I've acquired a load of SCSI stuff...

[Nicolas 2000]

I have an E-Mu Emulator E-Synth which requires SCSI stuff to read CD-ROMs, save to hard disk etc. As I had no SCSI stuff (well, I had but sold it a few months before buying the E-Mu...) I went looking for some and ended up with a haul. This contains much of what I need, but I'm still missing some stuff and there are things included that I don't need. So I'm looking into what is generally wanted but useless to me in this haul, so I can trade it for what I need.
A few things that caught my eye:

-A SUN Microsystems 411 enclosure (currently with a CD-ROM drive, but I'll likely use that one in a separate SCSI tower). Is there anything special/desirable about SUN enclosures; were they eye-watering expensive when new like their workstations?
-An Apple Quantum PRO LPS 250MB SCSI hard drive, another Quantum ProDrive LPS 240MB, loosely built into the bottom half of an Apple CD SC repurposed as hard drive enclosure (well, enclosed minus the top that is!)
-likely an internal MO drive with 2 MO disks. Also an external MO drive Olympus PowerMO, untested as I don't have the power supply for that one
-possibly an RME SCSI CD writer in an enclosure (seriously yellowed), as it is not possible to write CD's from the Emulator anyway

So, is any of this stuff worth trading or considered not interesting at all?

 

[silcreval]

All old SCSI drives are nice to have - disks from the 80s-90s in particular are hard to find in working condition.

Sun used specific settings for its CD-ROM drives, so a 411 with a drive is not too common. These drives were designed to work with the sparcstation era of machines but also work with early Macs (eg. Quadras, powerbook 5xx, etc). They do tend to fail though. I have several of these drives and only 1 is functional.

 

[Nicolas 2000]

OK so that means that A) I'd best keep that CD ROM drive in its enclosure, and B) I'd best try to test the SUN and those 250MB hard drives before offering them for swap.

And C) if it works it is not unreasonable to offer some of it for a SCSI ZIP drive and/or a specific SCSI cable.

 

[Nicolas 2000]

I do not have the right scsi cable for the Sun. However when plugging it in the tray responded as expected and when loading a CDrom it made all the familiar noises, so I suspect it is functional?

 

[silcreval]

Sounds like the loading mechanism and motor are fine. Unfortunately you do need to check reading a CD as they can spin up ok, but issues with the head etc mean it doesnt actually work.

 

[Nicolas 2000]

In that case, I might try it in another SCSI casing (if internally I have the right cable for that) without changing any settings to see if I can get the drive to work. If not, it will be a "buyer is free to come and test" affair.

Next question: I have an Adaptec 2940W adapter which I try to run in a P4 with Windows XP. It has PCI slots, but I'm clueless as to how many bits, master slot...and other stuff I find in manuals. In any case, the card is found when booting, the PC now can access SCSI CD rom drives, hard drives etc. In short, it works. However, when I press ctrl-A at boot to enter SCSISelect, it tells me that it can't find a 2940 and to check if it's seated properly. Which it apparently is, given that it works. Any idea how to solve that SCSISelect issue? Something in my main BIOS settings maybe? I have some conflicts between my PC and sampler, and getting SCSISelect to run nicely would be the first step, I'd assume.

 

[Nicolas 2000]

Meanwhile I have managed to create an impressive SCSI-towers-tower chain with a Windows XP PC on one and and an E-Mu Emulator IV (E-synth) sampler on the other hand. In between we find in the towers 2 hard drives, 2 CD-ROMs, an MO drive, and a ZIP100 drive (yet to arrive). The XP PC also has non-SCSI ZIP250 drive, 3.5" drive, DVD writer, multi card type reader, a load of front USB ports... so I'm quite set. And still a lot of spare stuff, so I might indeed set up a swap deal with someone locally.