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Debating on what to put in my Sawtooth's Zip drive bay

M

MacFoxG4

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 22, 2019
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Hello all,

So, I have been debating what to put in my Sawtooth's empty Zip drive bay. The Zip drive the Mac came with didn't work, so I removed it awhile ago. I put a 3.5'' HDD in its place, but have since relocated that drive to be underneath my SSD in the area where HDDs are normally supposed to go. I have been thinking about putting in one of those 3.5'' bay USB hubs or card readers and I would connect it to the internal USB port on my USB 2.0 PCI card. The zip drive bezel has been missing ever since I got this Mac, so I don't have to worry about that getting in the way. A lot of these devices only mention Windows compatibility, so whether or not they would work on a Mac is unknown. My gigabit ethernet card only mentioned Windows compatibility on the box, but that works on here, so I know some "Windows only" devices actually do work on a Mac, but there is still a chance that they won't. Anyone know of any 3.5'' bay USB hubs/card readers that will work on a PPC Mac? A lot of these devices use a USB header cable instead of type A to connect to the motherboard and my USB 2 PCI card's internal port is type A. Would using a type A to header adapter be okay? Would the card be able to provide enough power (it's only getting power from the PCI slot) or should I find something that uses molex power, so I can use the Zip bay's molex power connector? I've been able to charge an iPod using one of the external ports on this USB card, so I know it is capable of at least charging an iPod.

I have also considered getting a CF to IDE adapter with a 3.5'' bracket plus an IDE extension cable, that I way I can utilize the Zip bay's IDE connector that I would otherwise have to move out of the way to make room for a USB cable. I do not use CF much, but more storage wouldn't be a bad thing and it would at least plug up the hole in front of the case.

I have lastly considered just getting another Zip drive, but I'm not really invested in the Zip ecosystem, so I feel like I wouldn't use it much. At least it would plug up the hole though.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Thanks in advance.
 
MacFoxG4 said:
I have also considered getting a CF to IDE adapter with a 3.5'' bracket plus an IDE extension cable, that I way I can utilize the Zip bay's IDE connector that I would otherwise have to move out of the way to make room for a USB cable. I do not use CF much, but more storage wouldn't be a bad thing and it would at least plug up the hole in front of the case.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
This is what I did with my Quick silver's second bay. The reader works as one would expect with OSX although I noticed a couple weird behaviors.

1. If a CF card was in the reader upon boot, it made bootup much slower.
2. I experienced weird flaky crashes from time to time with this thing in there. Not every time, but occasionally, the GUI would freeze up. With it removed from the box (which it currently is), I never get that issue.

One thing about the cf reader is that its stated compatibility is windows. This probably is what is causing the occasional crashing and sourcing one that is macintosh compatible (if there is such a thing) would rectify this.

I have since moved onto a usb CF card reader which works fine and does not crash OSX. If it were me, I probably would try to affordably source another zip drive or put a neat cylon eye in there somehow. :)

1.-Hes-watching-you.jpg
 
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Amethyst1 said:
These are standard USB hub or mass storage devices and will just work using the drivers included in the OS.
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I thought so too, but I know sometimes there are USB chipsets that do not work on Mac and I have seen reviews for some devices stating that you have to install a driver, so that's why I asked.
 
Just a tip for anyone wanting to replace/repair a faulty Zip 100 drive - the PCB is the only differential between Parallel Port or SCSI versions of the drive. The mechanical element sits on its own discrete layer and is identical in all versions. If you get the click of death or some other mechanical issue such as a misaligned read head, just search on eBay for Parallel Port Zip drives. Those go for very little because they are super slow and don't have a residual market unlike SCSI drives in the music scene. I salvaged a dead SCSI Zip drive by replacing the mechanical layer from a working Parallel Port one. The mechanical layer just unhooks and lifts out after detaching the internal connection cables. ATAPI drives are narrower to fit into a 3.5" bracket but I can't be sure if the internal mechanics are any different as I only have Zip250 drives in that format.

