SCSI2SD+microSD bundles in stock and ready to ship from USA

[aperezbios]

Hi folks,

I recently coordinated with Michael McMaster, SCSI2SD creator, and together, we completed the largest factory production run of compact 3.5" SCSI2SD adapters to date. I have several rev 5.0a bundle options available for sale and shipment from the US immediately. These units are flashed with firmware version 4.6, so there is no need to update the firmware for use with NeXTstations.

You can purchase these at http://stores.ebay.com/inertialcomputing/

[barcher174]

Awesome. I'm pretty sure your prices are cheaper than I paid after currency conversion without an SD card.

[aperezbios]

Awesome. I'm pretty sure your prices are cheaper than I paid after currency conversion without an SD card.

Definitely. That is the intent

[gaspar]

Wow, this is super cool..
Before I pull the trigger, would you be able to highlight what it takes to replace a hard drive with this?

Or even better, what do you need to make this work for a Next?

I assume you need the CD Drive with the appropriate NS3.3 OS, etc..

Bottom line, is there a guide to follow??


Thanks. I do appreciate a lot having access to memory drive

My next will be soooo much quieter..

Thanks

[wa2flq]

Wow, this is super cool..
Before I pull the trigger, would you be able to highlight what it takes to replace a hard drive with this?

Or even better, what do you need to make this work for a Next?

I assume you need the CD Drive with the appropriate NS3.3 OS, etc..

Bottom line, is there a guide to follow??


Thanks. I do appreciate a lot having access to memory drive

My next will be soooo much quieter..

Thanks

The basics are as follows:

1) A computer that supports the utilities to set up the SCSI2CD card  (OS X, Windows, Linux) and a microUSB cable.   The card allows you to configure the size, options and partition the microSD card into several "drives".  For example a 4GB card into 2-2 GB SCSI drives with individual SCSI ID's.    This will also allow firmware updates when available.    

2) Its been a while since I've had NeXT hardware, but I believe the internal cables - 50 pin data and 4 pin power will work directly.    

Openstep Intel based is similar but there are different SCSI controller options. I use an Adaptec 2490 UW which has a 50 Pin internal port.

3) If you already have a bootable machine, add it externally and use it to make a duplicate  (fdisk, gnutar) on the SCSI2SD.  You will need a adapter from the SCSI2 port to 50pin in this case.  You may need an external power supply (recycle one from any old desktop PC) if the card cannot pickup or work on terminator power.  

4) Once the first one is complete, its easy to  backup and duplicate the microSD cards back on a OS X or Linux with a dd command via a card reader.  

I haven't installed from CD yet, so YMMV.


Good luck.

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Hi folks,

I recently coordinated with Michael McMaster, SCSI2SD creator, and together, we completed the largest factory production run of compact 3.5" SCSI2SD adapters to date. I have two rev 5.0a bundle options available for sale and shipment from the US immediately. These units are flashed with firmware version 4.4, so there is no need to update the firmware for use with NeXTstations.

eBay: SCSI2SD with 4GB Panasonic PE-series SLC-lite microSD card $85
and
eBay: SCSI2SD with 256MB True Industrial Grade Single-level Cell microSD card $65*


* 10% of sale proceeds for this item goes to USA for UNHCR, which builds support within the U.S. for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which provides protection and assistance to over 20 million displaced people around the world, who have been forced to flee due to persecution or war.

For users of the NeXT Computers Forums, a $5/SCSI2SD adapter multiple-item discount is available, as is combined shipping; Just submit a best offer on eBay and cite your username and the forum name, and I'll accept.

I'll place an order and if all goes well this sounds like an excellent solution for upgrading NeXT boxes. Best regards Rob

[nekonoko]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

[mikeboss]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

actually, this is an easy task. I'm using a Linux box which is equipped with an Adaptec AVA-2930B for the vintage SCSI drives and a USB card reader for the SD and/or CF flash cards. the unix "dd" command does the rest...

