Zip Drive Questions and Request for Clarification

[kkritsilas]

Hi,

I just got a couple of Zip Drives (one 250MB, one 750MB), both USB, and both have their power supplies. I am trying to figure out if they can be used to transfer data to older, non-USB equipped Macs (i.e. with SCSI interfaces). I have a number of questions about these drives, and even though I was involved with computers during the Zip era, I have never used any Zip Drives for anything, either on PC or on Mac.

1. I will need a SCSI Zip drive of some sort. Do SCSI interface drives come in the 100MB and 250MB types or are they 100MB only?
2.I have a few Macs that have USB ports. One is an iBook G4, there is also a MacBook Air, an Intel iMac 27", and a Mac Pro. I am thinking that the iBook G4 is best to use with the Zip Drive, as it is running 10.4.11, and has Classic Mode enabled, so I can format the disks as HFS, and HFS+. Anything wrong with this approach? I also may be able to get my Pismo going at some point, so I can use that as well.
3. I think I read something about the 250MB drives being able to format and copy data to the 100MB disks, so if I get a 100MB SCSI drive, I should be able to use it on the older Macs, correct? I also understand that the 750MB can format and write to the 250MB disks, but can only read the 100MB disks?
4. I have seen that 100MB, 250MB, and 750 MB disks are available. My intent right now is to buy new 250MB disks, unless I can only get a 100MB drive for the SCSI machines, in which case, I will get both 100MB and 250MB disks. Is there much value in the 750MB disks? What are Titanium disks (one end is rounded), are they useable in regular USB (and if it exists, SCSI) drives, and what is the difference between regular Zip disks and Titanium Zip Disks?

 

[Phipli]

1. I will need a SCSI Zip drive of some sort. Do SCSI interface drives come in the 100MB and 250MB types or are they 100MB only?

I haven't seen a 250MB SCSI ZIP.

2.I have a few Macs that have USB ports. One is an iBook G4, there is also a MacBook Air, an Intel iMac 27", and a Mac Pro. I am thinking that the iBook G4 is best to use with the Zip Drive, as it is running 10.4.11, and has Classic Mode enabled, so I can format the disks as HFS, and HFS+. Anything wrong with this approach? I also may be able to get my Pismo going at some point, so I can use that as well.

iBook G4 and Pismo are fine.

3. I think I read something about the 250MB drives being able to format and copy data to the 100MB disks, so if I get a 100MB SCSI drive, I should be able to use it on the older Macs, correct? I also understand that the 750MB can format and write to the 250MB disks, but can only read the 100MB disks?

This is what I have been told (I don't know about if 750 drives can write 250 disks, but what you describe for 100MB disk is what I understand).

4. I have seen that 100MB, 250MB, and 750 MB disks are available. My intent right now is to buy new 250MB disks, unless I can only get a 100MB drive for the SCSI machines, in which case, I will get both 100MB and 250MB disks. Is there much value in the 750MB disks? What are Titanium disks (one end is rounded), are they useable in regular USB (and if it exists, SCSI) drives, and what is the difference between regular Zip disks and Titanium Zip Disks?

What scsi machines are you transferring to? You need 100MB disk if you're transferring to a SCSI drive? Try to get new disks... bad second hand disks spread the "click of death"

 

[chelseayr]

just adding what I know of myself..

100 and 250 came in various internal&external flavours while 750 seem to be only either atapi or usb alone
interestingly enough there were a small number of (infrequently one would show up on ebay I noticed) all-red firewire zip drives from vst themselves too

the external 100 is kinda interesting regarding that a lot of them seem to had been the parallel+scsi hybrid flavour which may not exactly be stable in a scsi chain compared to the pure scsi one but don't take my word on that as I have no experience

its been a while but I'm sure I recall that 250 drives could write 100/250 but the 750 drive and media were of a bit different nature such that a 750 drive can read but not write 100/250's

and heh yeah like phipli said, if a disk doesn't work in one drive (whether you can hear any strange noise or not) don't just blindly try it in another drive. silly enough I recall a certain 'tales in it' reddit story where someone had tried one disk in several many different computers which was an expensive fix job at the end, a good tale of what to never do indeed!

 

[Phipli]

750 seem to be only either atapi or usb alone

I have a 750 firewire drive from iomega, so there is a third option there too.

 

[MrFahrenheit]

I have many Zip drives. For SCSI, I only have the 100MB variant. When I started doing vintage Mac I needed something to get files and the OS onto old Macs and I bought a SCSI Zip100 and a USB one.

I would download from the Macintosh Garden and copy to a Zip USB using my 2015 MacBook Pro and whatever Mac OS X was out at the time, and then walk over to an old Mac and use it there, as a bridge solution. I still employ physical disk sneakernet today for bridging my downloads.

Only ever buy brand new disks and if a device exhibits any repeating clicks (indicating the drive can’t read the disk) immediately stop using both that disk and that drive.

Once you start using Iomega disks on older Macs do be aware of the version of system software and Iomega driver you use. The Iomega extension seems to update the driver on the disk and if you insert a 68k bootable Zip disk into a Max OS 9 PPC Mac it will no longer boot your 68k Mac, as the disk driver will be updated to be PPC only. I found this out the hard way after weeks of troubleshooting why working boot disks suddenly stopped booting.

 

[Realitystorm]

I have a 250mb usb zip drive and a SCSI 100MB. That's what I used to move large files back and forth between my modern system and my macs before I got a SCSI2SD. If I remember correctly the USB drive will mount under Basilisk II.

