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Apple II FAQs Zip Drive & Tape
The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from
the Ground Apple II archive, 1997-1999. Administrator: Steve Nelson
Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground ref: Csa2ZIPTF.txt rev016 6/27/1999
Zip Drives & Tape
001- What is a "Zip drive"?
002- What is a "Zip disk"?
003- What do I need in order to use a Zip drive?
004- What kind of SCSI interface card do I need?
005- How do I install a Zip drive?
006- How do I get started using the Zip drive?
007- How does Zip Drive speed compare with a hard disk's speed?
008- Can I mount Zip disks formatted on Macintosh on my IIgs?
009- Will forgetting to set the termination switch cause damage?
010- How does Zip Drive perform with an Apple HS SCSI card?
011- Is a CMS SCSI card adequate for connecting a Zip drive?
012- Which SCSI interface works best with a Zip Drive?
013- Will I be able to format and partition a Zip disk?
014- Should I let the Finder handle formatting of new Zip disks?
015- Can I format a Zip disk for HFS?
016- The disk in my Zip Drive is not recognized. How come?
017- I added SCSI; now, my 3.5" drives often fail to work. Why?
018- Why do I get this "Ramfast/SCSI is searching SCSI bus" msg?
019- What's a good utility for doing tape backups on the GS?
020- What's needed to add a SCSI Tape backup unit?
021- What about tape backup on a IIe?
022- Does Apple's Hi-Speed SCSI card allow swapping Zip disks?
023- What can I do after the Zip on my Apple SCSI "sleeps"?
024- What is the "Click of Death" reported by some Zip drive users?
025- What is a "Qic" tape? A friend needs to read a Qic-80 tape.
026- How do I restart my HS SCSI + Zip when the Zip deactivates?
Zip Info from the 1996 II Alive review by Eric Dietrich (Q&A 001-008)
001- What is a "Zip drive"?
A Zip drive is a 100MB removable media system. Cobalt blue in color,
the drive is compact and light-- about the same size as the newer external
modems. There are two models. The 100p "Parallel Zip" connects through the
parallel printer port of PC's and compatibles. The 100s "SCSI Zip"
connects to any computer with a SCSI port.
The Zip drive is made by Iomega. Price is around $140. This includes
the drive, cable, information sheets, one disk with "Zip Tools", and a
3.5" installation diskette. (The material on the zip disk is PC/Mac
compatible and the diskette is for MS-DOS. This stuff will come in handy
should you wish to be able to use your Zip drive on a PC with a SCSI port
or on a Mac. None of the software is required for using the Zip Drive on
an Apple II.)
----------------------------
002- What is a "Zip disk"?
A Zip drive disk is a cartridge just a bit larger and thicker than
the familiar 3.5" floppy diskette with a smaller shutter and no physical
write-protect mechanism. It is rated as among the more rugged
moderately-high-density removable disks.
The 100MB disk has become the standard. (There's also a 25MB disk;
but, you will seldom see these advertised.) On average, the 100MB disks
go for $10-$15 each.
----------------------------
003- What do I need to use a Zip drive?
You need an Apple IIgs or Enhanced IIe and a SCSI interface card.
----------------------------
004- What kind of SCSI interface card do I need?
There are three 'popular' options: The Apple Revision C, The Apple
Hi-Speed, and the RamFAST. The Revision C is older and a bit slower
because it does not utilize direct memory access (DMA), a feature that the
Hi-Speed and RamFAST have. The Apple cards are no longer made or
supported; but, you may be able to buy one at a swap meet.
The Sequential Systems RamFAST has DMA plus an on-board cache of
either 256kB or 1MB, making it the fastest interface available. RamFAST
has a full set of utilities in ROM, so, it's easy to set up, too. Both
Sequential and Alltech sell RamFAST and can answer user questions.
----------------------------
From: Willie Yeo
Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card users need to remember that these cards
normally do not supply termination power. (RamFAST does; but, not the
Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card.) To work properly with the GS, a Zip drive
connected to the Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card requires either another device
that can supply termination power, or requires a hardware hack on the
Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card to provide the termination power.
