Power Macintosh: Removable Cartridge Drive Compatibility

Will my removable cartridge drive (SyQuest) be compatible with a Power Macintosh?
The Power Macintosh incorporates a new version of the SCSI Manager, version 4.3. In order for your SyQuest to be compatible, the software driver for the cartridge drive must be SCSI Manager 4.3 aware and also be able to recognize the Power Macintosh.

To verify compatibility with the Power Macintosh, you should contact the vendor of your cartridge drive or the vendor of the software driver itself.

It is possible for you to determine the likelihood of compatibility of your drive. Using SCSI Probe, you can check the revision of the drive. If the prefix is E, it is an older drive that did not support the full SCSI command set (SCAI a precursor to SCSI) and does not support disconnect/reconnect.

All other SyQuest drives built after 1990 should support the SCSI manager 4.3 commands. Cartridges from earlier drives should be readable in a newer drive as long as the drivers are up to date.

If the rev level is F2G or earlier as viewed from SCSI probe on a 44mb drive ONLY, the same compatibility issue would be present. Any drive after F2G (for example F2H) will work fine with a Power Macintosh. Verify that the driver from the drive vendor is SCSI Manager 4.3 compatible.

To locate a vendor's address and phone number, use the vendor's name as a search string in the Tech Info Library.
Published Date: Feb 19, 2012