Mac Plus and using a zip drive as a hard drive

[dbraverman88]

Has anyone used a zip drive as a hard drive for a Mac Plus? I would be interested in hearing about people's experiences. Also, if you have a zip drive connected, can you successfully chain a second drive to the first? Ideally, I would like to use one as the boot drive and the second for data.

Thanks,

David

 

[tomlee59]

It works very well. And a zip is a more or less standard scsi device, so you can definitely add 6 more scsi devices on the chain. You just have to observe the termination and ID setting rules, as you would with any other scsi configuration.

I have one hooked up as the main boot volume for a Plus running 6.0.8. It's been powered up continuously for months and it runs great. The silence is particularly welcome, and 100MB is plenty of space for system 6 apps. When I bought my first Plus, I had a 65MB drive hooked up to it, and I thought I'd never fill that up.

I also have a 1GB drive connected to the bus, but it hardly ever gets turned on (noisy bearings).

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I used to use a 230 MB Magneto-Optical drive as my primary drive for a Mac Plus, I lost confidence in ZIP after I had three (of five) drives acquire the "click of death" in a one-year span back in the mid '90s. I've been using ZIP more recently since one each of my B&W and beige G3s have internal ZIP drives, and I have been given three more ZIP drives over the years. (One SCSI, one "Plus" that can be either SCSI or Parallel, and one USB.)

 

[dbraverman88]

Thanks. In fact, a zip drive would be almost ideal. It gives you the freedom to have multiple boot disks, each with a different configuration. I would probaby have one for 6.0.8 and one or 7.x.

Thanks!

David

 

[bigD]

If you can find a reliable zip drive, it makes a great 'HDD' for an older Mac. I love the fact that it's silent.

 

[Mac128]

You are not limited to System 6 or 7.

See here for details about how to set it up: http://www.mac128.com/zip.html

Also, I routinely move ZIP disks between a MacBook running Tiger with a USB Zip drive and a Mac Plus with a SCSI Zip drive. OS X has eliminated the annoying habit of System 7, 8 & 9 from updating the 4.2 capable boot driver on the Zip disk. So you may freely interchange them.

 

[dbraverman88]

See here for details about how to set it up: http://www.mac128.com/zip.html

It looks like that page is gone or there is a problem with the host's webserver.

 

[tomlee59]

You are not limited to System 6 or 7.

Well, for the OP's Plus, he is. Unless you're talking about pre-6...

 

[numero6]

I' m currently replacing the dead HD inside my Apple SC20 case by a Zip 100 drive I found in my brother's old Beige G3 that layed in the basement.

Not tested it yet, but it's sure a fine hard drive for a Mac Plus as it is silent and fit in the SC20 case, so I can maintain the vintage look ;-) .

When I finish I'll post some pictures.

 

[LCGuy]

Weren't the Zip drives that came in G3s IDE, rather than SCSI? I know that some G3s shipped with SCSI CD-ROM drives, but i thought that all stock Beige G3 zip drives were IDE.

 

[Mac128]

Yes Tom, I meant you can use a Zip 100 disk drive as a startup disk on a Plus for Systems 1.0 through 4.0 with no problems. (you mean your Mac Plus can't run OS 9? LOL)

Not sure what was up with the site, but it seems to be working fine now ...

See here for details about how to set it up: http://www.mac128.com/zip.html

 

[numero6]

Weren't the Zip drives that came in G3s IDE, rather than SCSI? I know that some G3s shipped with SCSI CD-ROM drives, but i thought that all stock Beige G3 zip drives were IDE.

Don't know about the other ones, but my brothers's G3 had a fine SCSI Zip drive ! It looks exactly like this (the picture is not mine) :

In fact the 50 pins conector makes impossible tu use the traditional Molex power conector, but I took the small one from the G3 to plug it inti the SC20 case.

 

[tomlee59]

Yes Tom, I meant you can use a Zip 100 disk drive as a startup disk on a Plus for Systems 1.0 through 4.0 with no problems. (you mean your Mac Plus can't run OS 9? LOL)

Trying to boot Leopard on a Plus is very hard.

 

[nahuelmarisi]

Actually to boot the plus with the zip drive you don't even need the zip drive driver. It wil recognise it as just any other SCSI device.

I use my mac plus with zip drive as HD constantly and it works great!

 

[numero6]

Yes Tom, I meant you can use a Zip 100 disk drive as a startup disk on a Plus for Systems 1.0 through 4.0 with no problems

Could you explain me how you do this ? How do you choose which OS to boot from at startup ? Sorry if it's a silly question, but I'm jus a basic Mac user

 

[Mac128]

As nahuelmarisi says, you don't need an INIT installed on the Zip itself (which wouldn't work on 1.0-4.0 anyway). But the Zip does need to be formatted with the 4.2 driver so the Plus can see it.

See http://www.mac128.com/zip.html for details.

One thing that needs to be said is that each System requires its own disk as you should not have more than one system on any disk. You can partition a Zip drive, but you will need additional software on a Plus to do it and to then choose the startup partition, since I don't believe Apple included such software until System 6. I may be wrong about that but I'm sure the knowledgeable folks here will correct me if so ...

 

[Charlieman]

System Switcher (swap between System 6 and 7) was available from Apple as an unsupported developer download from the early 1990s. It allowed installation of System 6 and 7 on a single disk partition. I am not aware of anything before that date.

My notes on the Zip are different to those from Mac128, but you shold read both. Use whatever suits you.

My notes, sorted after a file transfer mess up: http://www.vintagemacworld.com/pluszip.html

 

[Mac128]

Excellent tutorial Charlieman. I must admit I got a little lost during the Zip 250 thread.

As for my method, I would recommend it particularly if the Zip is your only hard drive connected to the Plus and you only use it to transfer files with OS X, which does not update the Zip disk driver (at least under Tiger).

Charlieman's method is much more universal particularly if you are going to use it with a wide range of systems, which would otherwise require the Iomega INIT to mount it.

As for running an older system, I would certainly expect Charlieman's method to work as well. s long as the Plus can "see" the disk at startup, it does not seem to care what system it loads from it. Which is particularly interesting in the case of System 1 through 2, since both pre-dated Apple's implementation of SCSI. Guess the ROM handles all the translating from the Finder which would have only been aware of IWM or serial bus disks at that time.

 

[numero6]

Thank to both of you for your tutorials and explanations. :-*

Following them I reformated my Zip drive this morning from the Plus using Lido, and I should have everything working in a few days now. I'll post pictures and details then.