I have a Mac SE/30 with it's original Quantum 2.5" SCSI Go drive, with an adapter to the 3.5" 50 pin SCSI. I'm well aware these drives are ticking time bombs. I want to replace it with a BlueSCSI and not have to worry about it, but I'd like it to be a seamless transition. Is there any way to clone one of these drives? Any hardware/software to use with a modern Mac maybe to back up the drive? And then copy that to the SD card that would eventually go into the Blue SCSI?
SCSI Drive cloning?
- Thread starter TheCaddyMan99
- Start date
There are ways I'm sure, but if I were in your boat, presuming the system still boots/runs from the drive, I would assemble/obtain a DB25 BlueSCSI (or adapter to temporarily use your 50 pin BlueSCSI externally), format a volume larger than the internal drive is on the BlueSCSI (put a pre-made image on there and initialize it worst case) and then copy everything over.
Yep. I plan to do the same with my Apple 40SC external hard drive, I will plop either BlueSCSI, BlueSCSI F4, or MacSD in there. 
So I would just have to copy all my files over from the existing hard disk to the BlueSCSI? Just drag and drop, can't make a disk image or anything like that? I have a boot diskette for system 6.0.2 that I use for my SE, would I be able to boot from that and copy everything over?
Also, do you know what the real differences are between the BlueSCSI external vs Internal? thinking of just building my own adapter out of spare parts.
Also, do you know what the real differences are between the BlueSCSI external vs Internal? thinking of just building my own adapter out of spare parts.
To be sure to copy everything, do not copy the folders, copy the “disk”. I mean by that drag and drop the icon of the disk to your new disk. This way, it will copy also thinks like the Desktop. After everything is copied, just take out all the folders from the “disk folder” to put them at the root of your new disk.
Regarding using internal or external SCSI bus, whatever the device, remember that external bus is half speed of internal one, at least on my SE. I think this is the same fr SE/30.
What exactly do you mean by "disk folder"? I intend the BlueSCSI to be a permanent internal drive. Does System 7 automatically create a disk folder when it copies a disk? And can I boot off the disk that I want to be copied?
Also, one thing I hadn't considered, what is the drive capacity limit for System 7? If I use a 2GB SD card, how many partitions will I have to create, and what is a good tool to create said partitions?
Also, one thing I hadn't considered, what is the drive capacity limit for System 7? If I use a 2GB SD card, how many partitions will I have to create, and what is a good tool to create said partitions?
Only difference is termination is always on on the external one (and no LED pin outs, berg connector, etc) - otherwise electrically the same.
By Disk folder they mean on the Desktop you'll see a drive named something like "Macintosh HD" click on that, drag it to the fresh drive and release, this will copy every file on that drive to the new drive. if you don't you'll miss the desktop folder.
For disk initialization and partition creation you can use patched HD SC setup, or Silver Lining, both should be easy to find.
Size wise 2Gb should be fine. You can use a system picker utility to run multiple system folders if you want.
"Any Mac running System 6 has a two gigabyte limit on maximum volume (partition) size, but any hard disk can be used as long as the largest partition is under 2 GB." http://chrislawson.net/writing/macdaniel/010219cl.shtml
Since v1.1-20220404 a patched HD SC setup is not required!
So what you're saying is that I can take a non formatted brand spanking new 2GB SD Card, put it in my BlueSCSI, plug it into my SE/30 and then it will recognze it and I can initialize there?
No, I'm talking about formatting an image file - so you can put a 2gb image on your new 2gb SD card and boot it up in a mac and use an unpatched SC HD setup to format it. Prior you had to use a patched one to format non-apple drives.
So I still need to put an image on there? How does that work, what software can I use on a modern or semi modern mac to make a blank image and put in on the SD Card? the SD card needs to have some kind of image in order for the Mac to recognize it? I'm just curious what the point of the image is?
I read some stuff on the BlueSCSI website, but it looks like it's meant to be used with an emulator or VM. Which is rather confusing.
Usage
A small SCSI device based on stm32. Contribute to erichelgeson/BlueSCSI development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
You can use the same images with an emulator to copy files on a modern computer to the image (handy)
You can grab pre-made blanks from that Usage page or make your own with DiskJockey
One of the great things about BlueSCSI is you dont have to use a raw partition or take the entire SD card, you can manage drives with just files and file names.
The BlueSCSI can take downloadable disk images, or ones you make, and assign them SCSI ID's. So you could even use 2x 1GB image files, with names like HD1.hda and HD2.hda, and the BlueSCSI will act as both of those SCSI ID's to the Mac. It's much simpler than you think.
I'm just not familiar with VMs or emulators enough to really understand. But what I'm understanding is, instead of actually having to partition an SD card, I could just put two images on there and those files will act as my partitions?
Emulation is very new to me, part of the reason I generally prefer actual hardware. I've never successfully used sheepshaver or anything like it, I tried once 9 years ago and the learning curve was so steep I quit right then and there. But now it seems that it's just another learning curve that I'm going to have to get past.
I think my problem is, I'm seeing the BlueSCSI as just a SD to SCSI interface like I'm used to seeing Sata to IDE interfaces, and I'm viewing it as that adapter rather than an emulator.
Emulation is very new to me, part of the reason I generally prefer actual hardware. I've never successfully used sheepshaver or anything like it, I tried once 9 years ago and the learning curve was so steep I quit right then and there. But now it seems that it's just another learning curve that I'm going to have to get past.
I think my problem is, I'm seeing the BlueSCSI as just a SD to SCSI interface like I'm used to seeing Sata to IDE interfaces, and I'm viewing it as that adapter rather than an emulator.
It will act as two drives - you can have up to 7 image files that would expose 7 drives (cd roms, hdd, etc) and in each they could have one to many partitions (usually one)
You're right, it's not an adapter, it's an SCSI device emulator, which gives it a lot more flexibility.
There is no requirement to use an emulator, it's just something you could use to manage your images and copy files to them. You could also use CiderPress or any number of other tools - or none of them, up to you.
Hope that clears things up, it's easier than you think
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I'm still waiting on mine to arrive. I'm sure once I get my hands on it and fail a few times, I'll figure it out.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out exactly what's going on. I only bring up my previous encounters with emulators because I've avoided learning them for so long that I'm not familiar with the terms used. I hear images and I think of ISOs or DMGs to burn installer CDs and DVDs. I'm not used to them being files with empty space.
Right now I'm still trying to figure out exactly what's going on. I only bring up my previous encounters with emulators because I've avoided learning them for so long that I'm not familiar with the terms used. I hear images and I think of ISOs or DMGs to burn installer CDs and DVDs. I'm not used to them being files with empty space.