Zip Drives in Amiga

[Tiago]

What type of Zip drives can i use in Amiga ?
I read that Zip 100 and 250 MB by scsi can be used in Amiga, but not the parallel version?? Someone said that for using the parallel version i had to modify the cable?
anyone can help with this info?
What about the version of 750mb??
And what i need to install one on my A1200 Tower? I dont have scsi in my miggy, so do i need any converter?

[Buleste]

Use the IDE version and it acts like a huge floppy. I have a ZIP100 installed and it registers on the startup screen as DF7. Make sure it's in one of the primary drives though.

[Tiago]

IDE? what about the SCSI version? It would be faster, no? I guess i would only need a converter from IDE -> SCSI ?

[Tiago]

I have being in ebay cheking the zip drives, and IDE or SCSI the price is very identical, what make the price changes is if it is 100 or 250 MBs...
And the 750MB are they supported in the Miggy?

Can anyone tell me if the SCSI version will be much faster then the IDE, or is just a bit??

Thank you

[Harrison]

I don't think the 750MB version was every supported as it was released later. I used to use a 100MB SCSI Zip drive with my Amigas perfectly. On the A1200 I connected it using a Squirrel PCMCIA interface and a ZIP100 device driver to mount the drive. And on the A4000 I used the same device driver, and the drive connected to an GVP Zorro SCSI card. Worked perfectly.

If you might be interested, I have a Squirrel PCMCIA card available that I'm trying to sell at the moment. It's boxed with an external SCSI CD-Rom drive, which is how I originally purchased it from PowerPC. PM me if you are interested.

I've not had any dealings with IDE Zip drives on the Amiga, but I can confirm that years ago when Zip100 drives were the standard the IDE drives definitely used to seem slower than the SCSI version.

[Tiago]

Thanks Harrison, i order 1 zip 100 IDE, it was very cheat, and it is in a 5,25" bay to put on my A1200 tower,
let's see if i can connect it to my controller. the controller is not the best one, it is one of those simple ones with 1 2,5 IDE to go to the M.Board and 1x 2,5 and 2x 3,5" available IDEs... i think i can plug here the zip 100 ide... I dont need much speed, it's just to make same backups, and copy files from PC. I didnt search for the the scsi version because the Squirrel PCMCIA interface is more then 15 pounds... it would be expensive for what i want, and the PCMCIA whould be used.

[Harrison]

That is true. It would take up the PCMCIA slot, when it is better used for a network card or CF adapter.

I hope the IDE Zip drive works OK. Maybe have a look on aminet.net as they had quite a few Iomega Zip tools and utilities on there a while ago that might be useful for you.

[Tiago]

Ok, i will take a look on aminet. people say that it's just connect the Zip and it will work, no drivers needed... let's see...

[Harrison]

If an IDE zip does work like a large floppy drive in the Amiga without needing any device drivers then I might be tempted to get one myself. Would be a useful additional removable storage device. Although, these days using a cheap PCMCIA CF card adapter and some free software is a great solution to quickly move 4GB of files.

[Tiago]

yes, i see the zip as a nice way to store data in my A1200 tower. the pcmcia is inside, i have the 90º angle, but still is inside case, so the zip drive in a a 5,25 bay would be a nice solution. and you can get a cheap one easly.