ZIP 250 only reads ZIP 100 disks

[Craig]

Greetings. My ZIP 250 internal drive is not reading ZIP 250 disks; it
will only read ZIP 100 disks. When I attempt to put one in, the light
briefly flashes red and the disk is ejected; I have tried many
different disks both old and new. When a ZIP 100 disk is put in, it
works perfectly. This is the problem. I will now give you some
background into my system.
My computer is 17 months old. It is a Gateway GP. It is has a
Pentium III processor, 320mb of SDRAM, a 14Gb hard drive, an internal
HP CD Writer, and the internal ZIP 250. The ZIP 250 was purchased
with the system from Gateway and the operating system at the purchase
time was Windows 98SE; it has been Windows XP Professional for the
past 8 months. When I received the computer, I used the ZIP 250 drive
once in a while; the person before me used it more often. I was
having CD Writer problems so one day I opened up the case and noticed
that the IDE cables and the jumper settings for the CD Writer and ZIP
drive looked very incorrect. I changed them to what I know to be
correct, which is having the CD Writer IDE cable go directly to the
motherboard, set the jumper to master, and then set the ZIP IDE cable
as a slave off of the CD Writer. The CD Writer has since worked
great, and the ZIP 250 worked after I did that as well; I would have
not allowed that setup to exist if either one of them had failed. I
also formatted it sometime after that and rebuild it from scratch.
Later on, I had to format my system again and rebuild it. When I
purchased Windows XP Professional for this system, I formatted and
rebuilt it one last time. This all took place in a span of 14 months.
I cannot say for certain that the ZIP drive worked before I switched
the cables and jumper settings around (I only changed the jumpers on
the CD Writer); I'm assuming it did. It did work after the switching
but I don't know for how long. It has both worked and not worked with
Windows 98SE, and it has yet to fully work with Windows XP Pro; as
mentioned before, currently only ZIP 100 disks are recognized.
With all of that being said, HELP! :) I need to start using my ZIP
250 drive to its full capacity, which to me means reading and writing
to ZIP 250 disks and ZIP 100 disks on a Windows XP Pro system. Good
luck and please let me know if I need to assist you in any way.

[D***@ix.netcom.com]

Post by Craig
Greetings. My ZIP 250 internal drive is not reading ZIP 250 disks; it
will only read ZIP 100 disks. When I attempt to put one in, the light
briefly flashes red and the disk is ejected; I have tried many
different disks both old and new. When a ZIP 100 disk is put in, it
works perfectly.

It sounds like a media sensor on your drive has failed. It has two
sensors - one for 100MB disks (it detects the little reflector in the
corner of the disk), and one for 250MB disks (I believe it detects
some sort of phosphorescent strip on these disks).

[snip]

Post by Craig
My computer is 17 months old. It is a Gateway GP.

Zip drives usually have a one-year warranty; in that case, your drive
is no longer under warranty. But you might want to call Gateway and
ask them about it; perhaps they have a different warranty for it. At
any rate, the drive will probably need to be replaced.

[Craig]

Thank you for your quick response! What you said makes sense, so I'll
talk to Gateway and see what they can do. I'll post my findings in
order to reinforce your suggestion. Again, thank you and have a
wonderful week!

Post by D***@ix.netcom.com

Post by Craig
Greetings. My ZIP 250 internal drive is not reading ZIP 250 disks; it
will only read ZIP 100 disks. When I attempt to put one in, the light
briefly flashes red and the disk is ejected; I have tried many
different disks both old and new. When a ZIP 100 disk is put in, it
works perfectly.

It sounds like a media sensor on your drive has failed. It has two
sensors - one for 100MB disks (it detects the little reflector in the
corner of the disk), and one for 250MB disks (I believe it detects
some sort of phosphorescent strip on these disks).
[snip]

Post by Craig
My computer is 17 months old. It is a Gateway GP.

Zip drives usually have a one-year warranty; in that case, your drive
is no longer under warranty. But you might want to call Gateway and
ask them about it; perhaps they have a different warranty for it. At
any rate, the drive will probably need to be replaced.

[Dave K]

Post by Craig
Greetings. My ZIP 250 internal drive is not reading ZIP 250 disks; it
will only read ZIP 100 disks. When I attempt to put one in, the light
briefly flashes red and the disk is ejected; I have tried many
different disks both old and new. When a ZIP 100 disk is put in, it
works perfectly. This is the problem. I will now give you some
background into my system.
My computer is 17 months old. It is a Gateway GP. It is has a
Pentium III processor, 320mb of SDRAM, a 14Gb hard drive, an internal
HP CD Writer, and the internal ZIP 250. The ZIP 250 was purchased
with the system from Gateway and the operating system at the purchase
time was Windows 98SE; it has been Windows XP Professional for the
past 8 months. When I received the computer, I used the ZIP 250 drive
once in a while; the person before me used it more often. I was
having CD Writer problems so one day I opened up the case and noticed
that the IDE cables and the jumper settings for the CD Writer and ZIP
drive looked very incorrect. I changed them to what I know to be
correct, which is having the CD Writer IDE cable go directly to the
motherboard, set the jumper to master, and then set the ZIP IDE cable
as a slave off of the CD Writer. The CD Writer has since worked
great, and the ZIP 250 worked after I did that as well; I would have
not allowed that setup to exist if either one of them had failed. I
also formatted it sometime after that and rebuild it from scratch.
Later on, I had to format my system again and rebuild it. When I
purchased Windows XP Professional for this system, I formatted and
rebuilt it one last time. This all took place in a span of 14 months.
I cannot say for certain that the ZIP drive worked before I switched
the cables and jumper settings around (I only changed the jumpers on
the CD Writer); I'm assuming it did. It did work after the switching
but I don't know for how long. It has both worked and not worked with
Windows 98SE, and it has yet to fully work with Windows XP Pro; as
mentioned before, currently only ZIP 100 disks are recognized.
With all of that being said, HELP! :) I need to start using my ZIP
250 drive to its full capacity, which to me means reading and writing
to ZIP 250 disks and ZIP 100 disks on a Windows XP Pro system. Good
luck and please let me know if I need to assist you in any way.

I too have a Zip 250 which only reads Zip 100 disks. I threw it away.
I suggest you do the same. What use is it, anyway?

Dave K