Password protected Zip drive. 2 minutes to unprotect!

[Bob M]

I transferred a Zip 100 Parallel Port drive from a W98 computer to a new
Gateway running XP. It worked OK with the built-in XP drivers without any
effort on my part. But there was no way to deal with protected disks. I
installed the latest software from the Iomega site. Extra commands now appear
when I 1: Select "File" from top left of the "My Computer" screen, or 2: if I
right click on the drive Icon. It was assigned the letter "L:"
Problem is: it takes 76 seconds after doing a right click for that dialog box
to appear, than another minute after I type in the password. Unacceptable!

On advice from Iomega, I disabled the McAfee firewall. No difference.
I disabled the XP's Autorun, using Tweakui. Also no difference.
Any clue as to what is the culprit? It worked fine on the W98 machine. It used
to detect the protection when you inserted the disk, and automatically brought
up the unprotect dialog.

 

[Ghostrider]

I transferred a Zip 100 Parallel Port drive from a W98 computer to a new
Gateway running XP. It worked OK with the built-in XP drivers without any
effort on my part. But there was no way to deal with protected disks. I
installed the latest software from the Iomega site. Extra commands now appear
when I 1: Select "File" from top left of the "My Computer" screen, or 2: if I
right click on the drive Icon. It was assigned the letter "L:"
Problem is: it takes 76 seconds after doing a right click for that dialog box
to appear, than another minute after I type in the password. Unacceptable!

On advice from Iomega, I disabled the McAfee firewall. No difference.
I disabled the XP's Autorun, using Tweakui. Also no difference.
Any clue as to what is the culprit? It worked fine on the W98 machine. It used
to detect the protection when you inserted the disk, and automatically brought
up the unprotect dialog.

A general problem with software protection schemes for
security is that the same program might need to be used
for removing the protection. This is, in part, due to
the encryption methodology used for passwording or even
compressing the ZIP disk. Does the Windows 98 version of
the Iomega ZIP utilities install in the Gateway-Windows
XP machine? If not, then consider unprotecting the ZIP
disks on the Windows 98 machine.

For more information and assistance, go to USENET and
subscribe to alt.iomega.zip.jaz or alt.iomega.zip.jazz;
repost and there might be better responses.

 

[Bob M]

A general problem with software protection schemes for
security is that the same program might need to be used
for removing the protection. This is, in part, due to
the encryption methodology used for passwording or even
compressing the ZIP disk. Does the Windows 98 version of
the Iomega ZIP utilities install in the Gateway-Windows
XP machine? If not, then consider unprotecting the ZIP
disks on the Windows 98 machine.

For more information and assistance, go to USENET and
subscribe to alt.iomega.zip.jaz or alt.iomega.zip.jazz;
repost and there might be better responses.

Yes, I did try loading the Iomega programs that came on a CD with the drive.
Its help files imply that it was not intended for XP
It had the same slow response. The latest version from Iomega does say it is
compatible with XP. It uninstalls the old version before installing itself.

Is there some way I can remove/disable the built in drivers built into XP that
allowed the Zip drive to work before I loaded any Iomega software? There may
be some conflict there.

I will try to protect a disk using the latest Iomega code running on XP, an
see if it is slow to unprotect. That sounds like a good suggestion.