MDD Zip 750 NIB

[Juror22]

As I've mentioned in a couple other spots here and here, I have been on the lookout for the MDD Zip 750 faceplate since I found out they exist. Not so much the drive since I found one of those a while back, hidden inside a normal appearing MDD. Every few days, my eBay search finds the same couple of items, but kind've like the mirror-mirror on the wall bit, it eventually turned in a new response and I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I found this.

After I popped out to eBay and checked out the listing and found that it was all I was hoping for, I then considered it for all of about 10 seconds, before I clicked the 'Buy it now' button. After it arrived today, I found that it was even better than it had seemed on eBay. Not only were all the items in their original plastic bags (most sealed, other than the Zip itself - the seller had tested the zip in a PC to make sure it worked, which was nice), and the faceplate although it still has the original, protective, plastic film on it.

I'm still working out my plans for it, but as soon as I sort out whether the the other Zip 750 I have will work with my PowerMac G3, I'll replace its zip 100 with that one and put this into one of my MDDs.

 

[croissantking]

Be sure to upload pics when you’ve done the install!

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Never dealt with anything but Zip100 drives before… is there that much of a difference between Zip750 internal drives compared to the Zip100? Are they really that different and can’t use the same front bezel that the Zip100 uses?

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but can’t the 750 drives only read 100 disks, not write them?
I have a 750 drive and 100 disks but the drive isn’t hooked up to anything right now.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Never dealt with anything but Zip100 drives before… is there that much of a difference between Zip750 internal drives compared to the Zip100? Are they really that different and can’t use the same front bezel that the Zip100 uses?

This metalic bezel is for the MDD model. I don't think any Zip drives were made with this mirrored bezel that are prior to the Zip 750, which is why @Juror22 was looking for it.

 

[Juror22]

Be sure to upload pics

I will - very soon!

I have a 750 drive and 100 disks but the drive isn’t hooked up to anything right now.

The 750 will read the other disks (according to the documentation), unfortunately I have no practical experience with it, but I should be able to give a more definitive answer in a few days. I've been looking for my 3-pack of 750 disks for the past few days and have eliminated most of the spots, I thought they might be.

Never dealt with anything but Zip100 drives before… is there that much of a difference between Zip750 internal drives compared to the Zip100? Are they really that different and can’t use the same front bezel that the Zip100 uses?

This metalic bezel is for the MDD model. I don't think any Zip drives were made with this mirrored bezel that are prior to the Zip 750, which is why @Juror22 was looking for it.

Yes, I don't profess to be an expert on Zip drives, but so far as I'm aware, Apple stopped adding Zip drives to the G4 line with the Quicksilver G4. The Iomega folks were creating all kinds of items to stay relevant in a world that was stacked against them. It was at this time that high volume tape drives, CD-R/CD-RW, and probably worst of all for them, the internet were all replacing the type of transportable storage that had made them necessary for so long.

As MrFarenheit notes, this was specific to the MDD G4 for which Apple did not produce a Zip option, so it makes these a little hard to come by and the reason for my excitement at finding one, especially in this condition!

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I will - very soon!

The 750 will read the other disks (according to the documentation), unfortunately I have no practical experience with it, but I should be able to give a more definitive answer in a few days. I've been looking for my 3-pack of 750 disks for the past few days and have eliminated most of the spots, I thought they might be.

Yes, I don't profess to be an expert on Zip drives, but so far as I'm aware, Apple stopped adding Zip drives to the G4 line with the Quicksilver G4. The Iomega folks were creating all kinds of items to stay relevant in a world that was stacked against them. It was at this time that high volume tape drives, CD-R/CD-RW, and probably worst of all for them, the internet were all replacing the type of transportable storage that had made them necessary for so long.

As MrFarenheit notes, this was specific to the MDD G4 for which Apple did not produce a Zip option, so it makes these a little hard to come by and the reason for my excitement at finding one, especially in this condition!

I believe the story goes that Apple sold Iomega some bezels and then Iomega had them machined out for the drives.

 

[macuserman]

I have one of these type of bezels although mine came with an MO drive, I need to see if it clears zip disks as well, I know they are a little different.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I have one of these type of bezels although mine came with an MO drive, I need to see if it clears zip disks as well, I know they are a little different.

In my experience, MO and Zip have the same clearance and drive location. I've put Fujitsu MO drives behind where a Zip drive can go, without issue. However, I guess it could be up to the specific model/brand with slight variances.

I do have the MDD bezel for Zip, and I plan to put it inside my MDD with a Fujitsu 1.3GB ATAPI MO drive, but haven't yet.

 

[macuserman]

In my experience, MO and Zip have the same clearance and drive location. I've put Fujitsu MO drives behind where a Zip drive can go, without issue. However, I guess it could be up to the specific model/brand with slight variances.

I do have the MDD bezel for Zip, and I plan to put it inside my MDD with a Fujitsu 1.3GB ATAPI MO drive, but haven't yet.

I thought they were interchangeable too, but the MO bezels I have for the graphite G4 style do not work with zip drives.... So worth checking for sure... It maybe that the ZIP bezels work with both MO and ZIP, and MO only work with MO or some similar combo, not quite sure.

