace an external HD. I removed the SCSI card from it to have a better look at the task at hand.

I remembered that I have a PB140 that is defective. It has a perfect size 40 meg HD. I refuses to boot. Not sure if it is the HD that is to blame or a SCSI/motherboard issue. The display is also erratic, so that may well be the MB. So I removed the HD from it tonight to look at it.

Now, I can see that the HD from the PB has no such thing as a power cord. Maybe that come from the SCSI bus? Anyway I can test the HD on a standard old SCSI mac?

I though that, att first, the SCSI cable was like the one on the SCSI card. But no. The nap from the HD is not really the same type as the connector on the SCSI card. And the connector on the SCSI card is kind of fixed there somehow. Since I do not want to break the card, I'd like opinion on how to fit those 2 together.

Thanks

 

[waynestewart]

A 2.5" only needs +5VDC so that should be easy enough. You can get pinouts of drives at http://pinouts.ru/pin_HD.shtml

I was just looking online and there are adapters available. Here's one I saw http://www.cablesonline.net/25lapscsihar.html. I'm sure there's others

Wayne

 

[JRL]

Is the 40 MB 2.5 SCSI HD a Conner? If so, then those weren't very reliable and had a tendency to die, so I'm pretty sure the HD's toast.

The reason why it has no SCSI power connector is because power is provided in the 2.5 SCSI connector, similar to a 2.5 IDE hard drive.

Here is a suitable adapter.

 

[meall]

Is the 40 MB 2.5 SCSI HD a Conner? If so, then those weren't very reliable and had a tendency to die, so I'm pretty sure the HD's toast.
The reason why it has no SCSI power connector is because power is provided in the 2.5 SCSI connector, similar to a 2.5 IDE hard drive.

Here is a suitable adapter.

Yes, the HD is a conner. So I'm doomed...

 

[meall]

This look interesting as well:

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php

I've contacted the guy about the pricing and availability.

 

[JRL]

Eh, don't feel that way. As long as the HD's not a Conner, it should be perfectly fine. In fact, these drives pop up on eBay sometimes.

I even saw a lot of 14 2.5 SCSI hard drives once.

 

[Twilight_Rodent]

Some have decided to put the HD into the System Saver on top of the IIgs. This way they can turn the HD on first. Sometimes you need to do this as the drives age they may need a few seconds to get up to speed.

Just a thought

 

[Twilight_Rodent]

MC Price Breakers is stilling selling a card that will hold a small 2.5 SCSI Hard for the IIgs. It appears the card will power the HD. Just a thought since I just ran across it looking for other things,

Take Care