On over-fixing a problem-- Iomega Zip

[rubywand@aol.com]

     Eric Dietrich's review of the Iomega Zip Drive 100s (for SCSI) made
it look like the perfect solution to crowding on my 80MB Focus hard drive.
So, one was ordered along with 10 100MB disks.

     It arrived yesterday and was connected to the GS's RamFAST in a few
minutes. (The Zip Drive's switches were set to No Termination and SCSI ID
#6. A CD ROM, the only other SCSI device, was plugged into the Zip Drive.)

     Upon booting, as usual, from the Focus, System 6 found the disk in
the Zip Drive and asked if it should format the disk. (Since the blank
disks are formatted for PC, they are not readable by GS.)  It took about 9
minutes to format 96MB for ProDOS. RamFAST's RAMFAST.SYSTEM has a utility
for partitioning. It took a couple more minutes to set up three 32MB named
ProDOS volumes.

     Basically, everything went as smoothly as Eric's review indicated it
should.

     Right away, adding the Zip Drive fixed one long-standing problem.
Many Focus and other non-SCSI hard disk users connect only a CD ROM to
their RamFAST. We must re-set RamFast's config options upon each power-up
for a session which includes using the CD ROM. With Zip Drive, we get a
write-able SCSI medium for saving RamFAST's config.

     Still, after years of reasonably contented existence with 80MB, there
is, a daunting new feeling of responsibility. When you add nearly 1GB of
capacity, you're supposed to make a dent in it. This could be a lot of
work! I think that, possibly, my Storage Problem has been over-fixed.
      

Rubywand