Note: The Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card termination power modification is
detailed in the Hard Drive and SCSI FAQs (file csa2HDNSCSI.TXT).
----------------------------
005- How do I install a Zip drive?
The main Zip installation step is plugging it in. The drive uses
DB-25 connectors and, so, most likely, the cable will plug directly into
your interface card with no need for an adaptor. In case you need an
adaptor for an older 50-pin plug, these can be obtained from Alltech.
If you already have other SCSI devices, the one currently plugged
into the interface can plug into the Zip. Or, the Zip can be plugged into
a hard disk, CD-ROM, etc. at any point in the chain of SCSI devices.
Set SCSI ID Number- Every hard disk, CD-ROM drive, etc. on your SCSI
chain needs its own ID number (0-7). While most devices are flexible and
will allow you to choose any available ID, Zip gives you a choice of two:
5 or 6. If you are using an Apple Hi-Speed card and you already have a
hard disk, you'll have to set the Zip to 5 in order to continue to boot
off of your hard disk (which needs to be 6). The RamFAST is somewhat more
flexible in that it doesn't take ID 7 for itself and will allow you to
boot from any SCSI device.
Set Termination- Another consideration is termination. If all you have
connected to your SCSI card is the Zip Drive, then you should set the
switch on the back to turn ON the termination. If you have other devices
that come after the Zip, then you should set it to OFF. (Actually, the Zip
presents a light termination load and can be left with termination ON
whether or not it is the last device.) The last device in the chain (the
one farthest from the interface) should always have termination set ON.
Hardware-wise, that's it. In all likelihood, your setup will work
fine. If not, you can get help from experts at Sequential or Alltech, post
a question on comp.sys.apple2, or, even, read the documentation that came
with your SCSI card (when all else fails ...).
----------------------------
006- How do I get started using the Zip drive?
Once your drive is connected, its time to start your machine and
prepare a Zip disk for use. The Advanced Disk Utility (on a IIgs) or the
utility that came with your SCSI card can do formatting and set up
partitions (i.e. create named "Volumes"). Usually, with new for-PC Disks,
just partitioning is required for use under ProDOS. Each 100MB disk can
hold three max-size (32MB) ProDOS partitions.
If your interface is a RamFAST rev. D 3.01f or later model, you will
be able to treat Zip disks much like large floppies. They will mount and
unmount properly in the GS Finder, etc..
Most other interface cards will want to treat your Zip Drive and disk
like a hard disk. This is because the cards were designed before removable
high-density R/W media became popular. You may be able to swap in a disk
after booting; but, the new disk is likely to be treated as though it is
the disk which was present during power-up. This could lead to messed-up
partitions, lost files, and other problems. With such interface cards, the
safe way to swap Zip disks is to turn OFF the computer.
----------------------------
007-How does Zip Drive speed compare with a hard disk speed?
Iomega claims 29ms average access time, which is slower than modern
hard disks but, still, very speedy.
----------------------------
008- Can I mount Zip disks formatted on Macintosh computers on my IIgs?
Yes. However, Macs put a driver on the disk as well as a partition
map. Both look like partitions to the IIgs. Since the IIgs can't read
them, it will ask you to format or eject. Here's a trick you can try: When
you insert a Mac-formatted Zip, just click "eject" until the disk mounts.
The IIgs will then ignore the extra Mac stuff, and mount just the
legitimate volume(s). (E. D.)
____________________________
From: Rubywand
009- Sometimes I forget to set the termination switch correctly
after using my Zip drive on another machine. Will this damage
anything?
If you normally connect your Zip drive somewhere in the middle of
your Apple II SCSI chain and forget to turn OFF termination, it probably
does no harm. The Zip is said to have rather "weak" termination-- i.e. its
termination resistors present a relatively light load. This may explain
why GS users report no data loss problems on Zip or other devices when Zip
is located in the middle of a SCSI chain with termination set to ON.
