Does anyone know anything about the performance of the Adaptek 1542B/C
vs that of the Ultrastor controllers?  My work is going to get a SCSI
controller, and I got delegated the task of figuring out which one.  After
numerous calls to mail order places, I got some things figured out, but
still have some questions:
A) the Ultrastor SHOULD work with SCSI-1 drives, assuming that they don't
do any oddball things
B) the Ultrastor should connect ok to an internal SCSI drive with a 50
pin connector, which is what the drive we're trying to hook up has.

   My questions are: is the Ultrastor really faster than the Adaptek?  It
seems that I saw something about the 1542C being faster than the 34F, but
it may be (probably is) my imagination.  It seems like the local bus would
definately come in handy for something like that!  Also, one place I tried
had two prices, one for a bus-mastering and one for a non-bus-mastering
version of the card (both versions they claimed to be the 34F).  Is this
a mistake on their part?  I had never heard of bus mastering and non bus
mastering versions of the Ultrastor 34F, or of VESA cards at all, but I
could have missed something conceivably... or the guy I talked to may have
been confused...

  Any info would be *MOST* appreciated.

82 responses total.

VLB isn't going to do much good for a SCSI controller (at least not
"normal" SCSI), because the peak bandwidth of regular SCSI is 5MB/sec.
Most devices aren't even going to go that fast (hard drives peak out
at 2MB/sec to 2.5MB/sec).  ISA can handle up to 8MB/sec or so,
so the only thing you're buying through VLB is lower latency.

  The UltraStor is a SCSI-2 controller, which should be able to hit 10MB/sec.
So the thing is, then, that the UltraStor begins to make sense when there
are a bunch of drives out there?  That makes sense...  Anyone know anything
else about the UltraStor vs Adaptec thing?

The Adaptec is supported a lot more widely than the UltraStor is.

I use the Always IN-2000 myself and from my experience, the Always is 
noticeably faster than the Adaptec 1542B. We use the Always IN-2000 on
Novell 3.11 servers also, and they fly. 

I've tried a BusLogic VESA Local Bus Bus-Mastering SCSI controller, and it
was a nightmare. Essentially, I was beta-testing the drivers for 
BusLogic and the DOS drivers didn't even work (I tried three different
motherboards). Highly disappointing. Stay away from the BusLogic VLB
SCSI controller.

I would be curious to benchmark the 1542B against the IN-2000, then.
One thing to consider is whether the IN-2000 uses DMA.  Multitasking
operating systems (with well-written disk drivers, at least) can
frequently run another process on the CPU when a process is waiting
for a disk I/O request to be satisfied.  A card that does host-mastering
DMA (such as the 1542) will allow this, while a card that does
programmed I/O transfers (such as the 1522) requires the CPU's help to
move the data, and so can't run another process in parallel with the
data transfer.

It sure is encouraging that no one's hard drive has been giving them
problems *for over two years!*. But I have a hard drive problem - its too
small. 

I have an 80 MB HD in a Mac Powerbook 145B, and its running near "full".
What are my options (besides buying a new Powerbook with a BIG drive)? Can
the HD be replaced with one with more bytes? (I don't see such in
catalogs, though.) Or, does Disk Doubler really work fast and reliabily?
(I think I had heard some problems with using DD.) Your counsel would
be valued 8^).

In theory, replacing the hard drive shouldn't be too hard.  Notebook hard
drives tend to be proprietary, and more expensice, than regular hard drives,
but are generally still possible to replace with a similar but bigger notebook
hard drive.  However, you might have problems if Apple's power book hard
drives are no longer the same as they were then, and they've changed enough
other stuff about the Power Books that it wouldn't surprize me too much.  It
would probably be worth asking an Apple dealer if they are able to get large
hard drives for that kind of computer.  What sizes of hard drives were
available with the computer when it was new?

As far as I can determine (when all else fails...) the 145B came out
with a 40MB HD, but I bought mine with a 80MB HD. I don't know, though,
whether 160's were around or not. 

