Noob Question - SCSI hard drive for my IIsi ?

[Futureman]

Hey there.

I'm pretty new to Macs, so excuse my ignorance.

I got a Mac IIsi running OS 7.5

It has a 120-pin NUBUS Adaptor Card fitted to the Processor Direct Expansion Slot of the Motherboard.. (What ever that is???)

I got this mac to run some old audio software in conjunction with an ancient sampler (Emulator II)

Anyway, I need to archive a fair bit of info, and the internal drive is only 40mb

(I'm gonna need 700mb+)

I'm hoping to get an external SCSI hard drive for this.. is there anything i need to be aware of? How big can it be? How do i format it? Does anyone know where i can buy an appropriate drive? HELP.

Much regards

Mike

 

[TheNeil]

You can use pretty much any size drive you like but it's the version of the OS that dictates how you'll be able to actually use it. Anything before OS 7 is limited to using partitions of up to 2Gb (i.e. the drive would need to be partitioned into 2Gb chunks) and OS 7 to 7.5.1 is limited to 4Gb partitions. OS 7.5.2 and beyond raised the partition size to 2Tb (and if you get a drive that needs partitioning into 2Tb chunks then I'm sure we'd love to see the pics ). In your case you should be able to use 4Gb partitions with no problems (I have an 18Gb external drive split into 4Gb partitions and it works just fine)

As to formatting it then Apple's Disk Setup is usually good enough to get started with (it'll partition if you need it to) but some versions can be picky about which drives they'll deal with (I can't remember which versions are 'awkward' and which aren't but someone here'll know and be able to point you in the direction of a 'non-awkward' version).

As to getting a drive then it depends on how much you want to pay, whether the drive needs to be brand new, how much hassle you want to go through etc. Here in the UK external SCSI drives are becoming more and more difficult to get hold of. Ebay can be useful or you could always post a topic in the Trading Post section

 

[Temetka]

Hey there!

You have a good name (hint: it's the same as mine) 8)

Here are the specs for your machine according to:

Lowendmac.com

and

Everymac.com

Here is a good e-bay search to start with.

Your machine features an external SCSI connector of the DB-25 variety. You will need to get a case that works with DB25 or use some form of an adapter.

Since you are running OS 7 you are limited to using the HFS filesystem as System 7 does not speak, nor work with HFS+ partitions. Here is a wiki on HFS partitions.

IF I were you, I would pick up a cheap enclosure with cable and find a drive to stick in it. Considering the age of the HD's in question I would purchase a newer 2GB+ drive. Sometimes you can find a good deal on an enclosure with a drive in it for not too much. To format the drive I believe you will need to use HD SC Setup which should be found on your applications / apple extras folder.

Good luck.

 

[benjgvps]

If you get a drive that Drive setup cannot format, take a look here: http://lowendmac.com/sable/07/mac-drive-setup-patch.html

 

[tomlee59]

Apple's HD SC Setup has been patched by others to work with third-party drives. You can get it from

ftp://grijan.cjb.net:21000/macintosh/Software/Utilities/hd_sc_setup_735-patched.sea.bin

It will likely work just fine with the setup you have.

 

[Futureman]

Thankyou all so much for your help!

This has really helped me along..

Much regards

Mike