IOmega USB HD software -- garbage?

[larry moe 'n curly]

I have an 80GB IOmega USB HD (no firewire) and the latest Windows 98SE
drivers, but the drivers seem to be buggy:

1. When I run the drive removal utility just before unplugging the USB
cable, I get a blue screen that reports a fatal exception 0E error.
Windows does not crash when this happens.

2. Sometimes Windows 98SE locks up after the drive is unplugged several
times (drive removal utility always run each time).

3. If I try to remove the IOmega software, all of my drivers are
removed, even those that have nothing to do with HDs or USB -- network,
printer, graphics, etc. I tried both Windows' Add/Remove Programs and
IOmega's own removal utility.

All of this happened on two very different computers. I used VIA and
NEC USB 2.0 cards, and NEC is supposed to be make some of the best best
USB 2.0 chipsets.

Are there any alternative HD drivers that will work? This USB drive
uses a Prolific PL-2507b chipset, but I wasn't able to get Prolific's
reference driver to work with this IOmega.

 

[Chris]

I have an 80GB IOmega USB HD (no firewire) and the latest Windows 98SE
drivers, but the drivers seem to be buggy:

1. When I run the drive removal utility just before unplugging the USB
cable, I get a blue screen that reports a fatal exception 0E error.
Windows does not crash when this happens.

2. Sometimes Windows 98SE locks up after the drive is unplugged several
times (drive removal utility always run each time).

3. If I try to remove the IOmega software, all of my drivers are
removed, even those that have nothing to do with HDs or USB -- network,
printer, graphics, etc. I tried both Windows' Add/Remove Programs and
IOmega's own removal utility.

All of this happened on two very different computers. I used VIA and
NEC USB 2.0 cards, and NEC is supposed to be make some of the best best
USB 2.0 chipsets.

Are there any alternative HD drivers that will work? This USB drive
uses a Prolific PL-2507b chipset, but I wasn't able to get Prolific's
reference driver to work with this IOmega.

This is more likely a problem with Windows 98 as it does not natively
support USB2, it is very difficult to write good drivers and software when
Microsoft does not want an OS developed any further and stops support for
it.



--
Chris
Technical director CKCCOMPUSCRIPT
Apple Computers, Intel, Roland audio, ATI, Microsoft, Sun Solaris, Cisco and
Silicone Graphics.
Wholesale distributor and specialist audio visual computers and servers
FREE SUPPORT @,
http://www.ckccomp.plus.com/site/page.HTM
(e-mail address removed)

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

Chris wrote:

This is more likely a problem with Windows 98 as it does not
natively support USB2, it is very difficult to write good drivers
and software when Microsoft does not want an OS developed any
further and stops support for it.

I doubt it because my Western Digital USB HD and WD driver software
works flawlessly with it. And I know I don't simply have a dud IOmega
USB HD because a friend of mine also bought one (recently $30 after
rebate at OfficeMax) and experienced the exact same problems under
Win98 or 98SE.

Also I've never had a driver program uninstall every other driver.
Have you?

 

[Eric Gisin]

Chris wrote:

[snip]

This is more likely a problem with Windows 98 as it does not
natively support USB2, it is very difficult to write good drivers
and software when Microsoft does not want an OS developed any
further and stops support for it.

When you install a USB2 host adapter on Win 98/ME, you install EHCI drivers
from VIA or NEC. They do NOT include any support for drives.

You then have to install a storage class driver for the chipset in the USB
drive. Microsoft had one for USB 1.1 on Win 98SE. My Genesys USB enclosure
uses it's own.

I suspect the main problem is the two parties above don't test with the
others drivers, there are too many combinations.

I doubt it because my Western Digital USB HD and WD driver software
works flawlessly with it. And I know I don't simply have a dud IOmega
USB HD because a friend of mine also bought one (recently $30 after
rebate at OfficeMax) and experienced the exact same problems under
Win98 or 98SE.

Also I've never had a driver program uninstall every other driver.
Have you?

Iomega shits all over your system. They have been installing brain-damaged
drivers for the last 10 years (like the ATAPI Zip drive I used to own).

If you have two types of USB drive on Win 98/ME, I expect you install two
drivers. This would cause problems if they conflict.

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

news:[email protected]...

Iomega shits all over your system. They have been installing
brain-damaged drivers for the last 10 years (like the ATAPI
Zip drive I used to own).

If you have two types of USB drive on Win 98/ME, I expect you
install two drivers. This would cause problems if they conflict.

On one system I uninstalled the WD drivers first, and on another system
the WD drivers had never been installed.

I'm never buying a disk product again from a company that doesn't
manufacture the drive, unless it's 100% generic (i.e., rebadged CD-RW
or DVD-RW). The last time I had so much trouble with a drive was with
a Creative Labs CD-RW containing an altered BIOS that couldn't be
flashed with the actual manufacturer's BIOS.