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How to get LaCie Q drive open?

Author	Topic
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 11 Jul 2002 : 05:42:08 I have this one gig LaCie Q drive that doesn't work. I was thinking of putting a SCSI Seagate 4.5G HD that came out of a PeeCee server in it, but I can't get the darned thing open. There are two small screws in the back, and a press-down tab on top, but something is still holding it closed, and I don't want to break it. Anyone experienced with these things? I bought two of these drives back in the early '90s, and they both had problems. Sent them back to LaCie under warranty, which repaired them. One crapped out; the other makes groaning noise--fan or drive?--but I still use it for backup. Turned me off LaCie products, though. /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).
G4from128k Full Member USA 873 Posts	Posted - 11 Jul 2002 : 06:03:58 This may not apply to La Cie drives, but APS drives hide the main case screws under the rubber feeets. Also, sometimes you can gauge where the problem lies by prying lightly on any cracks in the case -- where the case won't gap is where the snaps or screws are. Hope you gain access to the promised land. Swapping out drives in enclosures is always a fun and satisfying little hacklet. G4From128k by Day: Mild-Mannered Engineer and Trapeze(tm) Artist by Night: Colonel of Truth, Justice, and the Macintosh Way Reserve Officer in 68kMLA Cantankerous Coot Contingent & User of the Hockey Puck Mouse of Radial Symmetry
thelip Full Member USA 729 Posts	Posted - 11 Jul 2002 : 07:26:19 I've got a Lacie Tsunami external box and there are 2 huge screw below some plastic that molds around the fan. I don't know how similar the cases are, but that might help. _______________________ Sgt. Thelip Heavy Weapons Specialist - 950 division Liberated Macs: 12 SEE IF MY NEWTON IS ONLINE AT nsa68k.kicks-ass.net *
G4from128k Full Member USA 873 Posts	Posted - 11 Jul 2002 : 07:38:15 BTW, if you going to connect the SCSI-ID switch/knob to the new drive, make sure you get the connector orientation right. Both the SCSI ID pins on the drive and the switch connector tend to have a grounded side and a signal side (i.e., all the pins on one side are connected together, while the pins on the other side are electrically different). An ohmEater or continutiry tester can help you discover which is which (and sometimes the silkscreen lettering on the drive will indicate which side of the ID pins are GND). If you get it wrong, I don't think you will damage anything, but you migth find that the drive is set to ID 0 or ID 7, regardless of the ID knob setting. G4From128k by Day: Mild-Mannered Engineer and Trapeze(tm) Artist by Night: Colonel of Truth, Justice, and the Macintosh Way Reserve Officer in 68kMLA Cantankerous Coot Contingent & User of the Hockey Puck Mouse of Radial Symmetry
thelip Full Member USA 729 Posts	Posted - 11 Jul 2002 : 10:38:22 quote: BTW, if you going to connect the SCSI-ID switch/knob to the new drive, make sure you get the connector orientation right. Both the SCSI ID pins on the drive and the switch connector tend to have a grounded side and a signal side (i.e., all the pins on one side are connected together, while the pins on the other side are electrically different). An ohmEater or continutiry tester can help you discover which is which (and sometimes the silkscreen lettering on the drive will indicate which side of the ID pins are GND). If you get it wrong, I don't think you will damage anything, but you migth find that the drive is set to ID 0 or ID 7, regardless of the ID knob setting. When adding different drive in my external boxes i just use jumpers and i ignore provided by the box, the 2 external cases that i have had used proprietary connectors that did no good on newer drives. (I got a sweet deal on a cd burner that was in an 3rd party external case for that exact reason, the dude plugged the drive into the provided scsi id plug and it never worked properly, he gave it to me thinking it was broke, but all it was was that the pinouts were different on the drive than the connector.) _______________________ Sgt. Thelip Heavy Weapons Specialist - 950 division Liberated Macs: 12 SEE IF MY NEWTON IS ONLINE AT nsa68k.kicks-ass.net *
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 19 Oct 2002 : 19:36:08 At long last, time to resurrect this small project! Thanks to G4from128K, I found the screws under the rubber feet (or do I mean 'feets'?--dunno if that applies to drive cases), and got the case apart. I have just tonight (three months later!) installed the Seagate 4.3GB (not 4.5 ) drive, and it seems to be working fine. However, despite all the good advice, I'm not sure what to do with the ancillary connectors. The original drive has a two-prong connector for the drive light (not very important), and a four-prong connector for the SCSI-ID switch. The Seagate has a single twelve-prong connector, which presumably connected to somewhere on the PC SCSI card. So there is no way to change the ID number, which is currently at 0 (it was a boot drive in the PC). This does not appear to be a problem, as I'm running it from an ADAPTEC 1206 SCSI card, so it's on a different buss from the blue G3's ATA drive. But it would be nice to be ABLE to change the ID if I wanted to. I suppose to make the ID switch and the light work I'd have to have some sort of adaptor from the two tiny cables inside the case to the 12-prong connector on the drive. Is this something commercially available, or would I have to create an adaptor (hard without knowing which pins do what)? /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).
