Replacing Zip hookup with CD-RW

[lucyelm]

Hi...I want to add a CD-RW to my system, Windows 98, however, all my cable hook-ups are being used...1. Hard Drive, 2. CD DVD drive, 3. Zip drive, 4. Floppy drive. I do have a bay available for an internal CD-RW drive.
One option I am considering is to uninstall my Zip drive (which I never use) and using that connector for the CD-RW.
Is this a good option?
I have already contacted Dell, and have gotten conflicting answers, so thought I would try this forum to maybe get some advice.....any advice would be greatly appreciated.

A small aside question about Zip drives...what good are they if you still need to get another 'thing' for 'unzipping' files. Why doesn't the zip drive do the unzipping...or am I wrong about this?

[david eaton]

Hello Lucy and welcome to the PC Guide Forums.

As far as I remember, ZIP drives use the same interface as a floppy drive, but that doesn't matter as you only have (at most)3 IDE devices.

if you check the cabling arrangements in you machine, you should find that the hard drive and DVD drives are on separate IDE cables, with the floppy and ZIP drives on a different interface. All you need to do is install the new CD-RW on the same cable as the DVD. Set the DVD jumper as slave and the CD-RW as master; some makes will not work as slave!!
The only problem I can see is the power supply - what rating is the existing unit? Some machines have very low ratings.

The other question you asked about ZIP Files is easy to answer. ZIP Drives have nothing to do with them! ZIP files are compressed using a compression program such as Winzip, in order to minimise file sizes, or to keep files in an archive. ZIP drives on the other hand are just a "superfloppy" with a larger capacity.

Hope that helps.

David

[lucyelm]

Thank you for the reply David.
Just talked with my husband(he was the one that opened up the computer to try to make the hook-up) and he said that the Hard Drive and the CD DVD are on one cable. And the Zip drive and Floppy drive are on another cable.
So, what we need to know is can we add another IDE connector (terminology may be wrong).
You asked about the power supply...I don't know how to answer that...do you mean RAM? If so, my computer has 128mb, SDRAM...it's a Dell Dimension XPS T600MHz, Pentium III Mini
Tower Base with 512K. Do those numbers answer the question?
Or do you need 13.6GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive?

Only a nerd...longway from geek.

Thanks!

[gwallen4]

Lucy,

The floppy cable comes from the floppy controller on the motherboard. The hard drive and CD-Rom are on an IDE controller cable. Most motherboards have two IDE controllers. Look at your motherboard. If there is another 40/80 pin connector right next to the connector where your hard disk cable goes, but with no cable attached, that's probably the secondary IDE connector. Your motherboard manual should show the position of the secondary IDE controller also. If there is no such connector you're out of luck.

Attach an IDE cable to this and you are in business. Make sure the orientation of the cable is correct (pin 1 on the cable is usually marked red or black) - attach the cable in the same orientation as the cable attached to the harddrive. The HD should go on the primary cable and the CD-RW and CD-Rom to the secondary cable. You will likely have to change some jumper settings on the CD drives but that should be explained in the CD-RW manual. The CD-ROM will be already be set to slave, so set the new CD-RW to master.

Primary master - HDD
Primary slave - empty
Secondary master - CD-RW
Secondary slave - CD-Rom

Zip drive files don't need to be unzipped. They are just like files on a floppy or on your harddisk.

Files with the extension .zip are used to transport multiple files in one large package, like over the internet. When you receive a .zip file you have to unzip it with a program called Winzip that recreates the multiple files out of one zip file and writes them on your HD.

[john5211]

Hi Lucy,

I just went to Dell's website and had a look at the specifications for your computer model (XPS T600). First of all, is your system still covered under warrantee? If so, you want to check with Dell to see if you can make hardware changes without voiding the warrantee.

If so, or if you don't care about the warrantee, then let's talk about adding drives. Before you start messing around inside of your case, make sure that you take the proper procedures for grounding yourself (and that you unplug the computer!). Regarding the cables coming out of the drives, to avoid any confusion, there are actually up to three cables that plug into a CD-Rom drive. Assuming you are looking at the drive from the rear, the one all the way to the left, with a couple of wires (or maybe just one) coming out connects to the sound card. The middle one (a fat ribbon cable) is the IDE connector and connects to the motherboard (and possibly another drive, such as a zip drive or hard drive). The connector on the left (four wires and a white connection) is a power cable.

A picture of a CD-Rom drive without any of the cables plugged in is here (http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb.mit.edu/project/eichin/photogallery/images/img_1087.jpg). Notice that in between the left connection and the center connection is what appear to be a sequence of pins, some with covers and some exposed. These are called jumpers, and you can change them around to tell the drive how it should behave.

About your floppy drive..., it has it's own interface with the motherboard (its fat ribbon cable will be narrower than the ones for your CD-Rom/ZIP/Hard Drive). You do not need to worry about the floppy or what it is connected to (for adding a CD drive, that is).

As for hooking up a CDRW drive, your motherboard has a primary IDE connector and a secondary IDE connector. Each connector can accommodate two devices, so both of yours will be used in your current system. The most probable set up is CD/DVD and ZIP drive on one cable and Hard drive on the other.

If this is the case, then you can set the jumpers on the CDRW drive to act as the SLAVE drive (there should be a diagram on the top of the CDRW drive telling you how to do this). After putting the drive into the computer, hook the CDRW drive into the spare connector on the IDE ribbon cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard There is often a slot in the cable so that you can only plug it in one way. If not, then one side of the cable should have a red line on it; attach this side to the left side of the drive, red strip up. Then plug a spare power connector into the power slot (all the way on the right) on the CD-ROM. The power plug should have four holes and look like the power connectors hooked up to the other CD Rom drive.

It may also be possible to hook up the other connection (all the way on the left) to your sound card, but if you need advice on this you will have to post back with more details about your soundcard (what kind, etc.).

Let us know how things go or if you need more info.

John

[lucyelm]

Thank you to Sandman and John.......for the detailed instructions. I really appreciate your advice. Will do some studying of these pages and see what we can do to add the CD-RW to my system.
This is more info than I ever expected.:)

[mesc]

lucyelm,

About your Zip drive I think there might be a confussion. those drives might come attched to the same ribbon cable as the Floppy drive, or to one of the two the wider ribbon cables that runs to the HDD/Cd-Rom/DVD.

In the first case you don't need to unplug the Zip-drive, just plug the CD-R to the wide cable already attached to the CD-DVD, else if the Zip drive is attached one of the wider cables, there will be only one conector left to plug the drive into, so go ahead and use it.

As there are 4 cable conectors between the 2 wide ribbon cables, you do not need to disconect the Zipdrive!

[david eaton]

Hi Lucy.
It seems as if all your questions have been answered! I still wonder about your power supply rating tho. The rating (wattage) should be given on a label somewhere onthe powerumit itself, either near the mains cable inlet, or on the psu case inside the computer. It is probably large enough to run a CD-RW in addition to the existing kit, but some machines seem to have PSUs that are marginal if you want to add or upgrade things. Would not want you to fit the drive and not have enough power to run it.

David

[john5211]

Hey all,

mesc, AFAIK, all Dell zip drives were IDE. Did Iomega even make one to interface with a floppy cable?

Anyway, if anyone is interested, the PS is rated at 200W. Wouldn't bother trying to upgrade it unless there are problems, as it is probably a proprietary design.

John