old external Apple drive

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed Jun 13 23:25:30 2001

Yes, that's why I'm so curious about how to open the box without breaking
something. The 1006V boards I have are ISA boards, one being RLL (with a boot
ROM) and the other being an MFM board (no ROM). If there's a SCSI (I know about
their SASI bridges) bridge from Western, it's certainly eluded me.

The ID switch on the box, BTW, is a 16-position HEX-labelled rotary switch.

Viewed via the SCSI adapter in the PC, the drive is dead, but from what I hear,
it's quite alive, making normal wake-up and stretch exercise noises as it powers
up, and settling within about 10 seconds. however, there's nothing that can be
done with it from the PC via the ADAPTEC controller. It's a handy size box, not
that I have a shortage of SCSI boxes. I figure that once I've learned what I
can from it, I'll give it to a friend who's portable-drive-poor, though I may
replace the drive with something more sizeable.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Maslin" <donm_at_cts.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: old external Apple drive


>
>
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Richard Erlacher wrote:
>
> > When my WD20AP unit is attached to an ADAPTEC AHA1542B under DOS and allowed
to
> > boot with the drive turned on, it "sees" and reports the presence of a
device,
> > WD-1006-something which it later reports it can't spin up.
>
> Interesting and confusing! The WD-1006 series that I am familiar with
> were all either ISA or MCA cards with either MFM or RLL ST-412 drive
> interface.
>
> > It looks like it belongs to the late Apple-II/early MAC period, being shaped
and
> > colored to match. (take the color info with a grain of salt, though, since
I'm
> > "chromatically challenged.")
> >
> > It's pretty clearly a SCSI device, else the SCSI controller (AHA1542B) would
not
> > be able to communicate with it via the SCSI-1<=>DB25 (Comonly used with
Apple
> > SCSI ports) adapter cable.
>
> That is hard to argue with!
>
> - don
>
> > I wouldn't bet on a healthy result attaching the device to anything not
SCSI.
> > It's possible that my unit had a dead drive in it, at least if there's a
bridge
> > controller, which I'd readily believe, but if there's a bridge, it probably
> > wants to be set up, i.e. told what sort of drive it's got, which has to
happen
> > from the outside if it can't readily read the drive info from the drive
itself,
> > in most cases. Now, a couple of other Apple type external drives with which
> > I've experimented have had customed firmware that prevents the bridge
controller
> > from behaving as similar models would behave, possibly requiring that they
see
> > the Apple setup routines before doing anything. I'm not at all certain
about
> > that.
> >
> > Dick
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Eric Chomko" <chomko_at_greenbelt.com>
> > To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 6:01 AM
> > Subject: Re: old external Apple drive
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Mike Ford wrote:
> > >
> > > > >> I recently was given a Western Digital Hard Disk 20AP, obviously
> > > > >>intended for
> > > > >> use with an Apple computer of some sort. It identifies itself as a
> > Western
> > > >
> > > > Why do you say obviously intended for use with an apple? I don't recall
> > > > anything by WD that was for an Apple, or even Apple friendly. 20AP
sounds
> > > > more to me like some old parallel interface PC thing.
> > >
> > > I have the WD 40AP. It uses a DB-25 connector and I thought that it was
SCSI,
> > but
> > > wasn't convinced for sure. I do remember I didn't find much on the web for
it
> > one
> > > way or another. Does anyone know if its SCSI or TTL parallel? Any other
info?
> > >
> > > Eric
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
Received on Wed Jun 13 2001 - 23:25:30 BST