I just saw in a catalog that "New Stacker 2.0 Is Here"..."...cleverly
and safely doubles the size of your hard drive...". Anyone using that?
What does it do to speed - and does it have any incompatibilities
(I already have the Ram Doubler bandage for my RAM crunch)?

There is no reason that you can't replace the drive with a larger one.
It's a SCSI drive and uses a 2mm header for power and signal connections.
There is nothing "special" about it.  Heck, I even took a 2.5", 20M, SCSI
HD out of the PB-100 and installed it in a Mac Plus!  It works just fine.
I've done HD upgrades to PB's and it's no big deal.  Just make sure that
you get the low-level / high-level formatig utility when you order your HD.
I've even seen ads in MacWeek for external enclosures that you can put your
old 2.5" HD inside of and continue to use them as a standard SCSI drive.
Look in the back pages of MacWeek for a whole slew of HD vendors.

Obviously, I'm looking in the wrong places. The usual catalog (MacMall,
MacWarehouse, etc) don't list replacement HDs. I'll follow up on this...

Klaus -- when saying there is nothing special about it, you're also saying
that it's a 2.5" HD.  Since most hard drives are 3.5" (or 5.25"), that would
seem to be something special.  I'm assuming if it's designed for a 2.5" drive,
a standard 3.5" SCSI drive probably wouldn't fit.  However, that doesn't stop
you from using a standard SCSI drive in an external SCSI enclosure, as long
as you don't care about keeping your notebook computer a small portable thing
that you can carry around easily.  Or is there a good source of these 2.5"
SCSI drives somewhere?

I got out my binocular microscope and studied the fine print in adverts
at the back of MacWorld (only slight exaggeration) and there, lo and
behold, was "Apple 160 (for Powerbook) 115". For another 79, I can get
a "heavy duty enclosure w/double-shielded 50-50 pin cable". So I can
end up with a separate 80 MB HD. (Another advert offers a 160 f/PB
for 99 and an EX KIT for 59, but no brand.)  In regard to using an
external SCSI - I have one I use for backups, but I don't want to lug
around another drive (along with the modem, TNC, HT, phone, and nest
of cables...).

The SCSI drive in the 145 is a 2.5" drive.  The pinouts for the connector
on 2.5" SCSI drives are standerdixed across the various brands.  To be
certain, ask the sales person if the drive in question will work in a PB
145.  It can't hurt.  The connectors (headers) used in 5 1/4" and 3 1/2"
HD's woun't fit on a 2.5" format, hence the pinout.  The PB-145 uses a 
2.5" HD so form the the PB's perspective a 3.5" or 5.25" is something
special.  2.5" is the norm.
 
Sorry Rane.  Didn't mean for you to have peer through a microscope to
read the ads in the back pages of MacWorld.  You have, however, found
exactly what I was talking about.

ITD wants $45 to install a new HD in a Powerbook. It can't be very hard.
What does one have to watch out for? 

OK, I will NAME NAMES. The two listings in MacWorld for PB 2.5 drives are

DigiCorp Apple 160 (for Powerbook) $115  and Heavy Duty Encl $79
MacCity  160mb f/PB $99  and EX KIT $59

Now, who should I really deal with? I have the impression that most dealers
would carry these items but just don't put them in their advert/catalog
because the demand is low. Where would YOU buy your PB HD upgrade?

I don't have much experience buying Mac stuff, but I've been pretty happy with
Mac Mall for Newton stuff.  I hadn't realized that there was a 2.5" standard
for notebooks.  All I knew was that they were often different from the desktop
stuff I usually deal with.  If that's a standard, it makes things much easier.
Are you sure you only want 160MB?  I think you may find that filling up
quickly too.  While you're buying a new HD, you might want to decide that they
are cheap enough to justify one that is bigger than that.