Iomega Zip: Using a 100MB SCSI Iomega Zip Drive to setup your 68k Macintosh – David and Steve's Blog

 

[avadondragon]

1. I will need a SCSI Zip drive of some sort. Do SCSI interface drives come in the 100MB and 250MB types or are they 100MB only?

External 250MB SCSI Zip drive exist but they are hard to find and usually pretty expensive.

2.I have a few Macs that have USB ports. One is an iBook G4, there is also a MacBook Air, an Intel iMac 27", and a Mac Pro. I am thinking that the iBook G4 is best to use with the Zip Drive, as it is running 10.4.11, and has Classic Mode enabled, so I can format the disks as HFS, and HFS+. Anything wrong with this approach? I also may be able to get my Pismo going at some point, so I can use that as well.

I use my 250MB USB Zip drive with an Intel based Mac. I use MacFUSE (or something... I honestly can't remember how I set it up as it was years ago) to be able to read and write to the HFS formatted Zip disks. For the sake of maximum compatibility I always format my 100MB disks on a vintage Mac using the v4.2 Iomega driver and it's associated tools. A Mac formatted Zip disk actually includes the driver in such a way that it is recognized if the disk is in the drive when the machine is booted. I can boot my 512K (with SCSI upgrade) into system 5 from a Zip disk. Newer versions of the Iomega driver break that feature though. If you put the disk in a system running a newer version of the Iomega driver it will overwrite the older driver on the disk. Luckily you can replace the stock driver even under OS 9.2.2 with v4.2 and it still works fine. I don't think it supports anything but 100MB disks and/or drives however. The driver thing isn't an issue with OS X.

the external 100 is kinda interesting regarding that a lot of them seem to had been the parallel+scsi hybrid flavour which may not exactly be stable in a scsi chain compared to the pure scsi one but don't take my word on that as I have no experience

The hybrid drive is known as the ZipPLUS and it has indeed been reported to be unstable. It is supposed to do auto-termination unlike the pure SCSI version that has a termination switch. That feature seems to be a bit flakey. I have been using one in the middle of a SCSI chain with a PiSCSI on my Mac plus without issue though.

 

[kkritsilas]

Update to the original posting. The 750MB Zip drive is a Firewire 400 interface type (it was sold as a USB drive). The 250MB is a USB type (has a USB Type B connector (I think most often seen in printers and scanners). The 250MB is a translucent blue case, the 750MB is a greyish/silvery case top, with an opaque dark blue bottom case. They both came with power supplies, but interstingly, the center pin on the 750MB drive is larger diameter and at right angle to the cable, so the 250MB power supply won't fit (straight connector body). Both are 5V@1A, positive center pin, and aside from the center pin, look pretty much identical. The 750MB power supply has a part number of SSW5-7630, and the 250MB power supply has a part number of SSW5-7632. They have the same UL and CSA file numbers.

The 250MB drive also has a white, what looks to be a miniature Centronics type connector on the back panel beside the USB Type B connector. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a SCSI connector, as the drive doesn't have a SCSI ID switch anywhere.

 

[LaPorta]

250s also came with an optional FW400 adapter if so ordered.

 

[avadondragon]

The 250MB drive also has a white, what looks to be a miniature Centronics type connector on the back panel beside the USB Type B connector. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a SCSI connector, as the drive doesn't have a SCSI ID switch anywhere.

That connector is ATAPI based and meant to be used with a special PCMCIA card.

 

[LaPorta]

The 250MB drive also has a white, what looks to be a miniature Centronics type connector on the back panel beside the USB Type B connector. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a SCSI connector, as the drive doesn't have a SCSI ID switch anywhere.

That actually is the connector for the FireWire 400 adapter.

 

[LaPorta]

 

[avadondragon]

That actually is the connector for the FireWire 400 adapter.

Oh neat I haven't seen one of those before.

I only knew about this thing:

 

[kkritsilas]

The back of my drive looks exactly like the one in LaPorta's picture.

I have tried both drives with my iBook G4, and they are both seen correctly by the System Report. They register correctly, in that the 250MB drive shows Iomega with an 11MB/s transfer rate (USB 1.1 speed, I take it), and the 750MB drive shows as 750 Ultra, and the vendor is also shown as Iomega, with a transfer rate of 400MB/s ( which is fine for a FW400 drive).

Avadondragon, thanks for posting that, I have never seen that before, nor did I know it existed.

I did some research on WIkipedia, and it says that the 250MB drive can format, read and write both 100MB and 250MB disks. The 750MB can format, read and write 750MB and 250MB disks, but can only read 100MB disks.

 

[LaPorta]

Oh neat I haven't seen one of those before.

I only knew about this thing:
View attachment 52374

I've never seen that thing myself...cool to know it exists! Great option for 1400 owners.

 

[Snial]

FWIW, I have been using a ZIP250 USB drive to transfer data to and from my PowerBook 1400c with a ZIP 100SCSI drive attached. The ZIP 250 gets plugged into my Raspberry PI 3. It can read HFS volumes fine; HFS utils works well for writing and modifying HFS images (including inserted physical disks) and of course, I have the PCE Mac Plus emulator on the PI side for checking things. Ironically, today I've had to repair my ZIP 100 as the plastic transparent top plate came unstuck after 27 years ;-) .

 

[micheledipaola]

Hi, since the OP mentioned a Pismo, it is worth mentioning that there is also a 3rd part Zip 100 drive that fits in the CD bay.

 

[kkritsilas]

I recently learned of it. They are not very common, though, but ifI ever heard of one for sale at a non-insane price, I’d be interested. I already have a 750MB drive with Firewire, and a 250MB with USB. I am currently negotiating for a 100MB SCSI drive.