Race against time to get data off Rodime hard drive

[Burgertrench]

I've just picked up a Mac Plus with a Rodime 20 Mb hard drive. It boots up from the drive just fine. The Mac has an external display connector mounted in the Kensington slot, and there is a control panel installed called DoubleVision by Macinoz, which I haven't been able to find any reference to online. I want to get this software off the drive in case it fails. I am quite familiar with SCSI but cannot get this drive to work on my other Macs. If I plug it in to my SE/30 I get a sad mac on boot, and if I try my Performa 5400 the machine never gets to the happy mac icon. I have tried a few different SCSI IDs and with/without termination but no joy. I feel like I am missing something obvious. My next step is probably to remove the drive from the enclosure and mount it in my g4 tower with SCSI card. Any other ideas as to what might be causing the hangs at boot? I'm dreading the thought of losing these drivers.

 

[Hopfenholz]

Why not just use a floppy?

 

[croissantking]

Or connect to another Old World Mac by LocalTalk?

 

[Burgertrench]

Why not just use a floppy?

I will try that as a backup option, I don't currently have any machines with working floppy drives fitted so it's not my go to choice. I was hoping to grab the entire drive contents.

 

[Burgertrench]

Or connect to another Old World Mac by LocalTalk?

This is an option I'm also looking at. If I can find a serial cable I will give it a shot.

 

[croissantking]

I will try that as a backup option, I don't currently have any machines with working floppy drives fitted so it's not my go to choice. I was hoping to grab the entire drive contents.

Put the drivers on a 720k floppy now and then carry on tinkering with SCSI. At least this way if the worst happens you’re not SOL.

 

[Burgertrench]

Put the drivers on a 720k floppy now and then carry on tinkering with SCSI. At least this way if the worst happens you’re not SOL

I will do that.

 

[Burgertrench]

I'm glad to say the floppy drive works, and I was able to grab the drivers and some other files with it. I will post these to the appropriate online repositories, as it seems there is no other record of this software.

 

[finkmac]

zuluscsi + initiator mode is my advice

 

[Burgertrench]

zuluscsi + initiator mode is my advice

It works well with the plus?

 

[Daniël]

It works well with the plus?

In Initiator Mode, the Plus isn't part of the equation, so to speak. You attach the Rodime directly to the ZuluSCSI (or other Initiator-Mode compatible ZuluSCSI derivatives like GBSCSI or BlueSCSI) over the SCSI bus, set the DIP switch for the Initiator Mode on the Zulu, and then power both devices on. The SCSI emulator will start to image the attached hard drive all by itself, which is written to the attached SD card.

For using the SCSI emulator on the Plus afterwards, you will have to install a 1N4001 diode at the unpopulated CR1 location on the Plus logic board (right behind the DB-25 port) to power the emulator over termination power, or supply it with an external power supply. You may also need to set it up specifically for the Plus in the INI configuration file, as the Plus' SCSI is a bit more finicky than that of later Macs, which is unsurprising knowing the Plus was the very first Mac to include it.

 

[Burgertrench]

In Initiator Mode, the Plus isn't part of the equation, so to speak. You attach the Rodime directly to the ZuluSCSI (or other Initiator-Mode compatible ZuluSCSI derivatives like GBSCSI or BlueSCSI) over the SCSI bus, set the DIP switch for the Initiator Mode on the Zulu, and then power both devices on. The SCSI emulator will start to image the attached hard drive all by itself, which is written to the attached SD card.

For using the SCSI emulator on the Plus afterwards, you will have to install a 1N4001 diode at the unpopulated CR1 location on the Plus logic board (right behind the DB-25 port) to power the emulator over termination power, or supply it with an external power supply. You may also need to set it up specifically for the Plus in the INI configuration file, as the Plus' SCSI is a bit more finicky than that of later Macs, which is unsurprising knowing the Plus was the very first Mac to include it.

That's very interesting, I did not know about initiator mode. This will come in handy in future.
I have the diode and the guide to add termination power for the Plus, if the SCSI gods are smiling then I hope it will work!
After moving the control panel I was after to a floppy, I was able to get it uploaded to Macintosh Garden:
Link here.
I hope to do a short write up once I get this video card working.