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Thread ID: 26363	2002-10-25 08:24:00	Zip drive thinks it's a Floppy	Heather P (163)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
92958	2002-10-26 02:09:00	I give up! The order of the drives on the ribbon cable is currently: Motherboard Zip (slave) CD ROM (master) I've switched them between slave and master, changed the order on the cable itself, put it as a slave after the hard drive... Always stays as B: I went to the BIOS and disabled the secondary slave - still B: Again in the BIOS I changed the Internal PCI /IDE to Primary only (and lost both the zip and the CD). Changed it back and it's still B: Iomegaware has been installed - but although it offers to change the name it doesn't last through a restart (and the option is grayed out in device manager). At least I can open a file and save it under a different name (meaning I can access and use it). The next step will be to see how many disks the "Click of Death" took down with the drive (and if I'm not careful destroy this drive too!). The disk I've been testing with is a new one that I've only used elsewhere.	Heather P (163)
92959	2002-10-26 02:18:00	I've wondered about this "broken drive wrecks media; broken media wrecks drive" syndrome, Heather. Have you tried looking into known bad disks to see if there's an obvious difference? The disk platter might be "bent". It would be a bit hard to see the surfaces, but it might be worth a look for any signs of damage before risking a new drive. Just don't breathe heavily into the disks ;-)	Graham L (2)
92960	2002-10-26 02:26:00	Not yet. When it happened - late last year? - I read up on it. Seem to remember something about sliding back the door,holding them up to the light and peering carefully at the disk to look for damage. This is part of the reason it took so long to replace the drive - paranoia at wrecking a new one. But as I have around 10 or so disks ($200 to $300 worth) I suppose I had better do it. I noticed that the Iomegaware shows a "Disk Life Status" so I guess a visual check then a run past that diagnostic tool is about the best I can do.	Heather P (163)
92961	2002-10-26 03:14:00	Ever tried to visually check a zip drive ????? All looked OK but one made a noise as it tried to load so ejected it pronto. There was a chip out of the disk. Rechecked one non-critical one that I had already checked, it was OK so continued. Out of 17 1 was dead - the "Zip Downloads" disk. The "Tech Course" one was 96% OK so it looks like I can copy the contents to a safer place and 2 others called Backup were also slightly suspect. Zip disks seemed a great place to archive stuff - like the only copy of 4 years worth of assignments! I no longer have quite that much faith. And it still thinks it's a floppy...	Heather P (163)
92962	2002-10-26 05:31:00	Heather - have been out most of the day and have just read your posts . Been there, done that!!!!! Frustrating isn't it! Especially since I merely replaced the drive before restarting the computer . Things worked perfectly previously! I've been working on a solution for about a month off and on . Have read the Iomega article previously but it didn't help either . Nothing seems to help! TazzieNZ - Doesn't help! Thanks for your idea however . I appreciate it . Heather - Would be interested to know how fast your zip works . Mine is 55% slower than previously . Specs on both drives were the same .	Bryan D (895)
92963	2002-10-26 05:35:00	Incidentally, would strongly suggest you do not open a zip disk and look inside! It might destroy any faith you have in the long term archive abilities of the disks!!!!!	Bryan D (895)
92964	2002-10-26 06:54:00	>>would strongly suggest you do not open a zip disk and look inside Oh dear, does that mean that when I pulled them apart, soaked them thoroughly in hot soapy water, scrubbed them with a wire brush then dried them with the hairdryer that I may have damaged them? ;) No, very carefully slid the slide back and attempted to turn the silver central knob (hard to turn) whilst attempting to peer into it's dim interior - without touching the disk. Didn't turn one far enough as there WAS damage - but ejected it immediately when I heard the noise. I think the way it was broken stopped it turning in the drive so the damaged bit didn't get near the heads. How did you establish the bench test on speed?	Heather P (163)
92965	2002-10-26 07:00:00	Heather, Steve Gibson (grc.com) has a utility available called "trouble in paradise" that reports on the condition of zip media (should you decide to try your old ones).	wuppo (41)
92966	2002-10-26 07:25:00	Heather - I bench test purely by time. I have a collection of files which I regularly transfer and know exactly how long that takes. With no modifications to them they took 55% longer to transfer. They are now modified but very similar in size. Time is still around 55% longer. Very unscientific perhaps but it works! (I do things like this occassionally just to check my systems performance! This time it proved useful!)	Bryan D (895)
92967	2002-10-26 07:29:00	Heather, we run a Zip drive on this WinME computer. I cannot recall how to get into the Bios or Cmos, which ever one it is, it has been so long since I was there but if you or someone can refresh me on this I will let you know what the settings are on this one in case that helps you. What are 100mb zip disks worth now in NZ?	duckyduck (197)
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