This is just a lowly PB 145B: obsolete, slow, B&W....probably due for
dedication to packet or some-such. Yes, there is a 320MB for "only"
$150...but how would I back it up? 

Further into the subject: what do I need to consider in starting a new
drive? I back up my current drive with a 170MB LaCie external drive. I
just drag and drop the whole PB HD over onto the LaCie. I've never had to
copy it back (..so far..). When I start with a spanking new internal
drive, do I just do the same - drag and drop the old HD icon from the
backup onto the internal icon (maybe I better turn off the internal System
first? 

That should work but I would install the operating system for you floppy
disks and install everything else of the HD.  (Some applications hid stuff
in the system folder...  Just try the drag and drop and see how that works.
If you have problems, install from disk.)

he 160MB replacement HD comes with sys 7.1p installed. I could keep that.
There is a utility that chooses which system is to be the bootable one (by
putting it in the right kind of folder). I had no trouble booting from the
backup drive whend dI made the system there active and rebooted. I guess
it is just a matter of trying it out......maybe I swhould drag and drop
the sys 7.1 from the hard drive onto the backup, to replace whatever is
updated with the new stuff? 

I'd copy all the 3rd-party extensions/inits/fonts/etc from your old system
folder to the new Sys7.1 folder, and drag the Sys7.1 folder to the old 
drive.  I'm not sure if your old extensions/etc would survive if you dragged
all the contents of the Sys7.1 folder to the Sys7.0 folder; I'd think the 
subfolders would be replaced entirely, so you'd lose your system additions.

watch out for 'system picker' if that is what you are using. I forget exaxtly
what I did but it took some real wrangling to get my hard drive to bbot again.
It was that sinking feeling i had after I clicked the mouse and realized that 
I had just locked myself out of the good system I wanted. I believe I had to 
take out the battery and erase the pram or somethihng else even more drastic.
Like formatting the drive. In other words, I'd find another tool. The computer
olny wanted the corrupt system and could not be convinced to use the clean
replacement. Since the indicated system was corrupt, but still contained the
boot instruction I was totally check mated. It just tried and tried but could
only get the question mark disk icon.

Progress: I bought the 2.5" 160 MB Apple HD, and an external SCSI case
into which to place the 80 MB HD when I take it out of the Powerbook.
However the company thought they would "help" me, and put the 160 MB drive
into the case before shipping (which I'd rather they hadn't done, so I
could see the drive alone). The 160 MB drive in the case comes up OK on
the desktop of the PB, and it does *not* contain any system. Therefore I
thought I would just drag and drop the HD icon from the Powerbook to the
160 MB drive in its case, as I usually backup. Do I need to do anything
else before I then switch the drives? 

One think I know I have to do is change the SCSI ID on the 160 MB drive
from 3 (or 5), which it is now, to 0. Since I haven't seen the drive by
itself yet, and I don't see any gidgits for that when I open its case, how
is that done? There was a little sack of jumpers in the shipping box
everything came in, but no instructions. I presume I have to move some
jumpers around. What would be the configurations for different SCSI IDs on
a Mac 2.5" Powerbook drive? 

(I've been putting this off because I've really needed the Powerbook for
some projects and a meeting that just occurred, and didn't want to screw
it up with no time to get it fixed...but I'll be able to tackle it with a
little breathing space in a week or so.)

Typically, you set the SCSI ID with jumpers.  Often you have three jumpers,
which can be used to cout from 000 to 111 in base 2 to set the SCSI ID.  The
drive should have come with documentation that would tell you more, but stores
often forget to include that if you don't ask for it.  Some drives are labeled
better than others, and a few even have the documentation printed on the top
of the drive.

  Are you sure you need to set the SCSI ID to 0?  One thing I'd do
after copying your hard drive, but before swapping them, is to
double-check that you can boot from the new drive.  In System 7,
under Control Panels, is "Startup Disk" or some such, which lets
you choose which drive to boot from.
 