Trash80toG-4 NIGHT STALKER USA 2899 Posts	Posted - 19 Oct 2002 : 19:44:33 quote: I suppose to make the ID switch and the light work I'd have to have some sort of adaptor from the two tiny cables inside the case to the 12-prong connector on the drive. Is this something commercially available, or would I have to create an adaptor (hard without knowing which pins do what)? Have you looked on Seagate's site or on the site in the links project for drive jumper setting info? The function of every switch/pin/plug-n-doohickey should be well documented for every drive ever made SOMEWHERE online! Find it and post a link to the info and we'll noodle it out! The one in the links project is particularly good, IMHO. jt �. Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF p.s. click the "period" in my sig to get to the "Peripherals Links Project. Sorry, I thought you were around when it was news. Edited by - Trash80toG-4 on 19 Oct 2002 20:48:53
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 19 Oct 2002 : 20:37:10 What's 'the links project'? /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 19 Oct 2002 : 21:07:29 Oh-- [he says stupidly]-- you mean the 'Links Project' thread below? Don't see anything on Seagate pins, on first glance, but there's a lot there. Roadmap? /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).
Trash80toG-4 NIGHT STALKER USA 2899 Posts	Posted - 19 Oct 2002 : 21:23:47 quote: Oh-- [he says stupidly]-- you mean the 'Links Project' thread below? Don't see anything on Seagate pins, on first glance, but there's a lot there. Roadmap? It's under "HDD Information" http://www.webtradecenter.de/pcdisk/ jt �. Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 20 Oct 2002 : 04:38:13 quote: http://www.webtradecenter.de/pcdisk/ Thanks. Gets to the website, but the individual pages return error 404s. I'll try again later. /Mr Lynn 11:44pm (EDT): Site will load if you drop the 'pc/disk', but then it's in Dutch, and mine ain't too good. Edited by - mrlynn on 20 Oct 2002 20:45:39
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 17:39:09 Well, that WebTrade center site doesn't seem to have my model (and the site's pretty buggy, too), but I did finally get over to Seagate's site and found the page for my model, ST34573N: http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/scsi/st34573n.html It looks like there are six pins that control the SCSI ID number. The Quantum drive that I took out has a five-pin block, plus a two pin-block (for the activity light, I think). Quantum's website doesn't work, so I can't get a diagram. The Quantum is a Fireball model no. 1.2S, 2.1S, 3.2S. There is a 'Jumper Configuration Table' on the drive label. At this point it's over my head. I'd like to be able eventually to use this drive with my old IIfx, but to do that I'll have to change the SCSI ID from the default 0 to another number (I can use it with my blue G3, which has a SCSI card). Any suggestions or noodling welcome. /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).
Trash80toG-4 NIGHT STALKER USA 2899 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 17:53:01 quote: Any suggestions or noodling welcome. If you have just one shorting block you can use it to get ID 1, 2 or 4 easily enough using that diagram. I don't understand your dilemma? jt �. Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 18:06:36 quote: If you have just one shorting block you can use it to get ID 1, 2 or 4 easily enough using that diagram. I don't understand your dilemma? Uh, what's a 'shorting block'? You're talkin' to an electronics ignoramus here! I can count pins and sockets, but that's about it. BTW, the Quantum's the one that came out of the LaCie enclosure. The Seagate's the one going in. /Mr Lynn
Trash80toG-4 NIGHT STALKER USA 2899 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 18:31:42 quote: Uh, what's a 'shorting block'? http://www.cablesonline.com/10pcsminjum.html aka: jumper, they fit across two pins as in the diagram in your seagate link. They are the little black rectangular boxes various positions and one is shown as a "Jumper Plug" in the circular enlarged inset. The rows of configurations are stacked one on top of another with no spaces so it just looks like a pegboard to you. Ignore the pegboard and pay attention to the diagrams with arrows. Simplified directions: Put "Jumper Plug" between pin 1 (square) and the pin below it depicted as round (pin 2). Slightly less simplified version: Just slide one onto pins 1 and 2 so it makes an electrical connection between them and your drive will be automagically transformed into SCSI ID = 1 jt �. Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 18:49:04 In the language of the 68KMLA, COOOOOL! Ain't science wonderful! Now, cablesonline wants all of 99� for 10 of those little jumpers. Do you suppose I could use my credit card? Maybe I should just see if Radio Shack can sell me a little bag of 'em. Thanks! /Mr Lynn
Trash80toG-4 NIGHT STALKER USA 2899 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 19:09:03 quote: Maybe I should just see if Radio Shack can sell me a little bag of 'em. Sounds like a plan, but first check all your drives and cards for one that's hanging free on one side or bridging pins 90 degrees out of whack or bridging pins labeled as "unused" or "spare". These are all configurations in which mfr's sometimes put extra jumpers for use should the need arise. If you want to try it tonight you might find one on hand. jt �. Trash Hauler: call sign: eight-ball C.O. AC-130H SpecOps 68kMLAAF
MrLynn Junior Member USA 394 Posts	Posted - 27 Oct 2002 : 21:24:40 Hey! Found one pretending to be on duty on an old, expired, HD, probably from one of my SEs (I have a few of these things--HDs and bad floppy drives that I hate to throw out, though I haven't found a use for them--until now!), so I took it off and, using a pair of tweezers, got it attached to the Seagate. And it works! Wonder of wonders! It's great to have a true techie on call; thanks, jt. /Mr Lynn Curator of: SE (6.0.4), SE w. 020 accelerator (6.0.8), SE w. no HD, IIfx (7.1), IIci (bad HD); plus various PPCs in family (blue G3/350 is main Mac these days).

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