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Yes, I don't profess to be an expert on Zip drives, but so far as I'm aware, Apple stopped adding Zip drives to the G4 line with the Quicksilver G4. The Iomega folks were creating all kinds of items to stay relevant in a world that was stacked against them. It was at this time that high volume tape drives, CD-R/CD-RW, and probably worst of all for them, the internet were all replacing the type of transportable storage that had made them necessary for so long.

As MrFarenheit notes, this was specific to the MDD G4 for which Apple did not produce a Zip option, so it makes these a little hard to come by and the reason for my excitement at finding one, especially in this condition!

I figured it was something like that… just wasn’t too sure of the exact time frame. We had an external CD burner with our iMac DV around 2001… though we still had Zip100 disks and a couple USB drives that we kept using through the G4 iMac days.


Were the 250 and 750 disks much more expensive than the 100MB ones? I remember the 100s being like 10 bucks each in the mid/late 90s… less per disk if you bought them in bulk. Should I assume similar cost per MB on the larger ones?

 

[LaPorta]

I’d like to see this as well. I’ve got a 250 internal for my QuickSilver.

 

[Juror22]

Were the 250 and 750 disks much more expensive than the 100MB ones? I remember the 100s being like 10 bucks each in the mid/late 90s… less per disk if you bought them in bulk. Should I assume similar cost per MB on the larger ones?

I didn't even know about these 750 MB Zip drives until a few years ago, so when you asked this question, I turned first to my stash of old turn-of-the-millennium-era macwarehouse/macmall books and could not find one reference to them at all. They did confirm your price on the 100s and the 250s were only slightly higher. When I checked online I found that at their introduction in 2002, the 750s were supposed to retail at 12.49/disk, so it looks like they were in it to stay in it. I also found an eBay listing for a three-pack of 750's that had what appeared to be an original 39.99$ sticker on it, but there's no way to know when it was slapped on.

In other news, while I was looking for the spot that I squirreled away my unused 3-pack of 750 disks that I picked up before I even had a drive for them - Oh please, I know you've all done the same - I went through my boxes of Zip stuff and found those, but also, way too many Zip drives, (internal, external, SCSI, not SCSI) disks, (SO many 250 disks) and only one external 250 drive), so it looks like this is going to be the weekend of Zips! Obviously more to come...

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I didn't even know about these 750 MB Zip drives until a few years ago, so when you asked this question, I turned first to my stash of old turn-of-the-millennium-era macwarehouse/macmall books and could not find one reference to them at all. They did confirm your price on the 100s and the 250s were only slightly higher. When I checked online I found that at their introduction in 2002, the 750s were supposed to retail at 12.49/disk, so it looks like they were in it to stay in it. I also found an eBay listing for a three-pack of 750's that had what appeared to be an original 39.99$ sticker on it, but there's no way to know when it was slapped on.

In other news, while I was looking for the spot that I squirreled away my unused 3-pack of 750 disks that I picked up before I even had a drive for them - Oh please, I know you've all done the same - I went through my boxes of Zip stuff and found those, but also, way too many Zip drives, (internal, external, SCSI, not SCSI) disks, (SO many 250 disks) and only one external 250 drive), so it looks like this is going to be the weekend of Zips! Obviously more to come...

Zip disks and drives are fun. And they’re a nice way to move and store data.

When I started on this vintage Mac journey in early 2020, I picked up a USB Zip drive and used my MacBook Pro to download files and copy over to 100MB Zip disks that I accessed on my … hmmm can’t recall the first vintage Mac I picked up.

As soon as I started accumulating machines I built up a library of different OS Zip disks that I could just insert and boot in many different machines.

Today everybody seems to be attached to BlueSCSI and related type drives, with SD cards, but whenever I watch a livestream and the YouTuber is trying to get an OS over to a machine I think of how cumbersome it sometimes is. Maybe I just use my stuff differently, I don’t know.

250MB and 750MB Zip disks are big enough to have lots of essential software. Heck, Zip 100 is big enough for even a base Mac OS 9 install that can be booted from.

Where’s the fun in using a 35 year old Mac with an emulated disk from 2020?

Enjoy your Zips!

 

[macuserman]

In my experience, MO and Zip have the same clearance and drive location. I've put Fujitsu MO drives behind where a Zip drive can go, without issue. However, I guess it could be up to the specific model/brand with slight variances.

I do have the MDD bezel for Zip, and I plan to put it inside my MDD with a Fujitsu 1.3GB ATAPI MO drive, but haven't yet.

Alright so I took a look at this and the deal is that MO disks aren’t as wide so if you have an MO bezel it will not work for Zip disks. But a Zip disc bezel should work with MO drives.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

Alright so I took a look at this and the deal is that MO disks aren’t as wide so if you have an MO bezel it will not work for Zip disks. But a Zip disc bezel should work with MO drives.
View attachment 60831View attachment 60832

That’s awesome to know.

Also, I had no idea that there was a MDD MO drive option. Do you know what drives they were ? I imagine Fujitsu?