  I think SCSI-II or -III drives usually have four jumpers, for ID
settings from 0-15, but yours is probably just a regular SCSI drive.
If you can't figure out which are the ID jumpers, the company that
sold it to you should certainly be able to tell you, and many card
and drive manufacturers put that sort of info on the web these days.

If you can tell me what brand and model No. is, I might be able to dig
up that info. for you.  You may also find a web page with all the required
info.

Yes, all Macs have the internal SCSI ID = 0 (and the CPU is 7). Good idea
to try to boot, after copying. I did that with the Quantum ext I have used
for backup (it booted OK - gave me confidence!). The new 160 MB drive is
an Apple Model DHAS-2270 (P/N 06G6598). The case is just big enough to fit
the drive, and has 2 DB-25 connectors - rather compact - plugs into the PB
using the SCSI adapter with no cable (it also gets its power from the ABD
port on the Powerbook). I should have mentioned that the *case* has a SCSI
ID # dial. I presumed there would be jumpers to set it when it is in the
Powerbook - is that true? The sack has 10 little white jumpers and one
bigger black jumpers. The drive appears to be held in the case by one (1)
Torx screw in a slot on the backside of the case. Its not clear where I
"pry" to get the drive out, as I can't see the seating of the connector.
Just "up"? I have e-mailed the vendor for the installation instructions,
but no word yet. Besides, you guys are better sources of experience!

Apple doesn't make hard drives.  They just stick their name on someone elses
unit, sometimes made to their specifications.  I need to know the OEM and
their P/N or M/N to be able to help you out with this.

  The SCSI ID switch on the case probably has wire pairs that connect
to the drive's ID jumpers.  If you have no docs for the case, it's a
good idea to note the order of the wires connected to the jumper block.
The three pairs of wires should be different colors, and when you
install the other drive, you'll probably want them in the same order,
if that drive uses the same jumper configuration (reasonably likely).

The OEM is IBM (Japan). I gave the P/N above, and the MLC (?) is D60394.
The SCSI ID switch on the case is right on the PCB - no "wires". Can't
see the jumper block until I take the drive out of the case, which I don't
want to do until I know I have all the parts and information for the
transfer. Klaus, how is the SCSI ID set on the drive (80 M) that is now
in the Powerbook? Is that hardwired on the connector? I presume that
when I put it into the case, I can set its ID with the dial.

I don't recall how the ID is set on the drive in the PB.  I installed an
old 2.5" 20M SCSI HD inside a Mac Plus about two years ago but I don't
recall the details.  I'm pretty sure it's set in hardware.  Also, EVERY-
THING, even power and ID settings comes through ONE 50 pin 2mm spaced
header on the drive, if memory serves.
 
Try http://www-i.almaden.ibm.com/storage/oem/specs/jhas.htm
for the specs. for your HD I just went to http://altavista.digital.com
and did a search for DHAS-2270 and came up with several sites with short
specs. on them.  It's best to use a graphical browser when visiting since
the jumper settings are an image.

Interesting site. They list the DHAS-2270 as 270MB, though this one is 160MB.
Must just be a "type". Doesn't look like I'll be using any jumpers - 
they must have been for protection. OK. Thanks everyone - but don't
hold your breath... 8^}

I have copied my HD, named "Macintosh HD", onto the external new 160 MB
drive, and its boots from it OK when it is chosen as the startup drive
(I'm on from it now). The new drive currently shows up on the desktop as
"untitled", and in it is a folder named "Macintosh HD". When I boot, I get
a cryptic error message that says "Cannot find volume Macintosh HD", but
things are working after I OK that. 

This raises another question: when I install the new 160MB drive in the
Powerbook, everything will be in a folder "Macintosh HD" in the volume
(drive) "untitled", and not on its desktop. How do I take the folder
"Macintosh HD"  out of the volume (drive) "untitled", and make it the
volume (drive) on the desktop? I did try (while experimenting) to copy
just the contents of "Macintosh HD" to the new drive, and also to move the
contents of "Macintosh HD" folder on the new drive to the volume, but both
yielded flakey behavior. When I did the latter and tried to trash the
empty "Macintosh HD" folder (which said it had 0 bytes), Empty said there
were still 66KB in the folder. 

