Ben Fullerton
2004-02-21 04:04:41 UTC
This is my first visit here, even though I have been using a ZIP 100 for
quite a few years now.
It has frequently been a source of great frustration - to the extent that
I gave up on it several times ... but keep coming back because I like the
removable disks with the 100Mb capacity.
The problem is this:
(As it appears to me) it is a SCSI drive with an IDE cable connection on
the back and a miserable excuse for an IDE - SCSI hybrid driver.
It has NEVER worked as advertised - all of the use since I bought it new
many years ago has been with the "guest" driver. I even took it to a
computer shop during the first year that I had it - and their experts
could not get it to respond to anything but the guest driver.
W98SE and W2000Pro both run it as a P&P device, no problem .... except
they assign the wrong drive letter to it.
The last time I tried to set it up for DOS use, I could not even get
"guest" to work. The original CD, showing a 1997 copyright date, is loaded
with SCSI drivers, even though it was sold as an IDE drive and has the IDE
connector!
First question - just for my satisfaction:
Is this a SCSI drive or an IDE drive?
If it is IDE (because it has the IDE connector, not SCSI), why does
"guest" require an IDE to SCSI translator program to be loaded to run it
in DOS?
If it really is, as it seems to think, a SCSI device .... is there any
hope of it being made to behave as a *normal* IDE device in DOS?
I have not gone looking for an updated driver because, at this point, I am
still so confused that I do not know which one to download. I also doubt
that Iomega would be willing to give me the sort of understandable
explanation that I hope to find here. :-)
Final comment: As I now have a CD burner, the main use for the nine ZIP
disks will be for my old favorite DOS software programs and data that I do
not want to be accessible when I have the system on-line with my full time
ADSL connection.
Any suggestions?
Ben F.
--
benf-at-chebucto-dot-ca (make the obvious changes to reply)
****************************************************************
What future can there be for a society that values entertainment
more highly than education? Ben Fullerton 1996
****************************************************************
quite a few years now.
It has frequently been a source of great frustration - to the extent that
I gave up on it several times ... but keep coming back because I like the
removable disks with the 100Mb capacity.
The problem is this:
(As it appears to me) it is a SCSI drive with an IDE cable connection on
the back and a miserable excuse for an IDE - SCSI hybrid driver.
It has NEVER worked as advertised - all of the use since I bought it new
many years ago has been with the "guest" driver. I even took it to a
computer shop during the first year that I had it - and their experts
could not get it to respond to anything but the guest driver.
W98SE and W2000Pro both run it as a P&P device, no problem .... except
they assign the wrong drive letter to it.
The last time I tried to set it up for DOS use, I could not even get
"guest" to work. The original CD, showing a 1997 copyright date, is loaded
with SCSI drivers, even though it was sold as an IDE drive and has the IDE
connector!
First question - just for my satisfaction:
Is this a SCSI drive or an IDE drive?
If it is IDE (because it has the IDE connector, not SCSI), why does
"guest" require an IDE to SCSI translator program to be loaded to run it
in DOS?
If it really is, as it seems to think, a SCSI device .... is there any
hope of it being made to behave as a *normal* IDE device in DOS?
I have not gone looking for an updated driver because, at this point, I am
still so confused that I do not know which one to download. I also doubt
that Iomega would be willing to give me the sort of understandable
explanation that I hope to find here. :-)
Final comment: As I now have a CD burner, the main use for the nine ZIP
disks will be for my old favorite DOS software programs and data that I do
not want to be accessible when I have the system on-line with my full time
ADSL connection.
Any suggestions?
Ben F.
--
benf-at-chebucto-dot-ca (make the obvious changes to reply)
****************************************************************
What future can there be for a society that values entertainment
more highly than education? Ben Fullerton 1996
****************************************************************