Iomega Zip drive : reads but does not write

[Cedsrepairs]

I just scored a Iomega ZIP100 plus (parallel + scsi) for which I had high hopes
However, I'm pretty unlucky these days on ebay (or we're really seeing the end of the working retro devices on ebay...)

And it does not work well, despite the seller's claims.

It makes a spinning noise that I don't like (but I know these devices were cheaply made)
Strangely enough it reads ZIP100 (that I made with my internal VST ZIP100 for G3) but it refuses to write,
Also refuses to format (after many minutes)
Also sometimes crashes the Mac entirely requiring a magical-key powerreset. (tested in a G3 with HDI30->DB25)

Does anyone have an idea ? Reading but not writing ?!
I'll try to see if I can clean the heads (doesn't seem easy)
The unit has been taken apart & lubricated.

 

[Iesca]

I would advise not trying to manually clean the heads manually, they're more like hard drive heads than floppy ones. There were special head-cleaning disks for Zip drives from back then, but I have yet to find one myself.

The Zip100 Plus requires a special connector cable to function properly; is that what you're using?

Since all the drive mechanisms for the Zip 100s are essentially the same, you might try getting a cheap parallel Zip drive and swapping out the mechanism and see if that doesn't fix things.

 

[Cedsrepairs]

I'm glad you mention this ; I do not use the special cable, I use a regular DB25 cable
I don't think this could be the problem ? Especially as the device is detected ?
Also, the seller said it worked and did not have the cable either

Do you know what's special about that cable ?

 

[Iesca]

I don't now how it works, but it's supposedly necessary for the Parallel/SCSI detection to work properly. It would say "Auto Detect" on it somewhere if I recall correctly.

 

[Iesca]

It may be that the seller just turned it on to test, or maybe inserted a disk to see if it mounted (which it does, according to your own tests), but didn't test it any more than that.

 

[Cedsrepairs]

Yeah I'm not blaming the seller, I encounter this situation more and more ; people selling their dad/grandpa's attics, and don't have a large technical expertise, do some basic tests and sell things as "working" . I believe this unit saw a lot of use and there is a problem with it.

Replacement of the drive... Myeah, I actually have a new in box, still sealed, ZIP100 parallel but it's difficult for me to open the box

I'm gonna try the unit on a PC to see if the problem is limited to scsi or appears on all platforms, that'll give me more info.

 

[Iesca]

Oh no, don't open a sealed box, I meant buy a cheap one on ebay, the parallel ones are very common.

 

[Iesca]

In actuality, I have a few parallels that I ended getting for nothing, so if you want to try going that route (swapping out the drive mechanisms), I could send you one for the cost of shipping.