Use old SCSI scanners in Win XP Mode?

[spiked]

I have a couple of old SCSI slide scanners and SCSI cards I use in (real) 32-bit XP, that no 64 bit drivers exist for. So I haven't been able to get them to work in Win7.

Is there any hope of getting them to work via Windows XP Mode in Win7? My impression scanning posts here is that this won't work, as I need real XP to talk to real SCSI cards with real drivers, and the virtual/emulated environment won't acommodate this.

I picked up a VT capable processor, hoping to try all this out, but now I find my Win7 RC eval setup can't load the RTM Windows XP Mode and Virtual PC software, so I'm unable to test it out. No way I'm springing for Win7 Pro only to find out the virtualization capability won't do what I need it to do.

Will I have to continue to dual-boot into XP when I want to work with the old hardware? If so, I'll just get the Win7 Home family pack, and forget about VT...

spiked

 

[NormanLaw]

Do 64 bit drivers exist for the SCSI cards even though there are none for the scanners?

If there are then XP mode should see the hardware and your 32 bit scanner drivers should work in XP mode. I have a similar problem but my scanners are USB and another device is Firewire. XP mode can see the USB ports but not the Firewire port but it can see all the internal devices.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all
I think for these you are better off using a separate VM under VBOX / VMware server / vmware workstation.

Virtual PC is a bit limited (currently) in VM performance etc -- I'm sure it will improve as MS now realizes virtualisation is much more than a geek's toy. It can make money out of this sort of stuff..

In XP mode I don't think you've got much of a chance in running some of this but I'm ready to be proved wrong.

Cheers

jimbo

 

[spiked]

IIRC, it was the SCSI card drivers (ie, lack of 64-bit ones) that were the problem. I use Vuescan scanning software which I believe will work directly with the Nikon LS2000 and Polaroid SprintScan ES, if I could get Win7 to work with the SCSI cards. I also recall there being an issue getting the right ASPI installed in Win7.

I don't think I will pull my hair out over this any longer, I'll just retain a dual-boot config when/if I swing to Win7.

Thanks,

spiked

 

[Durvic]

W7 64bit compatible SCSI card

I bought Adaptec AHA-2930LP card, which has the drivers for Windows 7 64 bit. I've got it installed. It works fine with VueScan and it made my 2 older legal size Agfa SCSI scanners (StudioStar & Arcus II) working in Windows 7 64 bit. Unfortunately, the software is quite slow for what I would like to use it for. Most of time, I would use it to scan my business receipts into Nuance PaperPort 12 filing system, or into OCR program Nuance OmniPage 17. The old software from Agfa, Fotolook 3.6, used to integrate into the Nuance software, VueScan would not. By going through VueScan interface, it takes maybe 5 times longer to scan an item. It makes the unpleasant job of entering receipts into the database really unpleasant!
I could not find any other way to make my old good scanners working in Windows 7, because original drivers, which have been written in Windows 98 and worked still fine in Windows XP 32 bit, do not work anymore in Windows 7 64 bit. Ed Hamrick's VueScan seams to be the only miracle software capable to run my old scanners without the 64 bit drivers being ever published. Agfa quit making desktop scanners around 2002, I believe.

I thought, I could fix the problem by installing my old drivers from a Windows XP virtual machine. I tried the Windows XP Mode and VMware Player with the virtual machine built by myself from Windows XP Pro. No success.
Windows XP Mode understand USB, but does not seem to understand Firewire or SCSI.
VMware makes its own virtual SCSI card, but my Agfa software does not recognize it. It looks like the VM SCSI is made to work with SCSI HDD & CD ROM drives only.
In both cases, if I force the installation of my SCSI card through "Add Hardware", I am getting my card installed in Device Manager with a yellow exclamation point and Device Status telling: "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". I am not capable to get pass this point.
Maybe it just cannot be done. I have spent couple of hours with Windows Hardware & Windows 7 support trying to get answer to the question: "Does XP Mode support SCSI?" We crossed the continents. We have been to East India, Philippines, maybe even North America. Unfortunately, there is no way to get an answer from Microsoft to this simply looking question. I called Adaptec, company which made my card. The tech. support lady has used both of my virtual machines at work, but she did not know if they would support their SCSI cards. She has never tried.
That's it. I gave up. There is a bunch of other virtual machines out there, which I am not gonna try. Life is too short.