Would it be better to copy "Macintosh HD" to a *third* drive, initialize
the new drive before installation, boot from a system disk, and then just
copy the folder "Macintosh HD" onto the new desktop? 

  My first suggestion would be what you already tried: move the Mac
HD folder's contents to the volume, and trash the folder.  Is the
inability to throw away the folder the only flakey behavior exhibited?
That may be due to a hidden file in the folder that didn't get moved
when you transferred the other contents of the Mac HD folder to the
volume.  Do you have a utility that can show hidden files?

No, though I got into somewhat of a muddle, in the course of which I made
"untitled" the boot disk, but it was not even on the desktop when I rebooted.
I'm really not sure what I had done to accomplish that, however. I also
think those 66KB are hidden file(s) on the Mac HD volume. I wasn't very
anxious to trash those on the internal volume! 

I am thinking of dragging the Mac HD folder out of the untitled volume,
when that one is the internal drive, and dropping it on the desktop - but
this may not be possible. 

That sounds possible, though it would still be nice to get rid of
the unnecessary Mac HD folder.  I'd suggest getting a utility that
can show/modify hidden files.  A free one from Apple is ResEdit.
If you move the contents of the Mac HD folder into the untitled
volume, then run ResEdit and view the contents of the Mac HD folder,
hidden files should be displayed in ResEdit.  You can click on them,
choose "get info" from ResEdit's menu, and change their attributes
(for example, turning off Invisible and/or Locked).  If they look
like files you might need (for example, they might be a terribly-
implemented security mechanism for an app you've installed), you
could move them to the untitled volume.  By the way, renaming the
volume should work the same as renaming a folder or file, if you
care to christen the new drive.

I suspect that those hidden files are the volume and desktop directories. 
I've concluded that the *safest* procedure is to put the new drive into
the powerbook just initialized, and then drag and drop the "Mac... HD"
volume from the old drive onto it (after booting from a system disk).
This does require that the old drive in its new case shows up OK in the
SCSI chain. Does anyone know why this won't work? [I am very leery of some
of this, considering the trouble one has to go to to install a new System.]

Speaking of which....I had just initialized the new HD with Disk First Aid,
but wondered if I needed to do more to have it ready to install. I then
recalled another utility related to this, which I don't think I ever used,
or used more than once, Apple HD SC. I applied that to the new HD too, for
good luck  8^}  . I then looked up some of this stuff, but did not get 
a very good idea of the difference between initializing with Disk FIrst
Aid, and formatting with Apple HD SC (except that apparently the latter
erases data on the disk, as well as initializing the directory). Also,
"versions" seem to matter with Apple HD SC, and not with DFA. Can someone
clarify all this for me? [By the way, I'm using Syst. 7.1 with update 3.0
on my Powerbook, and the Apple HD SC was also updated to ver. 7.3.2, so
things should at least be consistent - though I don't know what that means.]

I use a third party hard drive formatter that came with one of my hard
drives, and it's been about a decade since I used Apple's HD formatting
software, so I don't remember the details.  But if you can copy files to
the disk, and Disk First Aid and other utilities report no problems with
the drive, it doesn't sound like you need to do anything else.  Do you
mean versions of Apple HD SC matter, or the versions of the OS you're
going to use matter?  I think aliases were added with System 7, but I
doubt that would have changed the hard drive format between Sys6 & 7.

A series of Updaters were released for Sys 7.1, before it was superceded
by 7.5. One ran them on both the drive (to update the system and the
driver) and on the Disk Tools disk, which I presumed was updating the HD
SC utility (?). I do know there are different version of HD SC from 7.0 to
at least 7.3.2 (which I have), but I don't know what's different. 

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss