external SCSI hard drive data recovery

[macStuff]

can anyone offer any tips or advice
im presently trying to retrieve data from a 180MB drive from the late 80s
i tried in os8.6 first of all, but it fails to recognize the partition as being valid..
does anyone know of any partition repair tools or techniques?
please.. help!

i tried disk warrior, norton utilities.. none of these offer any help when the partition is not recognized

is there no way to repair a partition table>? or do RAW DATA imaging? copying from the drive?
because im trying to put together a linux machine just to be able to do a raw image of the drive
because of a lack of software that is capable of doing this on mac

[Philgood]

Only know of testdisk/photorec. That's available for a lot of OS and also on live CD's (or Pendrives). The difficult part would be to have the scsi drive even recognized.

[ssp3]

Did you read my reply here?
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4684.msg33856.html#msg33856

[FdB]

Given your “late 80’s era” timeframe on that SCSI drive and the fact that System 7 was introduced in 1991…
you might just have to “locate” a System 6 machine still running, for the “most feasible route” to “recovery”.

[Trying System 7 and 7.5.1 possibly, beforehand (allowing for the possibility that previous owner may have
updated the OS after 1991.] *Even System 8 (1997) changed to HFS+ disc formatting.

Perhaps overly cautious in the data retention / retrieval realm here, but other “cracks-n-hacks” possibly
used to attempt access… might just prove fatal. Sorry, not a better / easier answer.

No one nearby with a suitably “older” machine to attempt this retrieval effort with?

And (nodding in ssp3’s general direction)
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4684.msg33856.html#msg33856
I used to love FWB’s Hard Disk Toolkit back in-the-day, so you might just try that.
(If not done so already.) Best of luck!

And please do let us all know what eventually works for you… I’ve several old similar SCSI drives
that I may eventually need to crack, as time permits.

[macStuff]

Given your “late 80’s era” timeframe on that SCSI drive and the fact that System 7 was introduced in 1991…
you might just have to “locate” a System 6 machine still running, for the “most feasible route” to “recovery”.

i talked to someone whos got a macintosh Classic https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_classic.html

hopefully he'll be able to drag it out for me to try to access this drive with
i really just need direction from someone whos done this before
with what kind of apps i can use to access a disk that says theres no partitions!

i tried accessing it from 7.5.5 on my performa 5200cd - it sees the disk in the scsi chaine in scsi probe 4.0
but i cant even get it to spin up.. and hard drive sc setup would not see the drive neither..
but when connected to my B+W G3 it saw the drive just fine and said i can initialize if i choose.. but will not mount.

[FdB]

The last time I tried to view what was on a SCSI drive of that era, to ship out of here…
I put it in a 9500 (running OS 8.6) and when it wouldn’t read it… I simply reformatted it.
(I know, no help.)

But, should we get the snowfall forecast here for tomorrow, I’ll not be going anywhere
for two days at least… so maybe I can pull down a Classic and test …OR attempt other
possible routes on slightly less-vintage machines? (Unless someone offers up a more
suitable workaround beforehand.)

Strange, but one would think that after so many of us had spent so much time with the
SCSI Voo-doo rituals… that we might have retained a bit more of that working experience
/ knowledge? Maybe we’ve simply chosen to forget (and simply reformat?).

And thanks for the Performa 5200 “Edit” update… I’ll skip trying 7.5.5.

[FdB]

So, I'm a day behind schedule...

Of the five loose SCSI drives readily available here... using a Performa 6300 CD running OS 8.6, the first two mounted immediately upon boot. The third one (and fifth one) not so lucky.

I placed each drive into an external case, SCSI ID #2, terminated and tried each individually in this manner. The third HD was then moved to a Macintosh IIci running OS 7.6.1 and when it did not automatically mount on boot, I opened SCSI Probe 4.3. This recognized the drive as being present but did not mount it until after I simply clicked the Mount button and waited a significant amount of time. (It wasn't instantly and you don't have to "select" the SCSI drive in the window before clicking Mount.) Then after this successful mount, I opened FWB's HD Toolkit - Primer (ver. 1.6.2) and Updated the driver for the HD.

Apple's Drive Setup does not recognize it, noting "Unrecognized Driver" and offers to format it... but still it mounts on boot and its' files can be copied /accessed or otherwise "moved about".

Then taking it back to the Performa, the drive now also mounts there on boot. Funny thing... the third HD has bootable System 6 present. I then took it back to the IIci and booted it into System 6. (Flashbacks!)

Drive #4 mounted first time but #5 went through this same process in order to boot. [And all of this might have been possible with the 3rd drive on the Performa... I was successful with the fifth drive, in this manner.] Using FWB's HD Toolkit (1.6.2) and installing an "updated" driver seemed to do the trick... with no apparent loss of data.

If you've got SCSI probe on your B&W and can't get it to mount the drive after clicking "Mount" you might try the FWD HD Toolkit install and use the Primer to again try to mount it before updating the driver, also using the HD Toolkit.

Hope this works for you. A bit of fun here really, looking back into the past... darkly. I had loaned  this IIci to my nephew long ago when he was in grade school (now married, college grad / with children) but some of his now-recovered elementary school essays are an absolute scream. (His Daddy bought him a Windows machine upon entering college.) Nothing quite like jumping platforms at such a time.

Good luck!

UPDATE here: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4684.msg33981.html#msg33981