[aperezbios]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

As mikeboss said, you can literally just DD it. As long as the size of the volume you're reading from the source disk is smaller than the the SD card you're writing to, it will "just work"

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

Hello NeXT Community:  I figured out a solution to this and it works so basically what I had was a Seagate 4Gb Barracuda ,
First Computer a NeXT Mono Turbo with fresh installs:
I loaded it with Openstep User , developer and Y2k patches and hundreds and hundreds of NeXT 3rd party apps to see if this theory would work through trial and error.
Second Computer a MAC Mini I 5
I ordered a few of them SCSI2 SD off EBay and they were preloaded with NeXTSTEP 3.3 on an 8Gb Micro SD card . Interestingly the first one had a 3.3 partition on 2.047 gb and a second drive listed at 4.095 gb when it booted into 3.3 . It reported drive damaged that 2nd partition repair ignore when you login so I'm not sure if you can actually boot what would be 2 drives this way.
I also bought a USB Card  Reader in addition to the SCSI2 SD Card.
I thought may be it is a configuration problem so I thought lets blow out the bios and it was so I went to the codesrc.com page to download the software.
I started with the obvious trying to use the Mac software utility but it had a dms extension same for Linux which I researched is an amiga extension and was not able to figure out how to get this to work.
Project gets personal and turns into journey to hell lol:
So I turned to the evil empire Windows 10 and a gluton for the abuse lol, I thought why not install it on my new I5 MAC MINI running El Capitan using bootcamp . Downloaded the Windows 10 ISO onto a flash stick and followed instructions to a tee. Holy moly Windows 10 now installed took over the Mac Mini I should say possessed it after the install and it took awhile to figure out you need to hold the option key down and r to get to disk utility app.  Apple tech helped me with this one. This allows you to specify you want either MACOSX to boot or Windows 10 , please note It would have been a heck of a lot easier as I had emulators installed and working but when El Capitan hosed my Mac Mini Core 2 duo  and broke everything last week , I upgraded and spent hours cloning disks etc.....
I upgraded , this tip will save you many hours of frustration trying to figure out how to get back to Mac OSX simply option r at boot .
Once in Windows 10 and overcoming the learning curve , it is actually not to bad ... I used the lightning connector on the scsi2sd and downloaded from the codesrc.com site the Windows . exe utility for it.  It works like a champ to flash the bios to your specifics by adjusting the variables IE size of drive to clone your existing drive.  Also set unit attention and your scsi ID 1 or 2 not 0 as this allows you to always boot from another drive set to 0 if necessary easily, basically everything but glitch filter.

Enter the 3rd computer with my special set up as there is no easy way for the mac mini to directly talk to the 4Gb Barracuda I wanted to clone from the Seagate 4gb Barracuda to the now formatted to match Micro SD Card.
My 3rd computer is a Dell Optiplex with an Adaptec 2940 UW PCI SCSI Card and  I have a power splitter and long scsi cable this allows me to have drives on the outside of the case to make it easy to clone and troubleshoot if needed.
You can check the formatting and verify the media using control A at boot to enter the adaptec tools, it'll also show you the scsi id's set for your drives
You will also need a hyrens CD  as it has an application called pro tools which comes in handy for cloning drives.
So I initially had success cloning from the 4Gb Barracuda to the SCSI 2 Micro SD card . I took a little over an hour and it boots yeah. What this proves is that as long as you set the SCSI2 Micro SD card up to match the configuration of the drive you want to clone using protools on the hyrens cd , we can clone booting and possibly even damaged NeXT Harddrives fawlessly to Micro SD which is friggin huge!
Now I had options back to the mac in MAC OSX and with the newly cloned , yes check to make sure the SD boots up your NeXT first. So with My Micro SD Barracuda Clone of Openstep 4.2 and hundreds of NeXT apps and my new card reader attached , I clicked ignore when it says disk unreadable and open the terminal and see if I can clone her to an ISO image also huge.  Check to see what disk the usb is listed at by opening disk utility , highlighting the sd and click info , it was disk2  so
in Terminal: sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 of=os42apps.iso bs=512b  press enter
It takes about and hour and returns
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)
Then to copy back to another sd sudo dd if=/Users/robblessin/os42apps.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=512b
an hour and boom:
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)
... mad science it boots the NeXT!
I also went back to computer 3 the Dell with the hyrens cd running prosoft recovery tools , disconnected the 4Gb barracuda attached a second scsi2 sd card and was able to successfully clone sd to sd using hyrens as an alternative method. I like the protools because it shows you graphically with a timer what is happening and takes the guess work out of damaged media .   Hope this helps, it was not easy but yes it works.  
I did have issues with check sum errors but I think it is attributable to a difference in the way I had configured the bios on the various cards . It does not affect a pristine clone so now I'm able to do this and have a firm grasp on how to make it work.
I should be able to figure out the kinks with the Aztec Monster cards as well now that I understand how to change the bios provided they have similar software.  
If you get stuck I'll be glad to help troubleshoot and would be able to offer this as a service. Looking at it overall it is fairly complicated but I now have a working recipe  and thanks for all the pointers in the previous threads as well as I used them as stepping stones to make all this work.
For full height drives you would need a fairly beefy power supply to use a pc and Hyrens! Also I would suggest making a second or backup of your sd card as I'm not sure how long the sd media will last and heck they are a cost effective solution.

