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What kind of cables does Iomega External CD-RW have ?
- Thread starter Roarke
- Start date
That fast, it's almost certainly USB or Firewire.
It won't work on any 68k Mac, and it will only work as a data drive on PowerPC Macs with USB ports (with few exceptions, no booting PPC Macs from USB). It will fully work with Intel-based Macs, though.
There was an Iomega ZipCD product from much earlier, but even that is a USB drive. I don't believe Iomega built any SCSI CD drives.
It won't work on any 68k Mac, and it will only work as a data drive on PowerPC Macs with USB ports (with few exceptions, no booting PPC Macs from USB). It will fully work with Intel-based Macs, though.
There was an Iomega ZipCD product from much earlier, but even that is a USB drive. I don't believe Iomega built any SCSI CD drives.
jessenator
Well-known member
Something like this? not sure of the voltage requirements. But here's that funky 5-pin mini DIN shape in an adapter.
Yes, that's an annoyingly common power adapter connector. I don't know why anybody who chose it went for it instead of a normal barrel plug.
I have or have had a handful of devices that use it, but I'm not confident that any of them share a pin-out, so I use labelmaker or a silver sharpie to differentiate between the ones for my different devices.
To be honest, unless you're going for a specific look, or you find one that's complete and it has drivers, etc, I don't know if I'd bother looking for a ZipCD or any of Iomega's subsequent CD products. You can find external optical drives that are as good or better.
For PPC Macs, an external Firewire drive would be much better, for example, and for Intel Macs, whatever's on the shelf at your local Best Buy or Office Depot is going to work well enough, and likely newer. I mentioned this elsewhere, as well, but at least in 10.7+, blu-ray readers and writers should work for data discs. I haven't tried in 10.6 or older, though.
I have or have had a handful of devices that use it, but I'm not confident that any of them share a pin-out, so I use labelmaker or a silver sharpie to differentiate between the ones for my different devices.
To be honest, unless you're going for a specific look, or you find one that's complete and it has drivers, etc, I don't know if I'd bother looking for a ZipCD or any of Iomega's subsequent CD products. You can find external optical drives that are as good or better.
For PPC Macs, an external Firewire drive would be much better, for example, and for Intel Macs, whatever's on the shelf at your local Best Buy or Office Depot is going to work well enough, and likely newer. I mentioned this elsewhere, as well, but at least in 10.7+, blu-ray readers and writers should work for data discs. I haven't tried in 10.6 or older, though.
EvilCapitalist
Well-known member
Unless there's a specific reason you want the Iomega drive, I'd look at something else that includes the power supply. I've got a Sony DRX-720 drive that has both USB and Firewire ports and works great under OS9/OSX. There's one in the UK for sale right now with free shipping and looking at the picture of the power supply it appears as though it would work in Romania if you swapped out the plug from the wall to the adapter or have a plug adapter handy:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/173832649981
https://www.ebay.com/itm/173832649981
Scott Baret
Well-known member
I have one of these drives and can tell you that is a power adapter connector. The drive I have is purple and uses the standard USB connection. I remember buying it back in 2000 since my iBook didn't have FireWire and it was one of the only, if not the only, USB 1.1 CD-RW drive on the market.
Does anyone know the internal unit used in these drives? My drive has a working power supply but the drive unit itself seems to have failed. It shouldn't be too hard to swap a new drive into this but I'd like to replace it part for part, especially since there are still some NOS replacements for many drive units out there.
Does anyone know the internal unit used in these drives? My drive has a working power supply but the drive unit itself seems to have failed. It shouldn't be too hard to swap a new drive into this but I'd like to replace it part for part, especially since there are still some NOS replacements for many drive units out there.
It sounds like few people still have these. To be honest, Iomega was trading on the last of the goodwill of the Zip name when they built that thing, and I believe they used some manner of packet writing trick to try to simulate true random/rewriteable access (in the style of MO, DVD-RAM, etc). A number of different drives and software packages attempted to replicate that functionality, but it ended up being a fairly big functionality compromise doing it that way.
In terms of getting a model number: I would pull yours apart to find the information on it, it's probably on a label right on the top of the drive just like most other CD drives.
In terms of getting a model number: I would pull yours apart to find the information on it, it's probably on a label right on the top of the drive just like most other CD drives.
Scott Baret
Well-known member
The drive came with Adaptec Toast (back when it was Adaptec). I believe the version was 4 offhand. It seems to me that was the only way to make this drive work. I'm not sure if that version of Toast was optimized for it or not, but it was included on a purple CD with the Zip name on it.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure these drives could even burn directly from iTunes (the early versions).
Putting Zip on everything was like how Oldsmobile put Cutlass on everything to try to sell more cars, even if the products weren't all that related. We all know how that worked out for Olds...
Come to think of it, I'm not sure these drives could even burn directly from iTunes (the early versions).
Putting Zip on everything was like how Oldsmobile put Cutlass on everything to try to sell more cars, even if the products weren't all that related. We all know how that worked out for Olds...
It's not particularly surprising that third party software was needed to burn discs. I believe built-in burning functionality wasn't even included in the OS until Mac OS 9.
It was probably Toast 4 - I see a press release from mid-99 saying Toast 4 deluxe will be available "in Fall" and the ZipCD appears to have been announced in November 1999.
Toast and Retrospect are used in most late '90s CD burner reviews in MacWorld, so it was already a fairly obvious buy for someone looking into getting into burning CDs, unless they intended to use it explicitly with Retrospect.
Just as a point of comparison, for iTunes specifically, the thing I'd be interested in is if iTunes can burn with a firewire burner.
EDIT: Period review of the ZipCD bundle from a Mac-focused site/newslestter http://www.atpm.com/7.02/zipcd.shtml
It was probably Toast 4 - I see a press release from mid-99 saying Toast 4 deluxe will be available "in Fall" and the ZipCD appears to have been announced in November 1999.
Toast and Retrospect are used in most late '90s CD burner reviews in MacWorld, so it was already a fairly obvious buy for someone looking into getting into burning CDs, unless they intended to use it explicitly with Retrospect.
Just as a point of comparison, for iTunes specifically, the thing I'd be interested in is if iTunes can burn with a firewire burner.
EDIT: Period review of the ZipCD bundle from a Mac-focused site/newslestter http://www.atpm.com/7.02/zipcd.shtml
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