Zip Drive-Floppy Drive?

[LadyGrey]

Howdy Guys and Gals,
Got a quick question. Does a Zip Drive function the same as a Floppy Drive or are separate drives needed?
Thanks much as always!!
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[david eaton]

Separate drives are needed. Sometimes, you can get a ZIP drive, that can be connected as another floppy, but I beleive that the later ZIP drives, the 250 meg ones, have a normal IDE interface.

[123456]

Sort of off topic, but do they still make zip drives, (100/250mb ones)? Or is that now a thing of the past replaced by flash drives? I think I have a few 100mb zip disks laying around in the basement. And are they bootable?

[ErnieK]

LJ
With Win9x you will probabley need drivers but with Xp you should be OK without as they are probably built in.
Go here for drivers if needed https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_na_en.cfg/php/enduser/cci/subproduct.php?p_prod_lvl1=7&p_sid=9xCiU*ci

123456
They are still made. And like you I have a few (about 20) 100MB disk lying about as well as an internal and external drive. And yes they can be mad bootable with the use of software supplied by Iomega and some BIOS's can/could be set to boot from zip drives. If you search around in the above link you should find it if it is still made.

[LadyGrey]

Thanks all! I was afraid of that. I've got an old computer I'm working on for ARC and I need to put three 3.5 drives (zip,HDD,floppy) into an old Gateway that only has places for two. I think I'm gonna be just SOL on this one. Thanks for the link ErnieK, very useful!
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[ErnieK]

You could buy a PCI to IDE controler card to put into the computer and this would then allow you to add extra IDE devices.

This link will give you an idea of what I mean
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=410

[PrntRhd]

You could also try locating an external zip drive, either USB or (shudder) parallel.
Velcro or screw it to the case.

[david eaton]

and I need to put three 3.5 drives (zip,HDD,floppy) into an old Gateway

These drives will only occupy 2 extenal bays. Is there not an internal bay for the hard drive in that case?

[LadyGrey]

Nope David there wasn't! That was my problem. Only two 3.5 bays one internal one external. I did get the problem solved however. I have some older computers that are destined for the dump, they won't even power up and I think one of them is something called an AST?,very old, even too old for ARC, so I went through them and found a bracket that would fit in that gateway case and at least bolt up with three screws so it was somewhat solid and I mounted the HDD sideways in that, worked fine. With the help of Ernies link I have the Zip Drive working, W2K gave it a drive letter on it's own but I believe that the software is needed to really get the use out of the drive. Can't test it as I have no Zip disks so I'll just hope for the best. Thanks much for all the help!!
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