TL;DR
A Hacker News commenter said their first PC (a 286) used a 40MB Apple-branded 2.5" hard drive via a SCSI adapter and that the drive took roughly 40 seconds to initialize at boot without displaying progress. The poster asked whether that lengthy wait was an intrinsic trait of SCSI; no technical explanation was provided in the source.
What happened
In an off-topic contribution to an Ask HN thread about Mac-to-legacy-SCSI conversion, a user recounted an early PC experience. Their first machine, a 286, reportedly contained an Apple-branded 2.5-inch hard disk with a 40MB capacity connected through a SCSI adapter whose origin the commenter could not identify. During startup the drive reportedly spent approximately 40 seconds performing an initialization phase during which the screen showed nothing. The commenter contrasted that pause with later systems that used ATA (IDE) drives and seemed to boot much more quickly. The post ended with the user asking whether lengthy startup delays like that are characteristic of SCSI devices. The source supplies the anecdote and the question but does not include any technical answers or diagnostic details.
Why it matters
- Highlights how legacy peripheral interfaces can affect perceived system responsiveness during boot.
- Raises practical questions for people restoring or repurposing vintage hardware and drives.
- Sheds light on user experience differences between older storage interfaces (SCSI) and later standards (ATA/IDE).
- Points to a gap where community expertise or documentation could clarify historical device behavior.
Key facts
- The anecdote appears as a comment on a Hacker News Ask HN thread about modern Mac to legacy SCSI converters.
- The commenter said their first PC was a 286 model.
- They reported the machine had a 2.5-inch, 40MB hard disk that was Apple-branded and connected via a SCSI adapter.
- The drive reportedly ran a roughly 40-second initialization at boot during which nothing was displayed on screen.
- The poster observed that later PCs with ATA drives booted noticeably faster in their experience.
- The commenter did not know where the Apple-branded drive had been sourced from.
- The post asked whether the long initialization delay was something inherent to SCSI; the source does not provide an answer.
What to watch next
- Whether replies in the original thread provide technical explanations or identify the drive model — not confirmed in the source.
- Any community troubleshooting or historical documentation that explains boot-time behavior of early SCSI drives — not confirmed in the source.
- Follow-up information about where Apple-branded 2.5" SCSI drives might have been sourced for early PCs — not confirmed in the source.
Quick glossary
- SCSI: Small Computer System Interface; a set of parallel interface standards for connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices.
- ATA (IDE): Advanced Technology Attachment (also called IDE); an interface standard for connecting storage devices such as hard drives and optical drives to a computer.
- HDD: Hard disk drive; a data storage device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve digital information.
- Boot initialization: The process a computer goes through immediately after power-on to detect, initialize, and prepare hardware and software for normal operation.
Reader FAQ
What did the commenter report?
They said a 286 PC used a 40MB Apple-branded 2.5" hard drive on a SCSI adapter and that the drive took about 40 seconds to initialize at boot.
Is a 40-second initialization typical for SCSI drives?
Not confirmed in the source.
Was any technical diagnosis provided in the thread?
Not confirmed in the source.
Where was this anecdote posted?
On Hacker News as a comment in an Ask HN discussion about Mac-to-legacy-SCSI converters.
very much not on topic, but that reminded me: my first PC (286) miraculously had a 40MB 2.5" Apple-branded HDD connected via SCSI adapter. Who knows where it was sourced…
Sources
- Ask HN: Anyone have a good solution for modern Mac to legacy SCSI converters?
- Older SCSI hard drives take over 3 minutes to mount.
- Apple II Csa2 FAQs: Diskettes, Part 7/25
- Troubleshooting
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