Hi. I've done exactly this. My setup is a Symbios/LSI Logic U160 dual channel card with that Acard adapter and another Acard adapter that works with CDs and DVDs. The Addonics adapter is actually an Acard adapter. I don't remember the exact model numbers.

BTW, that Acard adapter works with single ended cards too. I know because I've tried it with a Bt-958. But the BT-958 is a finnicky card with horrible Linux drivers that cause bus resets, so I gave up on it. I'll look at my setup in the morning and post more info if you want.

Sure, that will help. Thanks.
BTW the card I'm using is a 53c875 (Diamond Fireport 40). It has both 50 and 68pin buses so I could use either.

Just get a SCSI2SD and be done with it.

http://store.inertialcomputing.com/category-s/100.htm

The v6 card will perform better with modern SCSI cards, but is more expensive.

Hm that's interesting. Not sure about installing Linux on a SD card though and how it will play with the card's expected life.

(edit) I have ordered 2 of the scsi2sd v.5. Seems decent for a solution, and SD cards are easy to replace. Thank you for this suggestion. I had actually watched Phil's video at the time but had completely forgotten about this option.

SCSI2SD v6 looks tempting. Has anyone benchmarked this against standard SCSI narrow drives which support 10 MB/s sync transfers?

I like how v5.1 and v6 are using full-sized SD cards now. Alternately, I prefer jumper termination. Looks like they went away from that.

I actually prefer the microSD, and the physical terminators. Plus the price difference is significant. And since this isn't going to be a fast machine, FastSCSI speeds (or even slower) are OK.

That was fast shipping. I got the package with the scsi2sd adapters today. Preliminary testing shows that they're really picky about the USB cables you use to configure them, only 1 out of 4 cables I tried worked (all 4 cables work with other devices). But eventually I was able to upgrade the firmware to 4.8 (they came with 4.7.1) and define HDDs on a 64GB card. Testing in the actual target machine will have to wait for another day.

its still not exactly cheap! I was hoping for IDE to SD prices
I do wonder what will happen to my old Compaq/HP/Dell servers with hot swap drives when I run out of SCSI discs.
Hot swap is sexy bit does limit your choices of what you can do 🙁

I'm having some trouble with the SCSI2SD adapters. I put a 64GB card in one of them, configured it so it will show 2 32GB devices to the controller. Put it in the machine I'm working on currently (AlphaPC 164) with a 53c875 controller, and in the firmware (ARC) it shows me on the SCSI bus 2 devices, one 60GB and one 28GB. ??? And when I attempted to install WinNT4 it loads the SCSI driver OK but then stops as it cannot find any partition to install on.

I don't actually have a SCSI2SD so could be totally wrong here.
but I would think it would be better to have the card as 1 big 64GB drive and let either the controller or NT do the partitioning.
at least then it'll be done in a way that your hardware/OS understands?

chinny22 wrote:

I don't actually have a SCSI2SD so could be totally wrong here.
but I would think it would be better to have the card as 1 big 64GB drive and let either the controller or NT do the partitioning.
at least then it'll be done in a way that your hardware/OS understands?

The adapter itself doesn't do any partitioning or formatting. It presents portions of the SD card as raw devices to the controller, all partitioning and formatting is done in the BIOS/OS. I'm talking to the developer as the raw devices that the adapter generates are not what I tell it to.

I figured out what was wrong with the setup. The SCSI2SD device worked correctly but the host was getting confused by the remnants of the SD card partition table that lingered on. I erased the card completely, and I was able to partition it and install an OS on it through the SCSI2SD. I am very happy now.