Coincidentally I used Ontrack Disk Manager today, to overcome the 512MB limit from the Phoenix BIOS. Works fine with a 2GB CF. Should work with higher capacities as well.

But spinning rust is also big fun.

SCSI-160 is total overkill for P233MMX, but yes, it should work. Note that if the disk is very large you may hit operating system limits. In particular, DOS up to 6.22 and the original Windows 95 use FAT16 which supports max 2GB partitions, so max 8GB total per disk with four partitions. Later OEM Win95 OSR2 and OSR3 use FAT32 which supports up to 2TB in theory - but those OSs would be rather heavy on a Pentium MMX.

15k is not silent. Not ot on 20+ years old HDDs anyway

I see no practical point, if you want to overcome any limits, just use regular PATA controller or even SATA with an SSD. SCSI is such a hassle to setup too.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2023-12-14, 20:27:

15k is not silent. Not ot on 20+ years old HDDs anyway

I see no practical point, if you want to overcome any limits, just use regular PATA controller or even SATA with an SSD. SCSI is such a hassle to setup too.

this scsi controller are very very cheap, and i like the seeking sound of the hard disk, scsi have a nice seeking sound for what i remember. yes will be difficult but i know that great vogons people know how to do 😂…

Just a little consideration, the silent fujitsu 15k 73gb suggested by the vogons user i found on ebay very cheap on sas configuration, then 80 pin less cheaper, and for the 68pin (the connector mounted on the Adaptec 29160) cost no si little…. can someone explain me the compatibility about interface versus the Adaptec 29160? i remember that 80pin->68pin exist… but sas???

Personally I like the actuator sound as well.
But be sure the spindle motor/bearings are silent, like a fluid bearing. And not too much operating hours.

68p to SAS? Don't think so, definitely not passive adaptors. SAS has more similarities with SATA.

PD2JK wrote on 2023-12-14, 20:48:

Personally I like the actuator sound as well.
But be sure the spindle motor/bearings are silent, like a fluid bearing. And not too much operating hours.

68p to SAS? Don't think so, definitely not passive adaptors.

no, sca to 68pin i mean. Thinking of future… ide HD below 512mb, 4gb, 8gb become rare and extremely expensive. scsi drive instead are much more easy to find , there are a tons on ebay. I not like to use the total quite Compact flash

80p = 68p plus some power pins; Passive adaptor works fine.
SAS = totally different electrical and logical protocol, a superset of SATA as PD2JK says.

SAS controllers are probably also fairly cheap. You might hit other problems there though - most are PCIe (which no Pentium MMX motherboard has), and the few that are PCI-X are 64b long and require 3.3V on the PCI bus, and almost certainly you have a PCI 2.0 or 2.1 bus with 5V only. It would help to know which motherboard you have.

Actually, the AHA-29160 is also 64b, but will run in a 5V 32b slot - but it does require PCI 2.1 for bus mastering. The move from PCI 2.0 to PCI 2.1 happened during the lifetime of the Pentium MMX, so it's very important to know which motherboard (chipset) you have.

dionb wrote on 2023-12-14, 21:20:

80p = 68p plus some power pins; Passive adaptor works fine. SAS = totally different electrical and logical protocol, a superset […]
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80p = 68p plus some power pins; Passive adaptor works fine.
SAS = totally different electrical and logical protocol, a superset of SATA as PD2JK says.

SAS controllers are probably also fairly cheap. You might hit other problems there though - most are PCIe (which no Pentium MMX motherboard has), and the few that are PCI-X are 64b long and require 3.3V on the PCI bus, and almost certainly you have a PCI 2.0 or 2.1 bus with 5V only. It would help to know which motherboard you have.

Actually, the AHA-29160 is also 64b, but will run in a 5V 32b slot - but it does require PCI 2.1 for bus mastering. The move from PCI 2.0 to PCI 2.1 happened during the lifetime of the Pentium MMX, so it's very important to know which motherboard (chipset) you have.

I didn't think there was so much integration between the controller and the motherboard, I thought it did almost everything. the first computer I wanted to experiment with it on was a socket5 (Triton) and then also use it on socket3/5/7, the latter HX chipset. it seemed like a good way to continue having cheap platter discs without having to look for discs less than 1 gigabyte for the 486, less than 8 gigabyte for the HX etc... but from what you tell me I don't know if my plan can work and if so on which computer and with what result....

Anything that has pci if you want a upgrade, go sata and m.2 ssd I like the promise sata II tx4 controller

Anything that has only isa, scsi is a fun option. Though IDE-sata ssd is still possible. I think the scsi with dma will probably be faster though on those systems because of dma

As far as hdd limits a Jan patched bios or a xt-ide are options.

You can do scsi on your system though, should be fine if that’s what you want to do.

I unexpectedly found this unknown card in my box and tried it. I only have a cd-rom to connect. how about? how is the card? Is it compatible with 80 pin drives??

Just a simple host bus adapter card, could work just fine! Drivers can be a pain, I don't see much info about this one. But I'm not sure you need any drivers.

SCA drives should be recognized with an adapter of course, if not too big in terms of capacity. (137GB ?)

PD2JK wrote on 2023-12-15, 13:17:

Just a simple host bus adapter card, could work just fine! Drivers can be a pain, I don't see much info about this one. But I'm not sure you need any drivers.

