Formatting Mac Disk in PC

[Jared]

I purchased 4 Mac formatted Zip disks (250MB) under the impression I could
format and use them as PC disks. When I have IomegeWare format the disk, I
cannot read them. If I try to read them XP says they aren't formatted and
wants to know if I want to format them. If I let XP format the disks, it
works just fine and I can read and write to the disks.

Iomega was no help and the guy even said to just let XP format them, but I
wonder if there is a way to let IomgaWare format them?

[Sam]

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 16:42:39 -0600, "Jared" <jared52_at_myrealbox.com>

Post by Jared
I purchased 4 Mac formatted Zip disks (250MB) under the impression I could
format and use them as PC disks. When I have IomegeWare format the disk, I
cannot read them. If I try to read them XP says they aren't formatted and
wants to know if I want to format them. If I let XP format the disks, it
works just fine and I can read and write to the disks.
Iomega was no help and the guy even said to just let XP format them, but I
wonder if there is a way to let IomgaWare format them?

Why would you want to format them with IomegaWare? Surely a native
filesystem from your operating system would be better?

[Rick]

Post by Sam
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 16:42:39 -0600, "Jared" <jared52_at_myrealbox.com>

Post by Jared
I purchased 4 Mac formatted Zip disks (250MB) under the impression I could
format and use them as PC disks. When I have IomegeWare format the disk, I
cannot read them. If I try to read them XP says they aren't formatted and
wants to know if I want to format them. If I let XP format the disks, it
works just fine and I can read and write to the disks.
Iomega was no help and the guy even said to just let XP format them, but I
wonder if there is a way to let IomgaWare format them?

Why would you want to format them with IomegaWare? Surely a native
filesystem from your operating system would be better?

The problem with that is there is nothing "native" about an Iomega
format. The disc format has proprietary regions such as spare sector
pools and "z tracks." If a non Iomega format routine doesn't know
how to handle these regions properly you end up with a trashed disc
that no format routine can recover from, or risk data loss if the
spare sector pool isn't formatted. Iomega suggesting to let XP
format the discs is a surprise to me. But considering their
competence in providing support over all these years I'm not
surprised.

If this is an ATAPI drive the O.P.'s problem suggests a hardware
configuration error. For openers, make sure the BIOS is not allowed
to control the Zip drive.

[Techman]

An Iomega Representative who I trust told me in 1995 and again in 2000, that
the mac disks were physically different and cannot be formatted to handle PC
files as a pc formatted disk. He is one of the engineers who originally
developed the zip drive in the beginning.

I had bought a box of 10 mac disk and tried to format them. The final result
was the click of death for the zip drive.

Craig

Post by Rick

Post by Sam
On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 16:42:39 -0600, "Jared" <jared52_at_myrealbox.com>

Post by Jared
I purchased 4 Mac formatted Zip disks (250MB) under the impression I could
format and use them as PC disks. When I have IomegeWare format the disk, I
cannot read them. If I try to read them XP says they aren't formatted and
wants to know if I want to format them. If I let XP format the disks, it
works just fine and I can read and write to the disks.
Iomega was no help and the guy even said to just let XP format them, but I
wonder if there is a way to let IomgaWare format them?

Why would you want to format them with IomegaWare? Surely a native
filesystem from your operating system would be better?

The problem with that is there is nothing "native" about an Iomega
format. The disc format has proprietary regions such as spare sector
pools and "z tracks." If a non Iomega format routine doesn't know
how to handle these regions properly you end up with a trashed disc
that no format routine can recover from, or risk data loss if the
spare sector pool isn't formatted. Iomega suggesting to let XP
format the discs is a surprise to me. But considering their
competence in providing support over all these years I'm not
surprised.
If this is an ATAPI drive the O.P.'s problem suggests a hardware
configuration error. For openers, make sure the BIOS is not allowed
to control the Zip drive.

[Ghostrider]

Post by Techman
An Iomega Representative who I trust told me in 1995 and again in 2000, that
the mac disks were physically different and cannot be formatted to handle PC
files as a pc formatted disk. He is one of the engineers who originally
developed the zip drive in the beginning.
I had bought a box of 10 mac disk and tried to format them. The final result
was the click of death for the zip drive.
Craig

Thia is real interesting bit of information. But we have been a
combination PC-Windows/Macintosh operation for years and have
swapped many PC-formatted and Mac-formatted ZIP disks around. We
have even formatted over hundreds of original Mac ZIP disks to
DOS and Windows and the reverse. Never had a single incidence of
COD among the ZIP drives in the Macs and PC's involved.

[Rick]

Post by Techman
An Iomega Representative who I trust told me in 1995 and again in 2000, that
the mac disks were physically different and cannot be formatted to handle PC
files as a pc formatted disk. He is one of the engineers who originally
developed the zip drive in the beginning.
I had bought a box of 10 mac disk and tried to format them. The final result
was the click of death for the zip drive.
Craig

That makes no sense and most likely the click death problem was
purely coincidence. Heck, at one point when Iomega had a lot of
quality control problems there were a lot of defective disks being
sold that would induce click death just by using them. The edges of
the disks looked like they had been chewed on by mice, contrary to
Iomega's inspection instructions that stated the edge of a disk
should be clean and free of rough edges.

There is no difference between Mac and PC Zip disks, other than the
formatting. When the Zip drive first hit the market in 1995 you
*had* to buy Mac disks and reformat them because there was such a
shortage of PC format disks in the market place. As it was, the
original "Tools" Zip disk that came with the drive had a dual Mac/PC
format on it so you could install the software and drive on either
type of system. After the software install you ran a program from
the disk to format the balance of the disk for the appropriate
operating system and free up the space occupied by the unwanted OS
install. So if there was a major difference between Mac & PC disks
how did Iomega accomplish that feat?