2019 Issue-1
I have a bunch of old optical disks that have data archived from about 20 years ago that I would like to access. I found the stand-alone drive in a box of old computer junk, complete with the big SCSI cable. Problem is that I don’t have the computer anymore that has the SCSI card to plug it into, and don’t even know where to begin to look for one.
Is there something comparable that will work with a modern computer? An SCSI to USB adapter maybe? What about drivers? The old machine was probably Windows 98.
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I have a Win98 computer set up to read SCSI disc drives. It was a bear to create and find drivers for. I’m in Phoenix Arizona.
My next question is what software would be needed to read the data, is it just text? My setup was crated to be able to read and copy SCSI to sim cards, because of the lack of production of SCSI drives. I can currently copy from SCSI to sim cards if that would help. SCSI is old technology that is not really supported. If the data is important, I could probably read your drives and forward the data back in a usable format.
Let me know.
Adaptec made a USB 1.1 and a USB 2.0 SCSI to USB adapters; USB 1.1 M/N FX0C21902KL P/N 1861400; USB 2.0 M/N FX0A229005U P/N 1989100. I have one of each and they worked on every device I tried them on. Obviously the USB 2.0 is faster. I think the main drivers were Windows 98, but I can't recall for sure. I think I used them last under Windows XP.
There are still PCI cards available for your SCSI drive, although they go by either GPIB or IEEE488 interface. National Instrument has both the cards and drivers (http://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/select/gpib-instrument-control-device). It would be difficult to connect the SCSI drive to the computer with a USB connection since the drive requires several control lines for proper access.
I find some SCSI/USB adapters on eBay for around $170 to $300 each. I also find brand new SCSI/PCIe host adapters on Amazon for under $100. Either way, unless your cable is a Macintosh style cable (DB/25 to AMP50), you’ll also need a new cable. (For most of the PCIe host adapters, you’ll still need a new cable). What make and model are the optical disks? You may be better suited to pick up a used MO drive that’s SATA and use it on your current PC. Or with a SATA/USB adapter externally.