SCA drives should be recognized with an adapter of course, if not too big in terms of capacity. (137GB ?)

i not think to search hard disk more than 36/73 GB, i want to use it with Pentium1, II, III. Is very hard to find a 1gb drive working ide.

Then you're safe. This thread got me into testing some stuff laying around.

Asus P2L97-S board with some disks, including a silent Fujitsu.
The Compaq disk is SCA with converter.
SCSI BIOS says 1996, so it should be no problem.

Be aware that the adapter/converter doesn't touch the drive housing.

AlessandroB wrote on 2023-12-15, 13:04:

I unexpectedly found this unknown card in my box and tried it. I only have a cd-rom to connect. how about? how is the card? Is it compatible with 80 pin drives??

SCA 80 pin or SCSI 68 pin are normally used on a wide 16 bit scsi bus.
It might work, it might not. That scsi adapter is only a normal 8 bit narrow adapter and could give problems detecting wide drives connected through a 50p cable and one of those narrow(50p)/wide68p to SCA adapters or 50p to 68p adapters.
A possible solution is adding a narrow to wide adapter to the card connector and using a 68p cable, ensuring that the card is not terminated and the cable is terminated on both ends.
Do bear in mind that using any scsi ID above 7 is not possible on that scsi card.

and yes, you can still attach more 8 bit narrow 50p scsi devices to the 68p cable using another 50p to 68p adapter.

ok, I'll buy a disc to do some testing.

1) To be able to be seen by DOS, the scsi hard disk needs to have the scsi controller drivers loaded right? Do these drivers also allow you to play CD-ROMs? I don't remember these things well because I had a scsi chain at the time of the PentiumII.

2)To be able to install Windows 9.x you need to have the floppy with the controller drivers and insert them at a certain point during the installation, right?

3)If I were to get a better controller I understand that for ISA the Adaptec 1542 is the de facto standard. But what about the PCI bus? I remember that the 2940uw was famous at the time, or as mentioned would the 29160 be better for the P60/P200 and maybe even PII/PIII machines?

Yes, you can use that Initio SCSI card. But you'll be limited to the speed of Narrow Ultra SCSI. That is 20 MB/s.

Yes, there do exist SCA-to-68-and-50-pin Adapters. However, some of those adapters may not have a connected DIFFSENSe wire. You perhaps have to solder a connection or play with Force-SE jumper then.

2940's exist in all kind of flavours up to the 2940U2W.
2940U2W, 19160 and 29160 also have a bridge chip which allows you to drive newer LVD (low voltage differential: Ultra2/U160/U320) and classic SE (single ended) drives on the same HBA (host bus adapter / controller) without losing speed.
But I don't know if there exists a Windows x64 driver for any 2940.
19160 and 29160 have couverage from DOS up to Windows x64 and can be run with Windows 10.
29160 is for 64 bit PCI, but it may be placed in a 32 bit PCI slot too, if there are no blocking parts like capacitors on your motherboard. (The 29160LP variant does not have the bridge chip)

Disruptor wrote on 2023-12-15, 16:39:

Yes, you can use that Initio SCSI card. But you'll be limited to the speed of Narrow Ultra SCSI. That is 20 MB/s. […]
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Yes, you can use that Initio SCSI card. But you'll be limited to the speed of Narrow Ultra SCSI. That is 20 MB/s.

Yes, there do exist SCA-to-68-and-50-pin Adapters. However, some of those adapters may not have a connected DIFFSENSe wire. You perhaps have to solder a connection or play with Force-SE jumper then.

2940's exist in all kind of flavours up to the 2940U2W.
2940U2W, 19160 and 29160 also have a bridge chip which allows you to drive newer LVD (low voltage differential: Ultra2/U160/U320) and classic SE (single ended) drives on the same HBA (host bus adapter / controller) without losing speed.
But I don't know if there exists a Windows x64 driver for any 2940.
19160 and 29160 have couverage from DOS up to Windows x64 and can be run with Windows 10.
29160 is for 64 bit PCI, but it may be placed in a 32 bit PCI slot too, if there are no blocking parts like capacitors on your motherboard. (The 29160LP variant does not have the bridge chip)

So you suggest 29160?

AlessandroB wrote on 2023-12-15, 17:06:

So you suggest 29160?

That depends on which connectors you want to use.

19160: External SE Narrow
29160: External LVD

29160: Internal SE Wide

19160: Internal LVD
29160: Internal LVD

19160: Internal SE Narrow
29160: Internal SE Narrow

So if you like to use old SCSI cases or external SCSI ZIP drive, the 19160 may be the better option.
However, there are internal brackets or even cables with a bracket and external connectors too.

Disruptor wrote on 2023-12-15, 19:02:

That depends on which connectors you want to use. […]
Show full quote

AlessandroB wrote on 2023-12-15, 17:06:

So you suggest 29160?

That depends on which connectors you want to use.

19160: External SE Narrow
29160: External LVD

29160: Internal SE Wide

19160: Internal LVD
29160: Internal LVD

19160: Internal SE Narrow
29160: Internal SE Narrow

So if you like to use old SCSI cases or external SCSI ZIP drive, the 19160 may be the better option.
However, there are internal brackets or even cables with a bracket and external connectors too.

no i plain to use only internal device.