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| PowerBook HDI-30 to CN-50 adapter | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-06-23 10:02:53 Has anyone here bought this adapter? Does it have a switch for SCSI Disk Mode? https://www.ebay.com/itm/324041684642 I want to connect my PowerBook 180 to a SCSI PC and transfer files. I still have the original IBM hard drive installed | |
| Posted by: Shaddam IV on 2025-06-24 01:05:25 I don't think your adapter can be used for SCSI mode. I have an adapter that can be used for SCSI mode, and it has a physical switch on the top. That said, I'm not sure if you will be able to achieve what you're planning to do. SCSI mode is to use your Powerbook as an external hard drive of another Mac. If you try to access the Powerbook's disk from a PC (DOS or Windows), the PC won't be able to see the Mac's disk - since the Mac's disk is Mac formatted and not Windows / DOS formatted. (Unless you have software on the PC that can read Mac formatted disks, that is.) If you connect the Mac to the PC and try to read the PC's disk from the Mac, you'll run into the same problem. There are various tools to help mount DOS media on the Mac (Dos Mounter, Access PC etc) but afaik they only work with removable media, not with hard disks. Good luck! | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-06-24 05:30:41 The PC runs Linux which supports reading/writing to HFS filesystems. But it won't be very useful since the resource fork is seemingly ignored. Basilisk II and others should be able to mount the real SCSI disk on the emulated machine. | |
| Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2025-06-24 17:52:09 I haven't played with the HFS driver in Linux, but I would have thought they would have figured out resource fork handling. Pretty straight forward to present them to the OS as "._" files I'd think. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2025-06-25 09:20:33 I've not seen a Centronics 50 cable or adapter with SCSI Disk Mode capability outside the short Apple Adapter Cable. Why can't you use a DB-15 adapter with the switch setup combined with the standard DB-15 to Centronics 50 cable? | |
| Posted by: finkmac on 2025-06-25 09:24:26 why not ask the seller? | |
| Posted by: mikes-macs on 2025-06-25 09:34:56 You mean these?    | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2025-06-25 14:06:30 Yep, black adapter on left with cable on right will do the trick. Keep the length short for signal integrity, the cable on the left is far too long for any but special use cases. Apple's setup requires a passthru terminator on the end of its OEM Cables so you will wand one in DB-25 on the black adapter if you have any problems, or just to be on the spec side from the start. | |
Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-06-25 15:04:08why not ask the seller?They said there’s no switch. This adapter has one pictured, though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/116385328106 | |
| Posted by: mikes-macs on 2025-06-25 20:50:11 The "Powerbook" Control Panel can set the SCSI ID on the HDD. | |
Posted by: aladds on 2025-06-25 22:33:28They said there’s no switch.Assuming it is not a stock photo...that switch is for SCSI Disk mode yes. I've never seen one with that gender of centronics on the other side, though. Getting a cable which will plug into that will be challenging. I'd look for an HDI30 to DB25 adaptor. | |
Posted by: MacUp72 on 2025-06-25 23:41:27
Connecting SCSI devices and using SCSI Target Mode for PowerBooksIntroduction All PowerBook models released up to and including the PowerBook G3 (Bronze keyboard) include an external SCSI port except the PowerBook Duo 200 series. The PowerBook Duo must be connected to a dock of some kind to have a physical...
tinkerdifferent.com
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| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-07-07 12:56:13 Here's the SCSI card I'll be using (Adaptec AHA-2940), with a male-male HD-30 to CN-50 cable attached. I do need a female-female SCSI gender changer (pictured) in order to connect this cable to the PowerBook adapter. I already have a SCSI terminator, is it needed for this setup? | |
Posted by: finkmac on 2025-07-10 07:50:49I've not seen a Centronics 50 cable or adapter with SCSI Disk Mode capability outside the short Apple Adapter Cable. Why can't you use a DB-15 adapter with the switch setup combined with the standard DB-15 to Centronics 50 cable?  they do exist | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2025-07-10 08:39:18 Nice! Never seen one before, but there may be a very good reason why. The mere thought of havinga lever that long hanging off one of my 'Books give me the willies. Looks like a SCSI connector pry bar to me. 😱 | |
| Posted by: luRaichu on 2025-07-18 12:50:30 | |
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