If your Zip drive is normally connected at the end of your Apple II
SCSI chain and you forget to set it to ON, there is a decent chance of Zip
drive Read and Write errors.
____________________________
From: The Mangler
010- How does Zip Drive perform with an Apple HS SCSI card?
I had many problems when I first started with the Iomega Zip on my GS and
it isn't the most reliable thing - But it works.
1.) Make sure that the Zipdrive is hooked directly to your HS Apple SCSI
card.
2.) Chain your Zipdrive to the external HD which you will be using.
3.) Attach a terminator adapter to the back of the remaining port on your
external HD - The Zipdrive has a weak termination and requires another
terminator source.
As for getting your GS to recognize the Zipdrive in all applications:
1.) Turn on your Zipdrive
2.) Turn on your external HD
3.) Turn on the GS
4.) Put the Zipdisk in the drive before GSOS is booted so that it may be
scanned and recognized.
Last, if you are working on the GS for a long time and suddenly the
Zipdrive Icons don't pop up when you load Finder, simply eject the zipdisk
and push it back into the drive.
____________________________
From: Scott G
011- Is a CMS SCSI interface card adequate for connecting a Zip drive?
No way. The CMS card is awful and won't get you anywhere (it chokes on
removable drives). You'll need either a RamFAST or Apple HS SCSI card.
(Contact Alltech http://www.allelec.com/ or Sequential Systems
http://www.sequential.com/ ).
----------------------------
From: David Empson
I would strongly discourage it. The CMS card is designed to work with CMS
hard drives, and not much else. I don't know if it can handle removable
SCSI devices (the original Apple SCSI card's firmware cannot, and the CMS
card is about the same level of antiquity). It might not be able to
handle more than 64 MB either, so even if you can get the card to work
with the ZIP drive, you may not be able to access all of the disk.
Another problem is that the CMS card doesn't support the standard
partitioning scheme used by other Apple II SCSI cards. It uses a set of
jumpers on the card to configure the partition sizes, and doesn't support
the partition map mechanism at all. In other words, it uses "hard
partitioning".
See if you can get hold of an Apple or RamFast SCSI card, which follow all
the standards as far as partitioning goes.
Note that the problem with non-support of removable devices only applies
to the original Apple SCSI card, not the high-speed one, and even then it
only applies under ProDOS-8. You just need to be careful not to switch
disks without rebooting, because it won't realize that a new disk
(potentially with different partitioning) is in the drive.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
012- Which SCSI interface works best with a Zip Drive?
Your best choice is the version 3.01f RamFAST. Along with good
speed, Direct Memory Access support, and on-ROM utilities, you also get an
interface which permits ejecting a Zip disk and mounting a new Zip disk
from the System 6 Finder. (There is no need to turn OFF the computer and
restart the system in order to swap disks.)
The RamFAST 3.01f also supports a variety of CD-ROM drives and hard
disk drives.
----------------------------
From: Supertimer
The same can be said of the Apple High Speed SCSI. With a partitioned
Zip disk (or CD-ROM), you have to lasso or shift-click to highlight all
the partitions and drag them to the trash to eject the disk. (As long as
one partition remains on the desktop, the disk stays in.) There is no
need to turn off the computer to swap disks. The interface is a bit slower
than RamFAST. However, it actually supports MORE hard disk drives than the
RamFAST.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
013- Will I be able to format and partition a Zip disk using the
standard 6.0.1 tools disk?
Yes.
If you have a RamFAST, you also have the option of using the RamFAST
utilities. These are on ROM on the RamFAST board. They should be copied to
disk or hard disk and run from there. RAMFAST.SYSTEM will handle ProDOS
partitioning and low-level formatting.
Since Zip disks are already formatted, you will, mainly, be concerned
with setting up partitions. On a 100MB Zip disk, the best partitioning is
three 32MB ProDOS volumes. Setting up partitions takes less than a minute.