If anybody tries to buy the AHA-2930LP, please be careful! There is out there a whole bunch of cheap 2930 cards under $20 with different ending letters. Those do not work with Windows 7 64 bit! The only one, which does, is AHA-2930LP. They made me pay for it around $120 at NCIX. It comes with its own BIOS, which you can enter at the start of Windows 7. It gives you a chance to configure your SCSI train. Works pretty similar to the old EZ SCSI.
Well, that's my experience. It might save some time to somebody. You never know.

 

[pol098]

Re Adaptec AHA-2930LP card, Windows 7 64 bit, Agfa scanners, Vuescan, virtual machines. Probably too late for original poster, but may be useful to anyone who's come through a search:

I'm starting to approach the same issue, but don't yet have any answers (may reserve old machine to run Win XP/32 instead). But I've researched a few things:
- if you have a PCI slot, the Adaptec 29160 (and many others) are available on eBay very cheaply and support Win 7/64. Although they are 64-bit cards with long connector, they will fit in and work in shorter 32-bit slots (at slower speed, if you run multiple blazingly fast hard drives). This is my personal experience, not just second-hand information.
- I haven't yet got into using it with VMWare, but according to the Adaptec website (Support, search for VMWare), the 29160 and many others are compatible with VMware ESX Server, various versions. A search for "2930lp vmware" gives no results, though. "VMWare Player" not mentioned explicitly on Adaptec site, but this may help someone.

I've found, but not yet tried, a promising link:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/30391
In VMWare Communities, re VMWare Workstation, title "How do I set up a SCSI scanner on guest win2K pro?"

 

[Durvic]

It is an interesting link. I'm gonna try it as soon as I've got time to play with it. The link is the only one, I know, claiming success.
Discouraging is that the one time I made it through to VMware support, the support guy was stating that there is no such a think as SCSI through support for SCSI scanners and he was telling that he does not know even any other virtualisation software supporting this option (I was using VMware Workstations up to version 8). I understood that their adapter supports virtual SCSI Hard Disk Drives, e.g. That's what it was suppposedly made for.
But, if somebody made it successfully through, then it is worse to try again. Thanks for the link. Please, leave a message, if you succeeded.

 

[pol098]

It is an interesting link. I'm gonna try it as soon as I've got time to play with it. The link is the only one, I know, claiming success.
Discouraging is that the one time I made it through to VMware support, the support guy was stating that there is no such a think as SCSI through support for SCSI scanners and he was telling that he does not know even any other virtualisation software supporting this option (I was using VMware Workstations up to version 8). I understood that their adapter supports virtual SCSI Hard Disk Drives, e.g. That's what it was supposedly made for.
But, if somebody made it successfully through, then it is worse to try again. Thanks for the link. Please, leave a message, if you succeeded.

I see this was your question originally, glad you saw this after so long, discouraging that you've still go the problem. I've often spoken to helplines who know less than I do about whatever issue I have with their product. There may be expertise in the firm, but not on the helpline. People who've actually done things and post in forums are useful if you can find them - I've been able to do all sorts of "impossible" things that way, helplines love to tell you "you can't do that".

I've played a bit with a SCSI CD-ROM; you have to close VM and change settings, greyed out when VM is open (you probably know this; I don't know that much and am picking it up as I need it). I'm not in a hurry with the scanner (in my case a Minolta SCSI; I have an Agfa but forgot it's USB), so may not post for a long time. I found this forum trying to solve other SCSI/VMWare problems, scanner was serendipity. But please post about your experiences.

By the way, not of any relevance to you but might help someone who finds this thread: pre-Win XP Minolta 35mm film scanner software was notorious for not running in XP, abending with an error box; I discovered (and posted elsewhere) that this was a memory issue, it wouldn't run on a machine with a lot of memory (1GB OK, 2GB too much; didn't test further). Win XP's boot.ini can be edited to say there's only 1GB.

Good luck, the link I posted looks promising. Instead of wasting time with helplines, Google is the way to go.

If you don't succeed, it might be worth getting a more mainstream Adaptec card from eBay. Many don't support 64-bit operating systems, but there are lots of supported 19160, 19160N, 29160, 39320, etc. for next to nothing. They seem to be direct descendants of the ubiquitous 2940x types, for which there are no 64-bit drivers. Overkill.

You could also try, instead of VMWare, dual-booting your computer into a 32-bit operating system (if XP worked for you, XP, though I expect Win 7/32 is OK). You could install XP on a USB hard drive if you don't want to change your working machine. Installing XP on a modern machine can be very difficult or impossible as newer devices don't have XP drivers.