UltraDrive 80 external SCSI HD replacment

[fimbulvetr]

I recently picked up a GSS Technologies Ultradrive 80 external SCSI hard drive to use with my compact Macs. I've never used an external SCSI HD before. The HD in the enclosure made horrible noises the first couple times I powered it up, then it finally spun up. After a bunch of tries I got it to mount once -- it was still full of some families files from the early 90's -- and then, not surprisingly, it never mounted again. I was expecting this, and had only bought the thing for the enclosure with plans on replacing the drive. I have a good 2 good 50 pin SCSI HDs (a 40 Mb and a 2 GB) and a SCSI2SD that I could put into it. My question is, can I just swap the drive out? Or is there something I need to do to get the thing working properly... I think I would prefer using the SCSI2 SD in it.

 

[waynestewart]

I have some Ultradrives. They're just standard SCSI boxes so you can easily swap out the drive

 

[fimbulvetr]

Well, I tried swapping out the original Seagate ST-1096N HD with a Seagate ST32151N that I know works, and it didn’t work. The new HD wouldn’t spin up, even the fan on the Ultradrive would just pulse and the power light flickered. I put the old drive back in and it spun up and powered up with no problem. It looks like the old drive will actually mount if the Ultradrive is on its side, but I’m sure it will permanently crap out at any moment.   The new drive shouldn’t need more power than the old one, should it? Why won’t it power up with the much newer drive?

 

[superjer2000]

There could be a problem with the ultradrive power supply. You might want to take voltage measurements with the drive connected and the enclosure turned on. 

Also to your original question other items to watch out for are how is the new drive is terminated versus how the old drive was and how to set the SCSI id as there is probably a jumper cable that goes to an address selector on the back of the ultradrive and that cable may or may not fit the jumper block on your new hard disk. It's. It applicable for the SCSI2sd as the id is set in software for that. 

 

[fimbulvetr]

I set the SCSI ID jumpers.  Could it be a termination issue? The Ultradrive has a terminator on the second SCSI port, and I didn’t check the termination settings on the drive. I think the default settings are termination on drive.

 

[fimbulvetr]

Yeah, there is something off with the power supply. From a cold start is just sort of pulses -- fan, light, everything, until it warms up or something, then it runs.  I could re-cap it and see if that fixes it, or I could just pull it out and replace it with a new 12v Molex power supply from China for $7 like this one:  https://www.ebay.ca/itm/External-12V-5V-2A-USB-to-IDE-SATA-Power-Supply-Adapter-Hard-Drive-HDD-CD-ROM/173586174276?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Dd0dd25a599dd4d0b958c5219869fde68%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D264215500913%26itm%3D173586174276&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Ac5e738c8-39fb-11e9-ba0f-74dbd1809b23|parentrq%3A2b4198ca1690a9cb6e08ffc2ffea363b|iid%3A1

The $7 Chinese power supply is gotta be cheaper than caps.

 

[Paralel]

You would really trust a $7 power supply from China? Really?? If so, I take it you haven't ever seen any of the teardown videos of Chinese power supplies and a very qualified engineer showing how they are literally constantly teetering on the edge of turning into a fireball at any given moment due to short cuts in design, inferior components, and general incompetence in assembly?

 

[ArmorAlley]

The $7 Chinese power supply is gotta be cheaper than caps.

And you don't see that as a red flag?

 

[fimbulvetr]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