Member Avatar for rbridge3

Has anyone found a way to read Jaz discs into a Mac iBook (mine being G3 White, two USB ports). That is by using the SCSI-USB adapter cable to get into the iBook. The Jaz drive and the adapter cable are both said to be for iMacs and Power Macs...and the iBook, it occurs to me, is NOT a "Power Mac" so something is missing, as the Jaz drive won't mount on the iBook desktop. Tried it also on an old Clamshell iBook too. I have OS9.1 on the Clamshell, and OS9 and OSX on the new White iBook. Is there some way I can do this to get my backed-up data (from my dead Wallstreet Powerbook) which now is imprisoned on my Jaz discs? Anyone?

All the best,

Bob Bridge

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For : three practical recovery paths not yet spelled out, with what to watch for.

First (often simplest): bypass the Jaz media entirely and pull the PowerBook hard disk. A 2.5" IDE/ATA-to-USB adapter or a small FireWire/USB enclosure will let the drive mount on a modern Mac or PC so files can be copied straight off. If the drive is HFS/HFS+, use a Mac or a Windows tool such as HFSExplorer to read the volume rather than trying to write to it from Linux/Windows without proper drivers (risk of corruption).

Second: use a real SCSI host. Many cheap “SCSI-to-USB” lead solutions do not present a full SCSI host to the OS and will fail with removable SCSI drives. A desktop with a proper PCI SCSI adapter (and correct termination/power and unique SCSI ID) will make the Jaz visible; once attached you can copy files to a USB drive or network share. On Windows use HFS-aware software; on Linux load the hfs/hfsplus modules and mount read-only if the media is old.

Third: borrow or visit a shop with an older Power Mac/iMac or a known-working SCSI-capable Mac. If you can boot a classic Mac OS instance (as hinted), SCSI support is sometimes more reliable in that environment.

Troubleshooting tips: confirm the Jaz enclosure has its own power and is properly terminated; check SCSI ID conflicts; avoid writing to the Jaz until data is safely copied. If none of the hardware routes are available, a local Mac repair shop or data-recovery service will have the SCSI gear and experience to extract the files safely.

References: general SCSI/termination basics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI), USB mass-storage vs. SCSI differences (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_mass_storage_device_class), and an HFS-reading tool for Windows (https://www.catacombae.org/hfsexplorer/).

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Member Avatar for OSX79newbie

How much data is on the Jaz disk(s)? Is the hard drive faulty on the Wallstreet?

Member Avatar for kc0arf

Hello,

OS X has always been a bit IFFY on SCSI support... I have a G3 powerbook, the Lombardi, and certain things on SCSI do not work, and certain things do work. I typically go into OS 9 if I need to do SCSI work.

Will your iBook load OS9? If so, give it a try. Your Jazz might work properly.

If memory serves, a Jaz removable disk held 1 GB of data or so.

Christian

Member Avatar for rbridge3

How much data is on the Jaz disk(s)? Is the hard drive faulty on the Wallstreet?

The JAZ discs are the 1Gb discs. The hard drive is not faulty, and we are able to get data from it, to an external display. But this is very intermittent due to failures in the display sections of the Powerbook. But all the HD data is already on the Jaz discs, and all I need to do is play them into a Mac that is compatible with IOMEGA's Jaz product. Which apparenty, iBooks are not. The Powerbook Wallstreet is a "power mac' and was compatible, as are iMacs, but iBooks are somehow different than their big brother 'power macs' so the Jaz won't talk to the iBook.

Bob

Member Avatar for rbridge3

Hello,

OS X has always been a bit IFFY on SCSI support... I have a G3 powerbook, the Lombardi, and certain things on SCSI do not work, and certain things do work. I typically go into OS 9 if I need to do SCSI work.

Will your iBook load OS9? If so, give it a try. Your Jazz might work properly.

If memory serves, a Jaz removable disk held 1 GB of data or so.

Christian

Christian: thanks much for your thoughts. But the issue is not OSX, as I would use OS9 anyway, as Jaz predates OSX and my iBook runs either, so I would select OS9. The issue is the hardware itself, ie., the iBook which is apparently in some way inferior to the more advance Macs, ie., the Powerbooks, iMacs, etc. which are all "Power Macs" and the somewhat inferior iBook isn't. JAZ and IOMEGA say their Jaz products are compatible with 'iMacs and Power Macs" ...which excludes iBooks...so I'm looking for some way to overcome the iBook limitation, whatever that is. If I could find a Power Mac in town that I could borrow, I could make copies of CD's or something that would then run on my iBook but so far can not find a Mac here that I can use to extract this data. (I'm in the Florida Keys.)

Bob

Member Avatar for OSX79newbie

Although you already have the data backed up to your Jaz storage, I think is it easier to remove the internal HD from the G3 and place it into a firewire enclousure. You can pick these up at any major electronics store.

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