Mac OSX 10.10 and SCSI

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Update 2017: 10.12 – Sierra broke the SCSI drivers and so ends the tales of SCSI and Atto on my Mac. Nothing I could do could get them to load. At some point I’ll revert the Mac back to 10.11 and use the SCSI if I ever need to read any of my tapes.

Update: 10.11 – El Capitan is on my machine now (I had to revert due to FusionIO) and I’m happy to report there are still no issues with the Atto Drivers in 10.11 in Mid-2010 MacPro (MacPro 5,1).

 

SCSI is alive and kicking in OSX Yosemite (10.10). I recently wanted to move my backup system (Retrospect) from it’s long time place in my PowerMac G5, where I use it with an ATTO PCI SCSI card and an external DLT tape. I’m paranoid about backup for all the digital photos I’ve taken over the years.

Moving it away from the incredibly slow G5 and into my new Intel MacPro was a little tiny bit dicey, as not many people are using SCSI now days and the drivers for the last ATTO PCIe card are for 2 versions back – 10.8. But it was that or move to external SAS which would require a new card and a new drive.

I took the chance with the ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D, again, the last SCSI card made for the Mac. They are on eBay for about $350. The drivers installed (i have disabled signed kernel drivers) and the card worked. I got the latest Retospect and now I’m happy backing up again off the new Mac.

 

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