ZIP Drive + IDEfix = ?

[Fingerlickin_B]

Hey folks,

I scored a Zip drive off a mate on the weekend...leftover part from turning his several broken Macs into one working Mac for him

Tonight I temporarily installed it on a new system and ran IDEfix97.

It identified the Zip drive and everything, but then did weird stuff.

When I selected "use" for the Zip drive it asked me "how many discs does the CD-ROM hold" and "should CDFS be installed"...but it's not a CD drive and IDEfix had correctly identified it as a Zip drive.

Are these just default processes and it'll still be fine?

Haven't had a chance to check for myself yet, as Zip disks aren't available locally and I'm having to buy from overseas

So yeah, is it normal for IDEfix to ask CD-related questions when adding any IDE device? Will it work? Have I done something wrong? Anything else I should know?

PZ.

[DrF]

What would happen if you told it, that it only holds 1 disc?
The IDEFix readme says it supports it no trouble, but I have noticed the install procedure to not be too great, maybe it expects a CD-Rom, I would just answer the questions and see what happens.

I guess the ZIP drive is ATAPI compliant and IDEFix is using its drivers the same way for all ATAPI devices, hence why it asks irrelevant questions.

[Jope]

It seems you're configuring the CDFS against your zip drive. That's not how it's done.

Look at the device name and unit number that was detected. Then download a Zip dosdriver / mountlist from aminet or somewhere and edit the correct device + unit in there.

[Fingerlickin_B]

Ok guys, thanks for the input.

I'm waiting on some disks now, so when they arrive I'll start fiddling around.

Are there many users on here using Zip drives in their Amigas?

Just for fun, I'm wondering if you can install OS on a Zip disk and boot from it like a HDD? I'll try that too

PZ.

oh, Jope...nah I told it NOT to install CDFS...just asking as it prompted me and I wondered why, since it's not a CD device...

[DrF]

My P3 has the option to boot off Zip discs, so maybe with enough fiddling the Amiga could

[killergorilla]

I used to have a zip drive in my A1200 060 under wb3.9, I can't remember a lot but it used to display as DF4: on workbench.

What useless information I've just added

[kriz]

I still have a scsi zip laying around, long time since using it.. But still got the tapes, and will be fun to revoer the data.

[OddbOd]

Originally Posted by Fingerlickin_B

Just for fun, I'm wondering if you can install OS on a Zip disk and boot from it like a HDD? I'll try that too

It should work assuming you don't need to load IDEFix first, my A2000 has a SCSI ZIP attached and that works perfectly as an OS drive in fact I used to use it primarily as a backup drive so being able to boot straight to my own Workbench was very useful. Preping a boot ZIP is done the same way as any other RDB disk but to treat them as removeables requires the use of Mountlist entries like Jope said.

Does anyone know if IDEFix includes support tools for ZIPs to allow passwording, write protection etc?

[Fingerlickin_B]

Well, I've had it working on Classic Workbench for a while now, but last night when trying to add it to a new OS I had problems.

I put the Zfs0 driver in both Storage and Devs "DOS Drivers" drawers after thinking that's all I did last time, but it's still not working.

Is there something else I need to do that I can't remember from last time?

PZ.

[DoogUK]

I used Zip and Jaz tools......but i'm afraid i cant remember where i downloaded them.
A good set of tools for working with zip/jaz drives.
My 1gb jaz drive is invaluable for backing up the miggies.

[Fingerlickin_B]

*EDIT* - Forgot to add IDEfix to my startup-sequence, all fixed