Resolved Jazz cartridges recovery question

[phoenixsan]

So, some contractor doing work in my house finds outs I have an old Jazz drive from iOmega (remember them?). Turns out the man have 20 or so 1 GB cartridges with old client records, blueprints and so on what want to recover. And he is willing to pay me for doing it.....

Thing is, I dont have the less frecking idea about what software/solution to use.
No problem if it is Classic or Mac OS X 10.0-10.7 based. And vexing me more: That can be possible?

Appreciate and thanks any help in advance.

 

[justperry]

You might need a PPC Machine for it or have classic running, although, if you can run 10.5.8 it might still work.

Edit: They discontinued them in 2002, highly likely the data is not readable anymore.

 

[phoenixsan]

You might need a PPC Machine for it or have classic running, although, if you can run 10.5.8 it might still work.

Edit: They discontinued them in 2002, highly likely the data is not readable anymore.

Thanks justperry for the quick answer. No problem for using Classic ( I have some old hardware capable of running it). So, it is your opinion that this work is not worth? (based in how old the cartridges are).

 

[justperry]

Thanks justperry for the quick answer. No problem for using Classic ( I have some old hardware capable of running it). So, it is your opinion that this work is not worth? (based in how old the cartridges are).

Nothing wrong with giving it a try, but I just read an article on Wikipedia (Link Below) and there were plenty of problems with the device, the data might still be there but it's the hardware which is flaky, another thing to consider is, if you get all the data off it, is it that old that it can not be read by todays Applications.
For instance, if it is Appleworks it can't be used on a newer Mac.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaz_drive

 

[phoenixsan]

Nothing wrong with giving it a try, but I just read an article on Wikipedia (Link Below) and there were plenty of problems with the device, the data might still be there but it's the hardware which is flaky, another thing to consider is, if you get all the data off it, is it that old that it can not be read by todays Applications.
For instance, if it is Appleworks it can't be used on a newer Mac.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaz_drive

Ok. And thanks for the link provided. Seems as a living hell the task of recovery based in how prone to problems the drives/cartridges are. Thanks for pointing out the possible software problem. But I am not required to read the data. And your last post puts a question related in my mind: Would be honest to ask some fee for the recovering try?

Again, thanks for the pointers/help and for bearing me and my questions.

 

[alphaod]

I have both an old Jaz and Zip Disk drive. Both work fine after all these years, but in a day of cheap USB flash drives, they don't get any more use.

Zip Disks were essentially floppies with more capacity, but Jaz disks were actual hard drive platters mounted into a cartridge.

Anyways for OS, Windows works great. My only issue is the Jaz drive uses SCSI.

As for recovery, I wouldn't charge for attempting it. If you succeed, sure whatever you want, but an attempt could actually destroy the disk if done incorrectly if you're curious.

 

[phoenixsan]

Thanks for the advice....

I have both an old Jaz and Zip Disk drive. Both work fine after all these years, but in a day of cheap USB flash drives, they don't get any more use.

Zip Disks were essentially floppies with more capacity, but Jaz disks were actual hard drive platters mounted into a cartridge.

Anyways for OS, Windows works great. My only issue is the Jaz drive uses SCSI.

As for recovery, I wouldn't charge for attempting it. If you succeed, sure whatever you want, but an attempt could actually destroy the disk if done incorrectly if you're curious.

My Jaz drive work some time ago. So that is one motive to give a try. And thank for your advice alphaod. Still, what software to try the recovery? I had lost part of my memory, because digging, I found a old copy of Norton Utilities.... but no sure if that will be useful...

 

[phoenixsan]

Account of recovery....(please advice in billing)

So, I tacked the work of recovery as follows:

1-Fire up my old PowerMac 9600/350. Installed the Norton Utilities. Checked the Jaz drive works with old cartidges sitting around.

2-Put to work with the Jaz cartridges the contractor bring. Have 22 Jaz cartridges with 21 GB of total data. 8 cartridges were cracked in the case and no surprises me when none of then can be recovered. Recovered 12 GB from the other 14 Jaz catridges.

Only thing still in the air is how much to bill for? I had done recovery work for friends, coworkers, family and acquaintances. Normally I bill them with a flat rate for GB or MB recovered. But in this case, having invested a chunk of time to crack it, feel towards a hourly rate.

So, any here can advise me in this billing issue? As always, thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[phoenixsan]

Wanting....

to give closure to the post, in the end, I biiled $ 8.50 for each GB recovered. All the data recovered happens to be in good state...

Thanks again all for the advice, help and pointers.

 

[AnonMac50]

I have a SCSI card that I use in a Dell. Have never actually used it on there, but I have used it on an old Pentium 3 with Windows 98. I used to use Jaz and Zip drives with both it and on some old Macs, but with the Power Mac, it had a Zip drive built in. Anyway, I still want to find a way to use them on a new computer.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

$8.50 per gigabyte?

You work cheap. I would have done at least $25 per gigabyte. Bare minimum. The time commitment alone means you were probably barely making minimum wage at that...

 

[MisterKeeks]

$8.50 per gigabyte?

You work cheap. I would have done at least $25 per gigabyte. Bare minimum. The time commitment alone means you were probably barely making minimum wage at that...

If you look at his other threads, he's not too bad off.