ZIP DRIVES AND ZIP DISKS.

[Stavros]

Hi.

On my CPU (above my floppy drive) I have big letters
saying ZIP. This must mean I have a zip drive, but when i
went to system information it said it was only a floppy
drive.

The drive is pretty big and looks like it could hold a zip
disk and is capable of transferring data, but if my
computer doesn't say anything about it im not sure. I
really want to buy some zip disks too.

Any help appriciated...

 

[Bob Harris]

If, in addition to a floppy drive, you have a slightly larger regtangular
hole ith the words "ZIP" near it, then you probably have a ZIP drive. But
in order for it to work you need several things to be true: (1) The ZIP
drive needs a power connection and a data connection inside the PC. The
data connection is an IDE cable, like the ones used for hard drives.
However, one should avoid placing the ZIP and a hard drive on the same
cable, sinc ethe ZIP is much slower. A ZIP and a CD (or DVD or CDRW) will
work well on the same cable. (2) The jumper on the ZIP must be correctly
set relative to its position on the cable, either master or slave, or
possibly cable select. (3) The BIOS must detect the drive. It is unlikely
that a ZIP would be disabled in the BIOS, but if the BIOS can't see the ZIP,
XP won't either. (4) Drivers must be loaded for the ZIP, but XP should
handle that. Try using the device manager of XP to "detec new hardware" and
hope that it sees the ZIP. (5) The ZIP drive must be functional. If the
drive is mechanically defective, it might not be detected.

My own experience with ZIP under is XP is (a) power off, (b) install ZIP
drive per very simple instructions that came with drive, (c) power on, (d)
BIOS sees ZIP in the POST, (e) XP sees new hardware, says it is a ZIP, loads
drivers, (f) I insert ZIP disk and write to it. (d)&(e) happen without any
user action.

 

[DavidA]

Hello,

Try start > control panel > search for new hardware. This
can update system information. Also, try putting a floppy
in the drive - if it's too big, it's probably a zip. Good
luck.

 

[JBM]

Hi.

On my CPU (above my floppy drive) I have big letters
saying ZIP. This must mean I have a zip drive, but when i
went to system information it said it was only a floppy
drive.

The drive is pretty big and looks like it could hold a zip
disk and is capable of transferring data, but if my
computer doesn't say anything about it im not sure. I
really want to buy some zip disks too.

Any help appriciated...

The Zip drive I used to have could be jumpered so
it was detected as a floppy. You may also be able
to change this in your BIOS. Whether it's detected as
a floppy or HD it still has the same capacity.
I didn't see any difference in speed when I had mine
slaved to my HD. I didn't run any bench marking programs
that's just my opinion from using the computer on
a daily basis.