CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help needed (init the CF card??)

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CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help needed (init the CF card??)

Hi folks...

I have taken my only Mac (a Color Classic) and installed 7.5.3 in it,
over a OS 6. something install.

After the 7.5.3 install was installed, I rebooted and played around
with it for a while. This Color Classic has a Color Classic II logic
board in it. As far as I could tell, everything works perfect.

I bought a CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card and a 4GB CF
card for it.

This is what I bought:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261883919980?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Here is the manual for the card:

http://www.artmix.com/pdffiles/CF_AZTECMONSTER_MN_E_13.pdf

The removal of the old SCSI card and the install of this new card went
well. I can install disk #1 of 7.5.3 in the CC, boot to it, and it will boot to
the disk, but the software will not see the CF/SCSI drive.

Reading the manual in more detail it says that usually, I need to
format the new CF card by using FWB HDT or Silverlining, or Drive 7 or
other software used to init 3rd party SCSI hard drives. The
directions say that Drive Setup will not work on this unit.

I thought I could find this software on the web, and maybe it was
available back in 1998, but what ever links I could find that
looked useful are now dead.

So last night I wrote the author and he quickly file attached a
program called "webutils_pl.hqx".

After a lot of googling, I was told I would use Stuffit expander and or
7-Zip to un compress this file under Windows 7 (the CC is the last mac I
own and it is not working at the moment).

7-Zip turned my file into something called Anubis_Utility_V3.sit.hqx

I moved that file to a floppy and then to my CC, but it would not boot
to that floppy.

Maybe a 3rd party SCSI formatting tool is still available on the web
someplace? If I knew where it was, I could down load it, and hope the
file is not compressed, and then move it to a floppy and try to
init/format my CF card, then load an OS.

Maybe you own a software tool that would work? If you do not mind
sharing, maybe you can file attach it to email and send it to me?
Uncompressed perhaps?

I also use the free gmail cloud (15 GBs free) and Dropbox.

Any help appreciated.

I suspect others here have done the CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI
Converter Card mod.

I was up from about 6:30PM last nigh to 1AM looking for and trying
software tools on my Windows 7 box looking to find a solution.

I am going to look into making a Mac emulation (what ever that is) in
my windows 7 box now.

Can any of you give me any pointers?

Thanks

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

Most PC (PCI) SCSI controllers have a formatting utility built-in into their BIOS and I use them to format SCSI drives...

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

Thank you. I will look for PC SCSI software. I had no idea I couild do that. Thanks so much.

jack

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

No, NO! No software is needed. The firmware of most PC SCSI controllers that plug into PCI slots have a formatting utility built-in. You just need to enter the SCSI controller's setup utility by pressing a specific key combination prior booting and choose the format option from displayed menus.

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

Sorry Geroge, you lost me.

Here is the data sheet of the hardware I installed in my Color Classic.

http://www.artmix.com/pdffiles/CF_AZTECMONSTER_MN_E_13.pdf

You say "The firmware of most PC SCSI controllers that plug into PCI slots have a formatting utility built-in"

I guess I do not know what a PCI slot is in a Color Classic. And I do not know if the PC SCSI controler you are speaking about is internal to my Color Classic or to the new SCSI to CF card I just installed.

Can you advise?

Thanks so much for trying to help me.

jack

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

I understood you. Disconnect this SCSI drive/emulator from your MAC and connect it temporarily to a PC computer with a PCI (this is the name of the bus/slot on many PC motherboards) SCSI controller and format it once. Then plug it again in your MAC and use it. The SCSI hard disks nowadays are cheap as dirt and you could have used one instead of this expensive SCSI HDD emulator...

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

Ah! So If I understand you correctly, I buy a SCSI controler card and plug that into a PCI slot in my Windows computer. Then I run a cable from the rear of the SCSI controler card in the PCI slot in my Windows 7 computer, to the CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card I bought.

I know of a store in my town called Free Geek:

http://www.freegeek.org/thrift-store/

They sell used computer hardware. I have a better than a 50/50 chance of fining a PCI SCSI controler card. I don't use SCSI very much, so I don't know if Windows will install a defailt driver for it. If I can find a band name and model number SCSI card I can search the web and see if I need or can find software for it.

Thanks again for the help.

jack

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

First, you have to be sure you have a desktop PC computer with PCI slots inside.

Secondly, you don't have to boot windows 7 or any OS at all, you don't have to look for drivers. You just press certain keys to enter the controller's ROM menus PRIOR booting. This happens shortly after power on during computer's self tests.

A controller like this would do a perfect job but you should also have a 50 pin ribbon cable:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adaptec-AHA-2940-Assy-566506-00-50-pin-PCI-SCSI-Controller-Card-Working-/191581793874

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

My memory is shaky here, but you still might need to get an HFS format and/or the MacOS driver on the CF card before you can see it on your Mac.

My vote, summing up this and your other threads: Buy another Mac to complement your CC. You're looking at spending money on PC cards and whatnot that you'll likely only use once, why not get a second Mac like a beige G3 that has a floppy drive and can boot from CD. Network transfers, floppy and HD formatting and transfers, instantly all your Color Classic software problems are solved by having a second Mac that's a bit more versatile and flexible than the CC.
The beige G3 is a fantastic all-rounder and probably my favorite Mac. It supports IDE and SCSI out of the box, and has both traditional Mac ports along with support for PCI cards.
example:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Apple-M4405-PowerPC-G3-266-MHz-512K-32MB-CD-ZIP-AV-/201352693503?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ee18e46ff
http://lowendmac.com/1997/beige-power-mac-g3-1997/

Also, it's a fun computer to use.

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

eeun....

Until about 3 or 4 months ago, I owned 4 apple computers, one Windows 7 computer, and one laptop that would boot to Ubuntu or Windows 7.

I am moving out of the USA in a few months and have taken a job in Ecuador. As a single person, I am only allowed to bring in a total of two computers in my shipping container. I had to make some hard choices. I sold or gave away my intel Mac Pro, My G5, and my IIfx. I decided to keep my Color Classic and a Windows 7 desktop.

I restore motion picture film, work in digital 3D, and render in 2K. So FCP was not working for me any more. So I decided that the Color Classic was my favorite computer of all. So I am importing that, and one powerfull windows computer that I use mostly for sony vegas pro 12.

A hard choice. I should have restored my Color Classic before I sold my IIfx. Sad

jack

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

georgel.....

Thanks for the help. I will buy this card. I just returned from Free Geek, and they havbe no SCSI cards in stock.

Thanks again!

jack

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Re: CF AztecMonster CF-3.5inc. SCSI Converter Card - help ...

A little late but:

If you put the CF card in a PCMCIA holder you can then use a Powerbook with a PCMCIA slot and Apple's Drive Setup to initialize it as an HFS volume. I use a G3 Wallstreet running 8.6. I'm using the Aztec Powerbook version to use a 2GB CF card as internal hard drive in a PB 540c.

I could not get any third party utility to work, including various versions of SilverLining and also Hard Disk Toolkit.

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