[pitz]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

...so in Terminal: sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 of=os42apps.iso bs=512b  press enter
It takes about and hour and returns
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)
Then to copy back to another sd sudo dd if=/Users/robblessin/os42apps.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=512b
an hour and boom:
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)

Using a bigger block size would probably reduce the transfer time.  I think bs=2048b is a safe size to use.

[wa2flq]

How hard would it be to clone existing NeXT drives over to microSD cards? I have a couple full-height ones I wouldn't mind converting.

...so in Terminal: sudo dd if=/dev/disk2 of=os42apps.iso bs=512b  press enter
It takes about and hour and returns
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)
Then to copy back to another sd sudo dd if=/Users/robblessin/os42apps.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=512b
an hour and boom:
30320+0 records in
30320+0 records out
7948206080 bytes transferred in 4386.496218 secs (1811971 bytes/sec)

Using a bigger block size would probably reduce the transfer time.  I think bs=2048b is a safe size to use.

A touch of caution about using 'dd'.  

If the source drive has a bad spot, you can use the option "conv=noerror,sync" to continue copying on error.  However if you change the block size from the default for the media, then data in that block can be rearranged.  If the first 512 bytes is bad, dd will grab the next three good 512 segments, then pad the last 512 bytes.  This only increases the loss of data integrity.

So unless the media is "perfect" keep it slow.

On the same topic, I've been trying to figure out how to find which files might be affected with a particular bad spot.  Anyone have any good techniques or tools for mapping a specific bad block to a file?

[Jsmirand]

Would the team creating this solution be open to charging a higher price for a turn key solution, that is an SSD with NS 3.3 installed, basically plug and play?

From reading the thread, it feels like a partial solution, the hardware, then the user needs to thread a few steps to get an OS going, etc... my thought here is to also provide a ready to go solution.

thoughts?

thank you,
John

[Rob Blessin Black Hole]

Would the team creating this solution be open to charging a higher price for a turn key solution, that is an SSD with NS 3.3 installed, basically plug and play?

From reading the thread, it feels like a partial solution, the hardware, then the user needs to thread a few steps to get an OS going, etc... my thought here is to also provide a ready to go solution.

thoughts?

thank you,
John

hello John: if you would like to PM me I would be happy to set you up with a preinstalled ad for a reasonable price . Best regards Rob Blessin

[jpNext]

Hi folks,

I recently coordinated with Michael McMaster, SCSI2SD creator, and together, we completed the largest factory production run of compact 3.5" SCSI2SD adapters to date. I have two rev 5.0a bundle options available for sale and shipment from the US immediately. These units are flashed with firmware version 4.4, so there is no need to update the firmware for use with NeXTstations.

eBay: SCSI2SD with 4GB Panasonic PE-series SLC-lite microSD card $85
and
eBay: SCSI2SD with 256MB True Industrial Grade Single-level Cell microSD card $65*


Hello and thank evry one of this helpfull forum,
i've just found a NextCube in Paris last week and i spend some hours here , the kind of computer is pretty rare here in France.
I'm very enjoy toi know that it's possible to change the noisy and old hard  drive for a CF or SD card.
I have just command the aztecmonster card and some good CF.
Do you now what kind of CF reader is compatible with a Nextcube and what kind ok scsi cables are needed,???
thank a lot
JP

* 10% of sale proceeds for this item goes to USA for UNHCR, which builds support within the U.S. for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which provides protection and assistance to over 20 million displaced people around the world, who have been forced to flee due to persecution or war.

For users of the NeXT Computers Forums, a $5/SCSI2SD adapter multiple-item discount is available, as is combined shipping; Just submit a best offer on eBay and cite your username and the forum name, and I'll accept.