68 pin scsi drives

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JHZR2

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I have two 18gb 68 pin scsi u160 15k rpm drives. They were in a dell precision workstation which is a completely proprietary design, which I cannot get to POST.

I want to get rid of the computer shell and other stuff I have for it (spare ps, mb, etc), but would like to get the data off of it.

I run Mac but have a windows vista pc that I should be able to get operational if it helps. What's my best bet to get data off the drives?

The machine ran w2k and used ntfs as I recall.

Thanks!
 
Seems like USB adapters are wicked expensive but PCI cards are cheap. THen you have to find a clunker computer with PCI slots. Run a ubuntu live CD (that reads NTFS) and have a blast!
 
Why ubuntu? I know vista stinks, but how do I know ubuntu can run the scsi pci card?
 
If the data is not personal any BITOG'r with an appropriate set up could pull the stuff off and put into a big gzip file that you could pull directly to your Mac over the internet or put on a thumb drive. That is a $0 solution.

The $$ issue here is if the U160 controller is a separate controller or built into the MB; If it is on a card you could transplant the card to another PC and boot a linux ISO to remove the data. By 'proprietary design' do you mean it is an integrated controller?
 
a possible complication is onboard raid.you have to preserve its config or rebuild on a different controller
otherwise pull the card and drives and move to a working pc.
a 2940uw can be bought for $10.
 
Might be cheaper to troubleshoot the Dell. Seems like bad RAM would be the likely suspect; remove as many sticks as you can, and try swapping a few in and out until you can at least get a successful POST.
 
Originally Posted By: kc8adu
a possible complication is onboard raid.you have to preserve its config or rebuild on a different controller
otherwise pull the card and drives and move to a working pc.
a 2940uw can be bought for $10.

We hit a winner here. I think its very likely they were ganged together in RAID.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Originally Posted By: kc8adu
a possible complication is onboard raid.you have to preserve its config or rebuild on a different controller
otherwise pull the card and drives and move to a working pc.
a 2940uw can be bought for $10.

We hit a winner here. I think its very likely they were ganged together in RAID.


I can't recall if they were; if so it was raid 1 and so any one connected up should be an exact copy, no?

I don't have time to figure the machine out. I paid a pro some years back to fix it to no avail.

I bought it in 2000, iirc.
 
If it's nothing sensitive, I'd be happy to pull the data and send it to you for you and send it to you in exchange for keeping the drives.

I'm fully equipped to read 68K drives in whatever set-up this use.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Originally Posted By: kc8adu
a possible complication is onboard raid.you have to preserve its config or rebuild on a different controller
otherwise pull the card and drives and move to a working pc.
a 2940uw can be bought for $10.

We hit a winner here. I think its very likely they were ganged together in RAID.


I can't recall if they were; if so it was raid 1 and so any one connected up should be an exact copy, no?

I don't have time to figure the machine out. I paid a pro some years back to fix it to no avail.

I bought it in 2000, iirc.

If they were RAID 1 (mirrored), its less of a deal to read a drive but you're still going to deal with the fact that it was part of an array and so the array config needs to be 'broken' on one drive before you can use it outside of the array (my memory of the process has become fuzzy with the passage of time and I'm not a data recovery pro)
by the way the photo you provided unfortunately doesn't help demystify things at all IMO
 
To clarify; if is is part of RAID 1 array, you will have to deal with any data recovery with constant consideration of the RAID; you cannot remove a drive and think there is a readable NTFS filesystem there; there isn't; the RAID controller presents a completely different disk geometry to the host OS; this is lost when a drive is removed from the array and reattached as a single device. It doesn't matter that it was a RAID 1; RAID 1 doesn't mean; a usable RAID 0 filesystem is mirrored on two drives

Rambus memory; ugh.
 
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Can you pull the side off the case and snap a pic? If, as somebody else mentioned, it is a separate SCSI card, you can just put that, and the drives, in another computer and away you go.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Why ubuntu? I know vista stinks, but how do I know ubuntu can run the scsi pci card?


Remember that fun part of Windows setup where you're still on the blue screens and you have to hit a function key then insert a floppy for RAID or SCSI controllers? I'd hope a modern linux could just figure it out.
 
My first thought, as someone suggested, is to try to get the Dell to POST by swapping RAM. You could also add removing/replacing the cmos coin battery, connecting another fan to the cpu fan header, check the PSU. However, since you had a pro previously try to get it to work I'm sure he went through a full checklist.

My gut tells me the adapter mentioned from Amazon connected to the pci-e slot on the Vista machine should work. Could this be a master/slave set-up sharing the same bus and ribbon cable to the motherboards host adapter? If so, the secondary drive connected to an intermediate connecter (not the end) should be your data drive.

Another option is to take it to a local independent computer store to see if they could extract the data before purchasing something that may or may not work.

Good luck
 
not that easy on a rambus system.
any removed modules have to be replaced with crimms.
and there may be bank requirements too.
eject/reseat ok.
if it fires up copy your stuff to an external.
Originally Posted By: spackard
Might be cheaper to troubleshoot the Dell. Seems like bad RAM would be the likely suspect; remove as many sticks as you can, and try swapping a few in and out until you can at least get a successful POST.
 
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