SCSI Madness

[miro]

Well,

this is maybe not directly related to SMFW30 but maybe it would be interesting to you. I have purchased SCSI CF Card Reader/Writer from Microtech (PCD-47B). I can't wait until it arrives from States. Objective is to test if W30 can boot from it. Nevertheless even if it can't I am gonna use it as a replacement for my HDDs. It can take up to 3 cards (CF/SM/PCMCIA) on different SCSI id's. As I said I cannot wait to test it finally

cheers

Miro

[miro]

Well to note my progress on this, unit is working fine with W30 but booting is of course not possible.
I have tried all possible jumpering to no success.



I will still try different firmware's to but I dont really feel to reverse engineer that one  .
For the rest I've got some nice funny photos of W30 . After some 'jumpering' poor
thing thought that there is 7 - 80GB harddisks connected on every SCSI Id  oh well there was just one

[Ricoche]

Hello Miro,

I've been searching regularly myself for solutions to booting the W-30 via SCSI myself.  I've had success with getting the W-30 to recognize various HDs, Zips, and MOs, but no success with booting from these devices.  I know the W-30 can't boot from a Zip.  I also haven't found a CD-Rom device yet that will work with the W-30 either, although I knew they exist.  So far, I have found either an MO or Zip drive to work best when loading and offloading files.  I also bought a backup disk drive in case my first one fails simply for the task of booting the W-30.

Personally, other than the limitations of sample memory, I think the price of the Roland W-30 would increase dramatically if there was just a way to get it to boot without the floppy drive.  Same goes for the Roland S-330.  Currently with that model there is no floppy drive you can buy separately.  I'd have to buy a whole new unit to replace that drive.  Although I haven't tried like you have Miro, I haven't heard of much success with floppy drive emulators either.

I haven't given up though and will promptly post any updates I find on your forum should I find a solution of any sorts.

Thanks very much!

Jim

Note - I did find after much research that apparently using "Apple" drives should increase the chances of finding a bootable device.  Currently I am looking into acquiring some old Apple HDs.  Would love to get an emulator working though.  That would be cool!

[miro]

Hello Jim,

just to keep the consistency I have replied about my recent finds over the SCSI flash storage emulation here:

http://smfw30.svetlik.be/forum/index.php/topic,161.0.html

For W30 boot drives, solution is to look for the small red Apple sticker which is stating the compatibility with Mac and capacity below 300MB. I will post photo soon. I think we can best create a new thread where we post pictures and specs of drives which work with W30.

cheers

Miro