#Syquest with 2 machines
7 messages in this thread
Sorry to draw you off the track but your comment about hooking up your
Syquest unit to another computer caught my eye. I have been using a Ricoh
removable unit with my Amiga 2000 with no hitches and have just purchased a
Western Digital Faast 7000 controller hoping to hook up the Ricoh to my XT
clone as well. In my case the problem is that when I insert the WD
controller on my XT the computer no longer recognizes the presence of my C:
drive which is a 30meg internal unit on a card.
So my question is how much of a hassle is it to use removable drives with
more than one computer? Who is the most knowledgeable in sorting out
problems like switches and addresses? Any info you can offer about how you
succeeded would be most welcome.
S.P. from Tokyo
Hooking up a SCSI based drive to a PC compatible is an arcane art. Hooking
up a *removable* SCSI based drive to a PC compatible is reserved only for
technical wizards supreme. <grin> It's not a matter of how many computers
you use it with, it's more a matter of what *type* of computer you use it
with.
PC compatibles don't often seem to be able to deal with multiple disk
controller cards in a system. Usually, when they do, it's because an hard
card of some sort is in there, and was designed to work in addition to
another controller card. You might check the docs which came with your
hard card. (As a guess, however, getting them to work together might
require you to boot off of a hard disk connected to the WD controller.)
Beyond that, I'd suggest finding a PC technical guru to help. I only
dabble in PC's due to work requirements. <grin> As far as getting
removable drives to work on various machines, the *only* removable drive
I've ever seen which works well that way is a Bernoulli II portable, not
really a hard drive at all (although storage capacity is comparible). I've
swapped that thing from PC to Mac to different PC, and so on, with nary a
bit of trouble. I dunno if it would work on an Amiga, though. I've never
had the opportunity to try.
–>Steve Bennett
Steve,
Thanks very much for the input on the removable drives. I hope that I won't
have to abandon my idea of getting my Ricoh unit to work with my Amiga 2000
and XT clone. The only reason I thought I had a good chance of
accomplishing this is that the people at GVP who sell the Ricohs said that
they had one hooked up to an AT in their office. I haven't yet called them
for help because of the holidays.
I intend to put a bit more effort into this since I already have a $150
investment in my Western Digital controller. In any event, I surely can't
be the only one around who has had the bright idea of hooking up a
removable unit to more than one computer to save $$$. Anyone else have
input?
Again, thanks, Steve. S.P. from Tokyo
As I said, it's probably more a matter of getting the WD controller to run
properly with the existing hardcard. You're probably better off asking an
PC style technical person about that one.
–>Steve Bennett
Stanley,
Sorry, but I haven't actually tried switching the SyQuest to the Amiga yet.
Gotta buy another cartridge first!
I don't know about the Ricoh, but I did ask around a bit on the networks
before I picked up the SCSI board to see what sort of success I might have.
The answers that I got seemed positive so I figured an investment of $65
for the used SCSI board was reasonable.
As far as I know, the things to watch for with SCSI devices are the SCSI ID
(must all be unique), whether the device supplies termination power or not,
and the total length of the cabling must be kept short (I seem to recall
under 6 ft). Other than that most SCSI devices _should_ work on most SCSI
implementations, if you have the correct drivers (where required).
Good luck with it. When I get around to trying the SyQuest on the Amiga,
I'll let you know how it goes.
Allan
Allan,
Thanks for your words of encouragement. As I mention in my reply to Steve
Bennett, I'll be contacting the GVP people after the holidays since they
are the suppliers of the Ricoh unit and have one hooked up to an AT in
their office.
Perhaps Western Digital will have some advice about their controller.
Regards, -S.P. from Tokyo
Stanley,
Just a quick additional note. The other computer that I use the SyQuest on
is an Apple IIGS which seems to have a very robust and flexible
implementation of SCSI. You seemed to assume that my other computer was a
PC-compatible.
Allan