Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I'm looking for an early 90s-era SCSI-1(?) HD for use with some old fisheries data retrieval at work. We have the system set up to read the DAT tapes containing fisheries survey data from the late 70s-90s, but we can't yet put it on anything. This is terabytes of data. We have one HD that works with the connecter shown. It's 2gigs. Does anything exist larger, even just 10G? We also have a USB card that fits a slot in this early-90s era machine, but we can't get the mobo to read it. If that worked we could just go with a modern external HD. In the picture of the whole setup you can see an external drive series connected by scsi1 with the CD and a HD. The CD works, not the HD, which is adapted within from I think 50 to 68 pin (or vice versa). We have another newer external SCSI HD that didn't work. What's the deal? Your combined genius would be super handy to have in the snowy north right now! If you happen to have hardware that would work, let me know and we may purchase it from you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
custard~SPARTA~ Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Check the bios to see if the usb slot is actually switched on, it must be XP to be able to use usb correct? and I think I remember there was also an update early on for XP to be able to access the usb ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 can you connect the dat drive to another PC? or you stuck with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 can you connect the dat drive to another PC? or you stuck with this? The drive setup is stuck to this older machine. It's about the various ports and cards we have to use-unique to the dated mobo-to convert the dat signal. new mobos don't have the slots. Also, @ custard, this is win 95 I think. I'll ask about the bios check, but the USB card is an addon to the mobo. would that show up in bios?(I'm not the primary user of the equipment.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PANiC Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 win 95 doesn't support usb anyway :/ this is a trickty one i think i might be getting mixed up here tho, i'm thinking you just need to get the data off a dat backup tape? in this case with this special rig, i'd grab hold of another pc with sata and ide (and usb ), and bung in a ide dat drive and a fat sata hard drive, then a usb external so you can move the data about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter~SPARTA~ Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 http://www.usbman.com/Win95%20USB%20Guide.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 win 95 doesn't support usb anyway :/ this is a trickty one i think i might be getting mixed up here tho, i'm thinking you just need to get the data off a dat backup tape? in this case with this special rig, i'd grab hold of another pc with sata and ide (and usb ), and bung in a ide dat drive and a fat sata hard drive, then a usb external so you can move the data about. We're stuck currently with the older machine because a special card that translates the dat signal needs the old slot. I think that's the key limitation. I'm confident we could otherwise assemble a machine to connect the various other components, maybe. In the first photo to the left of the monitor are two aluminum boxes. They also contain custom electronics built by now-retired fisheries guys a decade ago to futher manipulate the signal. BNC cables and old SCSI signals, it's all well over my head. I'm trying y'all now based on the few components boss tells me he still needs to make this work-namely a HD to fit that SCSI cable. Hey-would a newer HD partitioned into multiple smaller drives be identified by the older OS? There's an issue with larger drive readability too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter~SPARTA~ Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 (edited) I dont think it going to work this way. You have to chk what maximum capacity of HDU scsi controller can work with. If you exceed that most likely PC will not see drive due to outdated bios in mobo/controller. What slot is DAT tape controller working with? Vesa? ISA?? Whats the name/model of scsi controller Name / model of mobo it would help a lot second thought. If this mobo have regular ATA drive connector you can hook up regular ATA drive . SCSI or ATA does not matter for system or DAT tape reader If controller is build in in to mobo and you have free ISA slot you can add TA controller and hook up regular ATA drive. As long as this PC can work in LAN you dont have to worry about drive capacity cuz you can reroute all saved files in to network drive. you can also try this one http://www.arstech.com/item-USB-2-0-to-ISA-card-ROHS-usb2isar.html mby it will work with newer PC but i think buying ATA drive could solve your problem without pain. Edited January 16, 2012 by peter~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebden~SPARTA~ Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 (edited) Thanks for the extra nudge peter. The mobo is by TMC research corp. AI5TV (v2.1). The closest spec I found online so far is this: http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/T/TMC-RESEARCH-CORPORATION-Pentium-AI5TV-VER-2-2.html http://artofhacking.com/th99/m/S-T/34465.htm The 2.2 board configuration is either identical or very close to the 2.1 spec. The two unique pieces of equipment connected to this are the Bridgenorth Signal processors, BN4000 and BN1416 First article on BN4000: http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-3/iss-2/p43.pdf Ha-I just found this while looking for bits on the BN1416. It's what we're setting up to (re) do over a decade later. The .pdf is a gov't technical doc from 1998. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/232735.pdf I was wrong earlier, running W98, not W95. We have a copy of 98SE which is supposed to have better USB support. This rig is boss's baby so he gets to play with installs. The ISA /USB piece might be really handy if the windows fix doesn't work. We have everything set up now to translate and read the data. We just don't have anywhere to put it yet because of this last hardware hiccup. If we were going to rebuild from the ground up, are mobos made with ISA slots and modern computing speeds? This is definitely not something that fits within the university's Dell workstation contract! Edited January 16, 2012 by Ebden~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter~SPARTA~ Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Yes , but they are rare and could be costly. IIRC they where still qite popular till Pentium 4 but as you see there is solution for Quad core as well. http://www.ibase-i.com.tw/mb820pic.htm I would worry more about Win95 compatibility with newer CPUs/mobos. I believe Drivers can be a issue with newer system. Call company who made those special boards and ask them what drivers they support. Personally i would get ride of SCSI stuff and install ATA drive in this place. There is a chance combination of lastest generation ISA ATA controller and ATA drive could give you possibility of using bigger HDD's It will be slower but easier to find parts. Should be wise to buy some spare parts in case this have to be replaced again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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