Really stupid question

[i]

Is it worth using these old SCSI drives for anything?

Five Seagate Hawk 1LP drives
- 1.06 GB
- 5400 rpm, 9.3 ms seek
- Fast Wide SCSI-2
- 80-pin SCA connector

Three Seagate Decathlon 660N drives
- 545.29 MB
- 4500 rpm, 12 ms seek
- Fast SCSI-2

- 80-pin SCA connector

I hate to just throw them out ... they all work fine. And given my recent near-catastrophe with a pair of IDE drives, I'm sort of tempted to ask about RAID options. Based on what we're looking at here, there's no way in hell I'd buy a hardware RAID adapter just for these drives. What options are there for software RAID? Does anyone know if there is support in Linux for software RAID? I have an Adaptec 2940U2W card just lying on a shelf right now.

If software RAID is an option, I'd have no problem investing in an external SCSI enclosure (I could always reuse it for something else in the future). Anyone have any ideas?

It seems like a lot of drives to just throw away. I don't care that they're slow ... speed isn't what I'd be after anyway: rather I'd be looking at the experience of trying software RAID, and maybe some measure of extra data security as a bonus.

 

[CougTek]

Keep them for your old days so that you'll have something to say by then after the eternal " You know boy, in my time, we..."

That will change from the more common stories about the three kilometers of walk barefoot in the snow each morning to go to school.

 

[i]

But I'm up to my armpits in old hardware! I really need to decide whether to put these things to use, or grind them up and use them as plant fertilizer.

As far as software RAID under Linux goes, apparently it's possible:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

There seems to be some doubt about whether hot-swapping would work or not though.

SCA also seems to be the biggest drawback in finding the hardware to do something with these things. A genuine SCA-based external enclosure these days is probably going to be LVD enabled and therefore cost a lot. I'm not sure how much those small 80 to 68/50-pin adapters cost. And aren't they often problematic?

 

[James]

Why not donate them to a worthy cause? Like a local school or computer recycling program?

 

[Sol]

Come now why is there a question?
Post them to Tanin for a photo shoot.

"I'm ready for my close up now mr Wilson..."

 

[Tannin]

Absolutely! I'd love a Hawk, I don't have any Hawks at all. The ST-5660N is also of interest, though less so. We sold a few of the IDE drive that this was an adaptation of, the 5660A, so I'll quite likely get to lay my hands on one of the ones we sold new one day, and in any case I have a half-dozen 5850As which were a little later and very similar. But the Hawk, I don't have anything resembling a Hawk.

You're in the USA and I'm in Australia.

Sigh.

 

[time]

I can see the five drives arranged like playing cards now ...

Send them to the Red Hill Hard Drive Museum. It's a good home.

You don't need them. They're just cluttering up your life, tempting you to spend money proving that they're old and slow by today's standards.

Unfortunately they wouldn't be much use to a school or anything. The adaptor would cost more than a shiny new drive with 20 times the capacity.

Okay, that was too cold and heartless. On second thoughts, have you considered getting them mounted?

 

[Jake the Dog]

i second james' excellent suggestion.

 

[Buck]

Send them to me or Tony (I won't expect free shipping).

 

[i]

I'll hold on to them for now. If I actually find a job and can afford some new stuff, I'll send them to one or the both of you (heck there are enough of them).

If I'd known last summer about your hard disk collection Tannin, I would have saved the 65 MB Toshiba RLL drive I threw out. I remember thinking at the time that it actually looked kind of cute, or at least unique. It was a standard 3.5 inch chassis horizontally, but full-height vertically. It had a black faceplate (attached by screws) with a simple round, red LED, and came with its own metal 3.5 to 5.25 drive-bay adapter. Which was a good thing, because the screw hole placement on the drive itself was completely non-standard.

Darn it. Such a small drive wouldn't have cost much to send out to you I'm sure. Are you really starting a hard disk museum?

 

[Bozo]

You might want to post them on E-Bay or U-Bid. A lot of places have pefectly good older PCs that just need a small hard drive.

Bozo

 

[NRG = mc²]

i, check out Tannin's page. Its www.redhill.net or something. I think.

He's got short description and story for many drives, including photos.

 

[Tannin]

Close, NRG, but no cigar. You forgot the .au. It's www.redhill.net.au

That Toshiba sounds awesome, I. You really mean full height? As in the height of two CD-ROM drives? Wow!

I don't know about starting a museum. Not a musuem as such, just quite a lot of old and interesting drives. And not "starting", in as much as I've been salting drives and boards and CPUs away for quite a few years now.

But Buck is closer to you than I am. I'm sure he would provide a good home, and be easier to ship to.

 

[i]

Whoops! I did say full-height didn't I. Sorry ... full height in the true "half-height" sense. :wink: