Hello, this information might be interesting for everyone who is searching for a USB or FireWire host to SCSI peripheral device bridge. There are the more known products Ratoc Systems FireRex FR1SX and Orange Micro FirweWire to SCSI converter devices. Those were meant as consumer products aiming at users who wanted to extend the useful lifespan of expensive SCSI peripherals like scanners, still cameras or mass storage, after upgrading their host computer to a more recent FireWire interface. If you find such thing on the used market, today, it will set you back a lot bucks if you are not extremely lucky. However, there appears to exist a type of similar interface bridge devices aimed at the completely different market of computer forensics professionals. This is the range of forensic write protection interface adapters, meant to access the data on storage devices without a chance to alter a single bit by mistake. Those devices can intercept the original instructions from the host computer and block any write commands that might alter data on the targeted peripheral storage device. Depending on the configuration, possible errors on attempted write commands can be masked or fed back to the host computer. The forensic write protection interface adapters come factory configured to safely prevent write operations on the targeted peripheral device. However, the documentation for some of interface adapters includes information on DIP switch settings to allow operation in Read and Write mode. This rises the question if such a forensic interface adapter might be a viable solution for anyone who simply needs the fastest available FireWire to SCSI interface bridge. Any comments?
