SCSI - USB Adaptors: Anyone?

I'm posting this here because it's to do with film and the transferral to digital media, but please feel free to move it if it's in the wrong place.

Does anyone have any experience of running a SCSI neg / slide scanner on PC running XP via a USB - SCSI adapter? I have a 'Domex' SCSI card that will run my Acer Scanwit scanner without any problem whatsoever on my 'shed' PC - but it runs WinME. I would like to run my Acer on my XP machine, and SCSI - USB adapters are available to enable this.

I would like to learn more before committing myself to seventy quid and a lot of footling about, though, and, to this end, seek to draw upon the experience of anyone who has such a set-up.

All info gratefully appreciated!

I've no personal experience of this scanner but is it not possible to use an older SCSI adapter, like an Adaptec 1540 or 2940 for example?

I don't know. If it were possible to run my Domex SCSI card on my XP PC, then I'd do it. The Domex is pretty old now, as I was using it ten - twelve years ago to run a 'Black Widow' flatbed scanner!

I guess if I could find a SCSI driver that would allow use of my SCSI card (or any SCSI card) on my WinXP machine, then I'd do it. Maybe the Adaptec 1540/2940 will run happily on XP? I prefer the USB adaptor route as I'd have to make time to muck around with fitting a SCSI card to the PC and deal with any subsequent problems it throws up.

Thanks for the info, though.

Russell,

Are you sure that the problem is not with the SCSI card/driver, but with the Scanwit driver: Before going any further you need to do a search for an XP-compatible Scanwit driver, install it and then try to run your scanner again. If the problem is not solved, then continue as described below.

Don't buy a new SCSI card! Instead, look for a second-hand adaptec on fleabay making sure that it has the correct socket for the conector on your SCSI cable (target price £10.00 or less). Drivers for the basic adaptec SCSI cards will be already present in XP. Mid-range cards might require specific drivers which will be available on the adapetec website. If not, download and install a WIndows 2K driver (ignore any protestations that XP might make)having first set a system-restore point. Drivers for Windows 2K will often work in XP without issues. If it doesn't or you have stability problems, use either the device manager to uninstall the driver or just restore your system state using the restore point made earlier. At this point you will need to search on the www for a 'hacked' driver.

If that doesn't work, rather than buy a SCSI-USB adapter, I'd forget the Scanwit and try to find a second-hand USB scanner (Minolta, Canon OR Nikon) on fleabay.

It all sounds more difficult than it really is: trust me

Jon

John,

Thanks for the info. I was given the Acer Scanwit for nothing; immaculate as well! It works fine, as I say, on my 'shed' PC. From what's been said already, Adaptec is the way to go re: adaptors, so I'll look around.

I suppose if all else fails I could seek out a USB scanner, as you suggest.

Sorted...

I discovered that my Domex DMX3191 SCSI card now has drivers available for WinXP, as does the 'Scanwit'. Resignedly dubious, I installed the drivers I'd downloaded, got the SCSI to play, plugged in the scanner, installed the scanner drivers and wa-hey!

Works a treat with VueScan... Many thanks for encouragement.

Well done. Glad you got it sorted.

If, like me, you have a shed load of slides/negs to scan, it's not a 5 minute (or even 5 month) job. What I do now is try and do one box of slides, or one packet of negs every day. At leat I know then that they will all get done . . . eventually.

I'm now down to my last six boxes of slides, then I can start on the two suitcases full of negs.

I do hope WD/Hitachi/Seagate bring out a 500Tb HDD for £75 very soon . . .

There is a very minor problem insofar as I can't put my PC into standby, it throwing up a box saying something about incorrect drivers preventing it from doing so, but I went into file mangler and updated the errant drivers by clicking on the relevant question mark displayed there. So we'll see tonight if it's made any difference. Even so, all my other peripherals work, and I can live with it. ISTR from 'Black Widow' flatbed SCSI Win 95 / 98 days there were issues with order of power-up on SCSI-driven equipment.

Indeed... It's a bit like copying gramophone records onto CD, in 'real-time'. Got to do the job when in the mood, but at least the scanner is sitting there now ready to play. It's no good scanning when it's a chore.

Got five full A4 slide files and a couple of Agfa 175 rotary magazines, but just pick them out as required. Boxes and boxes of negs and prints from years ago! Current Pentax MX work gets scanned to CD at source (as discussed earlier, with negs identified for future scanning!

Only one external HDD so far, but yes... I'm sure they will