SCSI External Hard Drive Problems

Hello all.

Trying to connect a LaCie (M2115) 3GB SCSI External HD to my LCIII, running OS 7.6. Unfortunately, the computer isn't recognizing it.

I've already vetted all basic issues with SCSI connectivity. It's the only SCSI device hooked in (so it's not in a daisy chain). It requires an SCSI terminator, so I've got one plugged in (active LED terminator). I've tried setting it to SCSI ID's 1-6. None of them work. I've tried powering on the external HD a full minute prior to computer start up. So I've done everything I can think of regarding connectivity by the book. Perhaps there's something I don't know.

I certainly know very little about mounting disks, so it could be an error there. I've tried using the Mac HD setup utility provided with the OS, and the only SCSI device it detects is the internal HD. I do know that the previous owner was using this HD on a Mac, so I believe it's formatted as such. However, I know he was using either OS 8 or 9. Could that be an issue?

FWIW, I have two other Macs - a G3 iBook and a MBP. Not sure if there's an adaptor I could use to hook it up to one of these guys and do a reformat. I've seen limited literature in this area and it seems like a very remote possibility.

I've also done some research on drivers, all of which indicates that I shouldn't need any drivers for external HD's. However, the HD's box indicates that there is a software disk included (which I suspect contains drivers). Unfortuantely, I bought the item second-hand and the disk is the only item that wasn't included. Tried Googling every known term associated with the hard drive, looking for downloadable drivers and can't find anything. Went to the LaCie website, and of course they don't even come close to supporting anything that old.

I'm really stuck here. Any help would be tremendous. Thanks.

Can System 7 recognize a 3GB HD?

A search on lowendmac.com for 7.6 scsi hauls up 100 or so articles on the site. You might find your answer(s) somewhere in there.

When I bought my G3 blue-and-white new, I added a scsi card for my existing peripherals that included a scanner and external drive. I can't recall the card's brand, but it needed a driver that lived in the extensions folder, as I recall.

bryphotoguy said:

Can System 7 recognize a 3GB HD?

Click to expand...

Good question. You might need multiple partitions.

bryphotoguy said:

Can System 7 recognize a 3GB HD?

Click to expand...

You raised a good point, so I did some searching around. Seems that earlier versions of system 7 could recognize partitions up to 2 GB, but 7.5 upped that to 4GB, and 7.5.3 increased the limit to as much as 2TB. So with 7.6 I think I'm in the clear.

Thanks for the ref to low end mac. I'm going to do some poking around there. Please let me know if you guys do come up with something. And if I figure it out, I'll come back here and close this.

Thanks.

Success!

Brown Study said:

A search on lowendmac.com for 7.6 scsi hauls up 100 or so articles on the site. You might find your answer(s) somewhere in there.

When I bought my G3 blue-and-white new, I added a scsi card for my existing peripherals that included a scanner and external drive. I can't recall the card's brand, but it needed a driver that lived in the extensions folder, as I recall.Good question. You might need multiple partitions.

Click to expand...

Brown Study - Just wanted to say thanks. From searching around on lowendmac, I was eventually linked to the page below:

http://www.macdrivermuseum.net/disk.shtml

This offered me some SCSI disk utilities, one of which I was able to use to reinitialize and mount the disk. Worked perfectly! Thanks again for the direction.