A low-level reformat of a 100MB Zip disk may take 10 minutes or more.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
014- Should I just let the System Finder handle formatting of
new Zip disks?
If you are at the usual System Desktop display and insert a new,
"blank" Zip disk, you will be told that the disk's format is not
recognized and asked if you want to have it formatted. Assuming you want
ProDOS volumes or multiple HFS volumes, you should answer "NO":
A new Zip disk is already formatted; what you need is to have it
partitioned-- good, because partitioning takes about 30 seconds whereas a
format takes 9-10 minutes.
ProDOS is limited to 32,768kB ("32MB") per partition. The Finder does not
know how to correctly format and partition a 100MB ProDOS disk.
Reminder: If you want a disk to be able to boot ProDOS or any version of
GS/OS (as in System 6.0.1), at least the first partition must be formatted
for ProDOS.
----------------------------
From: Supertimer
I say "Yes", _if_ you want one big HFS-formatted Zip disk. (Unlike
ProDOS, HFS allows volumes larger than 32MB.) Letting the Finder format
the Zip disk for HFS gives you a 96MB (partition-table-less) "diskette"
that's faster than one that has been partitioned, even if the partition =
the whole disk.
The "partitionless" HFS volume generated by formatting PC Zip disks
from the Finder behaves just like a floppy and ejects and mounts like one
(but with a hard disk icon).
____________________________
From: Rubywand
015- Can I format a Zip disk for HFS; and, can HFS and ProDOS
volumes exist on the same Zip disk?
Yes. System 6 with HFS.FST in the SYSTEM/FSTS folder supports Read,
Write, Formatting, and Partitioning of HFS disks. The standard Apple
Advanced Disk Utilities (ADU) program lets you set up a Zip disk as a
single 100MB HFS volume or divide it into partitions.
Note: A "partition" is a "volume". In most respects, partitions on a Hard
Disk or Zip disk are treated like separate disks. Each partition has its
own volume name and appears on the System Finder display with its own
icon.
You can, if you like, have ProDOS and HFS partitions on the same Zip
disk. One easy way to do this is to set up, say, three ProDOS partitions
and, then, have ADU "Initialize" a partition as HFS. If you want to be
able to boot from the Zip disk, at least the first partition must be
ProDOS.
----------------------------
016- Often, when I power-ON my computer, the disk in my Zip Drive
is not recognized. What's the problem?
Almost immediately after power-up, your SCSI interface begins
checking for devices. Most likely, the problem is that your SCSI interface
checks the Zip Drive before it is ready and decides no disk is present.
The cure is to put your Zip Drive, CD-ROM drive, etc. on a separate
power line. These devices should be switched ON 5-10 seconds before
powering-ON the computer. If you depend up reading SCSI setup information
from your Zip Drive-- like, if it is the only write-able device on the
SCSI chain-- then a Zip disk on which the setup info has been saved should
be inserted after the drive is switched ON and before powering-ON the
computer.
----------------------------
017- Sometimes the 3.5" drives on my GS do not function correctly.
This started after adding a SCSI interface card. Is there
a fix?
This problem seems to crop up from time to time when a SCSI interface
is present, especially when no device is connected and recognized on the
SCSI chain. Evidently, something (e.g. a register or softswitch) in the
usual GS power-up routine relating to on-line devices gets messed up.
Inserting a 3.5" diskette into Drive 1 before or just after power-up
usually forces recognition of 3.5" diskette drives and enables correct
functioning.
____________________________
From: LJ Silicon
018- I get this message 'Ramfast/SCSI is searching the SCSI bus for
devices..etc.' Never had this problem before-- only does it
on a cold boot.
When you reinstalled the software, the RAMFast set itself for a long
search. This is an option that you can change using the RAMFast utility.
What it is doing is giving your scsi devices a chance to spin up. If you
want a fast check, go to the options menu on the utilities and reset the
Short Timeout option there to "YES".
____________________________
From: Dan Brown, KE6MKS
019- What's a good utility for doing tape backups on the GS?
Here follows an unpaid testimonial: The Tim Grams GS desktop SCSI
backup utility called "GSTape" works great! I got it for an old Apple Tape
40SC, did several backup/restores, and then ran across a 2GB DAT drive.
Yep, it worked with no problems, too! (-:
----------------------------
From: Devin Reade
As one of those very satisfied customers, I testify that for someone
with a SCSI tape drive, GSTape is very much worth the money. It is
reliable and simple to operate in both backup and restore mode. It has an
appropriate script capability and, although I have not used this feature,
it allows timed backups (so that you don't have to be present).
It is _much_ better than the RAMFast built-in tape backup program. I
currently use it to backup both SCSI and Vulcan (IDE) hard drives.
____________________________
From: Phil Abel
020- I have a IIgs ROM01 with system 6.0 and I am trying to add a
SCSI Tape backup unit. I have an Apple Hi-Speed SCSI card
and 2 drives connected currently. The tape drive is off an old
unix box. I have the ID set to 3. I loaded the system 6.0 SCSI
tape driver but nothing showed up on the desktop. What's wrong?
I have recently gone thru this dilemma myself... First of all, I
believe that the GS driver is partial to the 3M mechanism as found in the
Apple SC40 tape unit. I tried a Tecmar drive (whatever mechanism that is)
on my GS, and though it recognized the drive on boot as a SCSI device,
when I went into archiver to try to back something up it didn't
acknowledge the drive's presence, although the SCSITAPE device showed up
in GS/OS. I later found a good deal on an SC40 and hooked it up and it
works perfectly, though I am still curious about making the Tecmar work,
though I doubt it will.
#1. I have read that you should set the SCSI ID on a tape drive to 0
(lowest priority) if this will help any... this seemed to eliminate
annoying searching of the tape drive on boot.
#2. Another thing-- The tape drive will NOT show up on the System desktop.
It does not work like a regular drive. You need a special program (aka
Archiver in GSOS or I believe there are some 8 bit programs, too) that
knows how to store files on the tape.
Open Advanced Disk Utilities when in GSOS and see if the SCSITAPE
unit is present-- then you will know the drive was identified ok. Then the
next test-- see if you can backup. Open archiver, set your "backup to..."
device as SCSITAPE and hit start.
When the thing says "insert first backup tape" you insert a tape and
hit OK. If it starts giving you errors or repeating the message, then
GS/OS doesn't like your tape unit. If it works... then go out for a pizza
or something while the thing whiles away at your files. Try recovering
selected files after the backup to make sure the archive went ok so you
can begin trusting in your tape backups.
----------------------------
From: Bill Harris
The device number (other than being unique) should not be relevent to
backing up to tape. I've always used something in the middle range of
numbers for my tape, typically id 3 or 4. This included when I was still
using the RF prom for backup.
----------------------------
From: Rubywand
RamFAST has a Backup function you can get to via Ramfast.system.
You need to have the "HD Backup" option under the [O]ptions menu set
to "No" in order to use tape (instead of something like a Zip Drive) for
backup. Then, you can select [B]ackup from the main menu bar.
Regarding the SCSI device number setting, 3 may be fine on a RamFAST.
Probably, you would want to remove any Apple drivers named "SCSI ..." from
the DRIVERS/ folder to eliminate possible conflicts with the Ramfast
driver.
----------------------------
From: Charles T. Turley
Go to ftp://209.180.253.179/cabi/Utilities/SCSI.STUFF/ .
____________________________
From: Glynne Tolar
021- What about tape backup on a IIe?
The RamFAST has built-in volume image backup software (in
background). The only backup software I know of for the //e for tape
drives is by Tim Grams and it only works with an Apple Rev. C SCSI and the
Apple Tape Backup 40SC (3m MCD-40). This software is no longer supported
though.
