It depends what your SCSi connection on the external DH is.
If it is a HD-50 SCSI connection

, you can get this SCSI to USB cable to hook up the HD to your laptop:
If it is a Centronics or a DB25 SCSi connection like on the MPC2000 it'll be hard to do without getting a bunch of gender changers and adaptors to make the connection.
The easiest way is like you said... sample to MPC then save to SCSI HD.
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