Zip 250mb parallel drive

[xtempo]

is it possible to install a PCI parallel port card in a powermac G4 or G5?

I found one pretty cheap and would like to get it somehow working either PowerMac by getting a card or would it be better to try to use a parallel to USB cable?

Would this work under Leopard or earlier?

 

[jruschme]

No as there woulds still be no native parallel drivers for MacOS.

You want a USB Zip drive. Iomega tools are only supported to Tiger, but the drive should work as a USB Mass Storage Device under Leopard.

 

[xtempo]

I couldn't flash a parallel card so it would work on a mac?

I suppose I won't bother with it anymore. I never use zip even when I had an internal in my first G4..

If I can find a USB one or a SCSi one cheap but I probably won't find it.

 

[Intell]

What ROM would you flash to the card? What extensions would Mac OS X use to communicate with the card?

 

[xtempo]

I don't understand flashing or anything like that so I was asking if you could.

I have encounter in reading posts that by flashing the card it could run on a mac whether that is on specific to a type of card or manufacture I don't know.

in the end I guess I wasted $1.50.

is it possible to mod the zip drive for a SCSCI connection since the parallel connection seems to not be a true parallel connection. I am just wondering so I don't know really about it but I saw it somewhere on the zip hardware.

 

[harrymatic]

is it possible to mod the zip drive for a SCSCI connection since the parallel connection seems to not be a true parallel connection. I am just wondering so I don't know really about it but I saw it somewhere on the zip hardware.

I'm sure I remember hearing that the firmware on the drives is extremely clever and can work on both parallel and SCSI, but I'm not 100% sure. If this was the case, you would be able to get a PCI SCSI card and use it with that.

 

[jruschme]

LEt's see if I remember correctly...

The Zip 100 came in several flavors: parallel (PC only), Zip Plus (SCSI and Parallel switchable, Mac or PC), SCSI external, SCSI internal, ATA/ATAPI internal and USB.

The Zip 250 came in: parallel (PC only), SCSI (external), ATA/ATAPI internal, USB/Firewire, and bus-powered USB.

The parallel drives are pretty much useless today unless you are running XP or earlier on a PC as their are no drivers for newer versions of Windows. IIRC, internally, the parallel drives are a SCSI drive connected to a Parallel-to-SCSI adapter. In theory, one could probably bypass the adapter and use the drive as a SCSI drive, but I'm not sure if it's been actually done or where to find instructions.

On a modern system, the best bet is to find a USB Zip drive. The bus-powered 250s seem to be pretty plentiful and cheap on ebay.

 

[fhall1]

Your best bet is to find a friend with a PC (that has a parallel port - no small feat these days) and bring your ZIP drive and any cartridges AND an external USB drive (or flash drive).

Hook the ZIP to the PC and copy all the data off all the cartridges to the external USB drive.

Throw the ZIP drive in the trash....destroy the cartridges so your data can't ever be read off them again.