03-24-2011, 05:57 PM

My boss handed me a 20SC external harddrive, and when my flashback to 1986 was over he asked me to find out what is on it and somehow put it on our office network.

I've got an old G3 tower that has both 10.3 and 8.6 on it, and somehow miraculously has a SCSI connection (though I think it's ultra). I hooked it up and while I get power to the 20SC the tower doesn't recognise the drive. I haven't yet booted into 8.6 but I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time.

Any thoughts, advice, solutions? Halp. My boss is convinced I can do this.

03-24-2011, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by annathaema

've got an old G3 tower that has both 10.3 and 8.6 on it, and somehow miraculously has a SCSI connection (though I think it's ultra). I hooked it up and while I get power to the 20SC the tower doesn't recognise the drive. I haven't yet booted into 8.6 but I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time.

I had one of the old blue and white G3 towers years ago, and the included SCSI card had all sort of problems with external hard drives. My hazy recollection is that the card worked with the internal SCSI hard drive that came with the computer, but not with external SCSI hard drives.

I vaguely recall that I purchased an additional SCSI card from Orange Micro that allowed me to use external SCSI hard drives. Unfortunately, Orange Micro doesn't exist anymore.

Adaptec also made SCSI cards (the 2906, I believe) for the PowerMac G3. These worked better than the OEM SCSI card (which, I believe, was also made by Adaptec) for use with external hard drives, but they tended to be unreliable. I'm not sure that these are available anymore.

The blue and white G3 had Firewire ports. So you could use a Firewire to SCSI adapter to attach that drive:
FireWire(IEEE1394) to Ultra SCSI Converter FR1SX

03-24-2011, 06:38 PM

If I am not mistaken, OS X will not recognize it. OS X refused to recognize my ProDOS formatted HD from my IIGS. Try booting into 8.6 and try again, it will most likely pop up.

Does the 20SC have dual SCSI ports on the back? If so, I THINK you need a terminator installed in the empty port or it won't work.

03-24-2011, 08:43 PM

Two thoughts:

1. The Apple 20SC hard drive was introduced in 1986...when OS 5.x was the latest & greatest. OS 8.6 didn't show up on the seen until 1999...most likely well after the 20SC was discontinued. What I'm suggesting is...depending on what computer this 20SC was last connected to...the hard disk drivers may be too old for a Powermac G3 running 8.6 to recognize.

2. Another reason the 20SC may not be recognized is...it may be dead!

I certainly wouldn't expect this 20SC to be recognized by a Mac running OS X...so booting your G3 Tower into OS 8.6 would have the greatest chance of success.

Good luck,

- Nick