Best source for SCSI CD drives and/or SCSI ZIP drives?

[2499723]

Where's the best place to find used SCSI CD or ZIP drives that isn't going to break the bank? I'm looking outside of eBay, as those prices seem a bit inflated. It seems rather incredible that a SCSI enclosure alone is going for like £65. My preference would be for a CD drive, I suppose. I'm hoping to transfer some files over to a Mac LC III, and the prospect of using 'Split & Join' across a bunch of floppies doesn't fill me with much joy (though it's an awesome program). I should also say that I'm looking for a site, etc. that ships to the UK. Thanks in advance!

 

[weckart]

eBay, Gumtree or (unlikely) Cash Generator/Converters are basically your lot outside of individual charity shops, carboot sales etc. I doubt that Cex will stock anything like that as it is mostly DVDs/Blurays these days.

Not many options for old tech. Even computer fairs provide slim pickings these days for the few still in operation.

As for prices, I saw a SCSI Zip 100 go for less than £2 the other day. They usually go for more as musicians still use these for sampling with certain rigs.

You can get a SCSI CD drive for £12 shipped if you like, which is probably your best bet.

 

[2499723]

You can get a SCSI CD drive for £12 shipped if you like, which is probably your best bet.

Thanks so much for that link. I don't know why I wasn't finding it in my eBay searches; I was probably using the wrong search terms. It's difficult to determine if it's internal or external - probably the former. External SCSI enclosures are generally quite pricey from what I can tell. Are these kinds of drives generally universally compatible with old Macs? I mean, if it is SCSI, it will generally work, or did System 7.x have certain Apple branded drive-specific drivers and would only work with those designated by Apple as 'compatible'?

 

[weckart]

It is an internal model and if you search eBay for the model number you will see other sellers with pictures. As for SCSI, most of my experience with it has been with OS/2. The only Macs I have owned that run Sys 7 have all been Powerbooks. I have an external HP SCSI drive that is Windows only. Once I switched the proprietary PCMCIA card for a HDI-30 cable it ran on my Wallstreet like a champ. I would assume that SCSI is a standard that has support under Classic OS if not OSX.

 

[MacTech68]

...Are these kinds of drives generally universally compatible with old Macs? I mean, if it is SCSI, it will generally work, or did System 7.x have certain Apple branded drive-specific drivers and would only work with those designated by Apple as 'compatible'?

Apple's own CD driver only works with Apple branded drives.

HOWEVER, there is one exception. Apple's CDROM extension v5.3.1 will work with ANY SCSI CD drive. It's a legacy of Apple's Mac Clone days. I would usually suggest installing Apple's CDROM v5.3.2 to get all the support files upgraded, then swap the "Apple CDROM" extension for version 5.3.1.

Your other alternatives are third party drives with a Mac driver (hard to find), a third party driver like FWB's "CDROM ToolKit".

The next alternative is a SCSI CD burner that originally shipped with "Astarte Toast" which later became "Adaptec Toast". The "Toast CD Reader" extension becomes the driver.