Possibly slightly more useful than a Zip drive would be an internal Jaz drive. You can get up to 2GB per disk but finding a suitable drive means investing in a SCSI card, thereby losing a PCI slot, and internal Jaz drives aren't cheap either. Plus finding a suitable front plate. Other than that, there are tape drives and other obsolete storage solutions such as Iomega Sparq and Castlewood Orb drives but those are only for the full-on geeks.
 
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weckart said:
ATAPI drives are narrower to fit into a 3.5" bracket but I can't be sure if the internal mechanics are any different as I only have Zip250 drives in that format.
Click to expand...
Useless fun fact: The 3.5" Zip 100 was first available with an IDE/ATA interface (apparently to OEMs only), followed by an ATAPI version.

weckart said:
Other than that, there are tape drives and other obsolete storage solutions such as Iomega Sparq and Castlewood Orb drives but those are only for the full-on geeks.
Click to expand...
And the Iomega Clik! (those were cute little things - I want to get my hands on the Iomega HipZip MP3 player that uses these just for the fun of it), Syquest EZDrive/SyJet, DataPlay discs etc.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
And the Iomega Clik! (those were cute little things - I want to get my hands on the Iomega HipZip MP3 player that uses these just for the fun of it), Syquest EZDrive/SyJet, DataPlay discs etc.
Click to expand...
Didn't know that there was an OEM Clik! drive for mounting inside desktops but it was the one format I decided against at the time, despite its charms. Getting my fingers burnt with Iomega's temperamental Sparq drives at the time didn't help.

There's a HipZip on the US Fleabay site but once shipping and taxes are added in, it's going to be a teurer Spaß for sure.
 
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weckart said:
Didn't know that there was an OEM Clik! drive for mounting inside desktops
Click to expand...
I'm not aware of one either - sorry if that was the criterion. I suppose you could take the PocketZip PCMCIA adapter and put that into an ISA/PCI PCMCIA adapter card to sort of mount it inside a desktop.

With that being said, the coolest data storage medium of the (mid-) 1990s has to be the MiniDisc, which could store a whopping 140 MB. I still want to kick myself for not getting that MD Data SCSI drive when it appeared on the local (!) Fleabay.

weckart said:
There's a HipZip on the US Fleabay site but once shipping and taxes are added in, it's going to be a teurer Spaß for sure.
Click to expand...
Indeed. Nein danke :)
 
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weckart said:
Not to derail this thread but you would have paid that? ?
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Nope. :) The one I spotted sold for “just” 70 euros or so on Fleabay. At the time, I wasn’t ready to spend that on a curiosity I wasn’t really going to put to use, but thinking about it now, I would like to have it in my collection… Oh well.
 
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Well, so far so good on the USB Hub. Sorbet Leopard recognizes it without issue. I have tested out a flash drive and a USB DVD burner and the hub seems to be able to handle these just fine. It may not be the most exciting thing i could have put in the bay, but it seems to work.
 
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MacFoxG4 said:
Well, so far so good on the USB Hub. Sorbet Leopard recognizes it without issue. I have tested out a flash drive and a USB DVD burner and the hub seems to be able to handle these just fine. It may not be the most exciting thing i could have put in the bay, but it seems to work.
Click to expand...
Got a pic of what it looks like? :)
 
Certificate of Excellence said:
Got a pic of what it looks like? :)
Click to expand...
9A814FC6-C827-497F-8DBD-1580115B04DD.jpeg

Here you go. It wasn't secured to the case when I first put it in, so I took some time today to screw it into the Sawtooth's drive bay. The screw holes on the bracket didn't quite line up with the holes on the Sawtooth's drive bay, so I had to enlarge the screw holes on the bracket. I used screws that I had stored away in a bag from other projects to secure the bracket because the included screws wouldn't fit. I noticed that the PCB board was exposed after I screwed the bracket in, so that's why I have the electrical tape that you see in the photo.
 
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I’ve always been a fan of front facing I/o - So convenient. I think I’d need to 3D print a custom face plate for a QS but it could be done. I’d love to have a multi format card reader & some usb2 on the front of my QS.
 
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