----------------------------
From: Charles T. Turley
You can find all you need concerning P8 tape backup software from the
following url ...
ftp://209.180.253.179/cabi/Utilities/SCSI.STUFF/ .
____________________________
From: Supertimer
022- I've heard that Apple's Hi-Speed SCSI card does not
allow swapping Zip disks without turning OFF the computer.
Is this true?
No. The Apple Hi-Speed SCSI interface allows ejecting and swapping
removable disks. With a partitioned Zip disk (or CD-ROM), you have to
lasso or shift-click to highlight all the partitions and drag them to the
trash to eject the disk. (As long as one partition remains on the desktop,
the disk stays in.) There is no need to turn off the computer to swap
disks.
____________________________
From: Gareth Jones
023- What can I do after the Zip drive connected to my Apple SCSI
goes into Sleep Mode?
A solution is "goosing" the drive by manually ejecting and
reinserting it. Apparently, using the SCSI driver for the Apple Card that
was sold by Tulin Technologies solves a lot of troubles with the Apple
card and a Zip drive. You can get the Tulin SCSI driver from Mr. Wing
Chung (104465.3171@COMPUSERVE.COM) for $20.
____________________________
From: Rubywand
024- What is the "Click of Death" reported by some Zip drive users?
Your drive starts to make a clicking sound and soon fails. Disks in a
drive which Clicks may be corrupted and, if placed in a good drive, may
cause a good drive to start Clicking.
The clicking sound is what you hear when the drive head hits a
mechanical stop when it fails to detect and stop at track Zero. Repeated
hits lead to misalignment or, even, a broken head and disk tearing.
If your Zip drive starts to click, the standard recommendation is
that you immediately eject the disk or, if this is not possible, turn OFF
power to the drive (or pull out the power connector on the side of the
drive). This may save the drive if the disk is bad or save the disk if
the drive has gone bad.
The "Click" has been laid to one or more of several possible causes:
1. Misalignment due to bumping while being carried around
2. Exposure to magnetic fields from monitors and (internal Zips)
un-shielded power supplies
3. Faulty or 'weak' drives which got past quality control
4. Use of non-Iomega drivers for accessing and/or formatting Zip disks.
Regarding use of non-Iomega drivers: SuperTimer, I, and other users
have done low-level formats and partitioning of several Zip disks on
drives connected to the IIgs and used the disks with no problems.
____________________________
From: Scott Alfter
025- What is a "Qic" tape? A friend needs to read a Qic-80 tape.
QIC-80 is a format, not a brand or a specifier of capacity.
Uncompressed capacity for tapes in this format range from 60 megs (DC2120)
to 250 megs (TR-1 Extra). It was preceded by QIC-40 and has since been
superseded by QIC-3010, QIC-3020, and QIC-3095 (the latter format delivers
4 gigabytes (uncompressed) on a TR-4 tape, and is available in SCSI and
IDE flavors for fast operation).
I'm not sure what format the 40-meg tape drive Apple used to sell
used...it might've been QIC-80 with a shorter tape (they use DC2000
tapes), but it was probably different. I've never had one. For my GS, the
tape drive I currently use is an Archive Viper 60S (QIC-24 format, SCSI
interface, puts 60 megs on a DC600 cartridge).
____________________________
From: Supertimer
026- How do I restart my HS SCSI + Zip when the Zip deactivates?
The problem is with the Apple SCSI driver. The Zip drive normally
deactivates itself after a period of time to conserve energy. The Apple
SCSI driver fails to reactivate the Zip when the IIGS tries to access it.
If this happens in some programs, data can get corrupted. If it happens in
the Finder, the Finder will ask you if you want to format the Zip disk.
You can reacivate your Zip by hitting the eject button and pushing
the Zip disk back into the drive after it has ejected. People call this
"goosing" the Zip drive. It works and reactivates the Zip.
One complete fix is to replace the Apple SCSI driver with the Tulin
one. Some former Tulin employee on Compuserve sells it for $20.
_________________________