Re: Need help solving Zip Drive mystery

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

apple2pd@ground.ecn.uiowa.edu (ISCA AppleII Librarian) wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer):
>
>> I'm trying to help an Apple IIGS user set up a Zip drive.
>> The problem is that his setup is not working.
>> 
>...
>> 
>> Any idea what's going on?  Could the Zip drive have
>> been DOA?  If so, what's the typical signs?
>> 
>> He is using DOS formatted Zip disks.  The IIGS takes
>> these fine on my system and can be reformatted and
>> partitioned easily.  That's not the case with his system
>> and drive.
>
>Have you tried his Zip drive on your system?  That would answer the DOA
>question.  Also try the Zip drive on a Mac system if possible.  Perhaps
>try a HFS Zip disk too.  He might not have the MSDOS FST installed on his
>system.  I don't know how that affects the Finder wrt a Zip disk.
>
>For some reason my systems (Apple HS SCSI cards) work better with the Zip
>drive termination set to 'ON' even if it isn't the last device on the
>chain.  I haven't figured that one out yet.

Thanks to you and Rubywand for replying.

I don't think the MS-DOS FST is the problem because it
can't support large volumes (I use MUG!, similar to PC
Exchange for the Mac, to read and write MS-DOS Zip
disks).

Unfortunately, I can't try his drive on my system because I'm
trying to help this user over email.  Perhaps both of you can
email suggestions to him.  He understadably eager to find
out if his drive is DOA so that he can get a good one if it does
turn out to be so.  Maybe Rubywand can send him some
FAQ info, if the FAQ has solutions to this problem.

As you can see, since his hard drives on the chain show
up, it can't be a termination power problem.  His hard drives
provide termination power.  Also, the polling of his drives
do not stop when he inserts a Zip disk, like it does on my
system.

He also reports hearing a clicking sound from the Zip drive.
Could this be the "click of death?"

If you have any ideas, please help him out.  Thanks!

His email address is: shew@primenet.com