[Coco] IDE internal 100mb ZIP drives

[Mark Marlette]

Ray,

Could you please ident your PCdos utility for me and report your
findings. My PCdos WILL not talk to a ZIPdisk, it tells me that it is
not a MS-DOS disk. So I'm curious on the differences.

BTW, SuperDriver is out of this world. It is nice to have a driver that
can sense the drive(s). No more parameters to set up, it even figures
out the clustering for you. Of course you need to be running the latest
NitrOS-9 to have all of these nice features.

TIA,

Mark

Quoting Ray Watts <rayanddoraleew at earthlink.net>:

>   Mike,
>
> I think you meant to address the question to maltedmedia, but it came
> directly to me.  I'll give you a little background that may answer
> most
> of your question(s).
>
> I've been using 100mb SCSI ZIP drives, both internal and external,
> with
> my several CoCo systems ever since Mark came out with his SCSI
> drivers
> about  six years ago.  Not only do they make excellent HD backups,
> but
> they are also good for bulk storage of all your archives and
> distribution disks.  I have one cartridge I call "Warehouse" that is
> strictly archival and contains approx. 60mb.  All the .dsk images I
> download are also being stored in there.  My current plans are to
> implement them into HDB DOS operations also by partitioning my HD and
> several cartridges into the same size segments.
>
> About a year ago, I purchased a USB 100mb ZIP drive from Doug Watts
> for
> $25.99.  Now I can transfer files from my Mac to my CoCo's directly
> without messing with all the floppy formatting problems we have been
> seeing here.  BTW - I format them on the Mac as PC disks before I
> transfer CoCo files and read them with the PCDOS utility.  An added
> benefit is that I can make immediate backups of new Mac apps and
> files.
>  That operation cuts down my system backups to every several months
> without the fear of losing anything.  So a ZIP drive can still be
> useful
> without having apply them to a full system backup.
>
> I assume the reason the drives and cartridges are so cheap is that
> everyone is cleaning out inventory.  If you are interested, I would
> recommend buying now along with a liberal supply of disks.
>
> Cheers,  Griz
>
>
>
>
> KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
>
> > In a message dated 2/24/05 10:47:06 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> > rayanddoraleew at earthlink.net writes:
> >
> >     >BTW - Doug Watts is no relation to me, but I have had good
> luck
> >     dealing
> >     >with the company in the past.  Also check out the SCSI and IDE
> hard
> >     >drives.  You might find what you are looking for at a good
> price.
> >     100mb
> >     >ZIP cartridges have been selling there for just over $3.00
> each, too.
> >
> > Wow!  I guess ZIP disks are considered obsolete in these CD_RW
> days,
> > and are being blown at fire sale prices.  Last time I bought some,
> > they were $12 or $25 apiece -- but it's been a while since I've
> bought
> > any at Staples.
> >
> > I know that ZIP upgraded to 250 MB drives and disks, same physical
> > size, so that may be part of it.
> >
> > I also noticed that after I "upgraded" my Norton Utilities, the
> Rescue
> > function no longer supports making a ZIP disk backup.  So Norton
> must
> > have written off ZIP too.
> >
> > Too bad, those are my major backup medium on my PC.  Much easier to
> > use than CD-RW, which I can do but use only to make music disks.
> > Anyone know the current status of ZIP disks?  --Mike K.
> >
>
>
>
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