How do you hook up a ZIP 100 Drive to an A2000HD?

[DoomMaster]

Hi folks,

I just bought a SCSI ZIP 100 drive.  How do I hook it up to my Amiga 2000HD computer?  What drivers or software do I need?  Will a PC also be able to read the files from the ZIP disk?  The Amiga and the PC can both read the ISSO 9660 CD-Rs.     :-o

[N7VQM]

Is it an external ZIP?  If so, then first thing to do is get either a Zorro2 SCSI controller that provides an external port (assuming you don't already have one) or get a SCSI cable that has a DB25 at one end.  I have my ZIP100 on my CSPPC SCSI controller this way.  I suggest the Zorro2 card approach.  If the A2k SCSI controller is anything like the A3K's (i.e. braindead), you'll very much appreciate it.  

Secondly, if the ZIP drive is to share a bus with other drives, make sure either ID5 or ID6 is free.  Or, has IOmega fixed this particular annoyance?  My ZIP drive is about 7 years old and can only work on ID5 or 6.

As far as drivers, I setup my ZIP disks as removable disks with RDBs on them.  This way, all I have to do is have the appropriate filesystem library in L: to use the disk.  When I had to use the sneakernet between my PC and my Amiga (ethernet is SOOOO nice), I used fat95 on my ZIP disks.  This can all be handled in HDToolBox.  You can even create ZIP disks with multiple partitions but I wouldn't recommend it.

I'll warn you right now:  A LLF won't do anything useful.  If you have problems with a bad ZIP disk, it's pretty much tough nugies!

The RDB method isn't the only way.  You can also use the mount list method which requires a driver in DEVS:.

Also, I recommend getting ZipTools.  All the software (including mountlists and device drivers) I have mentioned can be found on Aminet.

[DoomMaster]

To N7VQM:

Thanks.  My ZIP drive is a internal drive and all 3 of my Amiga 2000HDs have a Commodore A2091 SCSI Controller Card in them.  The boot hard drive on all 3 A2000HDs is set to ID # 0.  The external data harddrives are set up as ID # 1.  What device numbers should I give to the CD-Rom and ZIP drives?  I appreciate you helping me with this.     :-D

[Druideck]

I use a mountlist like this and fat95 on aminet in the
DH0:L drawer. Your device and unit must be changed
if different as well in this mountlist. Mine was unit 5.
I formatted my disks on the PC and then the Amiga
could read them with this fat95 script mounted.
Maybe this will help or email me.
/* RigidDiskBlock. */
#

MYZIP:
FileSystem      = L:fat95
Flags           = 1
Surfaces        = 1
BlocksPerTrack  = 68
Reserved        = 0
PreAlloc        = 0
Interleave      = 0
LowCyl          = 0
HighCyl         = 2890
Buffers         = 100
BufMemType      = 1
MaxTransfer     = 0x00ffffff
Mask            = 0xffffffff
DosType         = 0x46415401
GlobVec         = -1
StackSize       = 8192
Mount           = 1
Priority        = 10
Device          = harddisk.device
Unit            = 5

#

[DoomMaster]

To Druideck:

Thanks, I will try this out.     :-P

[DoomMaster]

To Druideck:

I do not have a zip drive in my PC (CD-Rs are a lot cheaper then ZIP disks).  Can I use this mount list to format a ZIP disk on the Amiga itself?  What would the file system be, would it be compatible with a PC ZIP drive, so I could copy files back and forth?     :-o

[vortexau]

I have used both an internal JAZ drive, and an external ZIP drive. The ZIP was limited to ID 5 or ID 6. As can be seen from this, my ZIP had been set to ID 5.

Unless currents ZIPs don't have the same limitations, its still ID 5 or 6.
For your CD-Rom you are free to use any unallocated IDs. ID 7 is usually the SCSI Host Addaptor itself.

Be sure to check with other A2091 users as that Host Addaptor predates CD-Roms. I havn't used one since 1991, using the 32Bit SCSI Controller in, first a GVP accellerator, then a Blizzard accellerator.

BTW, it is possible to use TWO SCSI Host Addaptors at once. I had first used the ZIP on a GVP HC+ card's external port untill i obtained a Db50 - Db25 cable. Zip Tools allows more than one scsi.device name to be set.

Both Amiga-formated and PC-formated ZIP Disks can be used with the correct Drivers (mountlists). Something such as Fat95 is needed for long disk & file names on PC-formated ZIP Disks.

ZIP Disks are sold with either PC or Mac formatting. ZIPMount by Stefano Cairoli is helpful for use with PC & mac formatted ZIPs. Zip4mat by Lorence Lombardo makes preping & formatting ZIPs easy, and to Re-PC Format an Amiga Formatted ZIP!

[Druideck]

Most blank ZIP disks come PC formatted i think,
(and MAC).

The Amiga can read these with my mountlist and fat95 installed.
I had an icon with C:mount in it as the default,
and with the same name as the mountlist.
I just double clicked the icon to mount my ZIP
when needed.

[DeQuevedo]

To DoomMaster:

Didn´t you the one who claimed in the board that you helped in the developing of "Workbench 4" and you will have it availble, by some obscure way, for your Amiga 2000HD VINTAGE computer?

I think you are the very same who claimed have worked for C=

I really dunno, if these thing are true, how the hell you can be here asking how to connect and scsi device to the amiga, and same line questions....

[lorddef]

@DeQuevedo

You are right, DoomMaster has posted a lot of BS on A.org.

Bizzare that with all the knowledge he claimes to have he needs help with something as simple as SCSI IDs...

[Erwin-K]

You can also boot from Amiga formated Zips. I did that on an A2000 for a couple of years when I couldn't get harddrives small enough for my antique Xetec controller to understand.

[Framiga]

by lorddef on 2003/9/20 15:51:29

@DeQuevedo

You are right, DoomMaster has posted a lot of BS on A.org.

Bizzare that with all the knowledge he claimes to have he needs help with something as simple as SCSI IDs...

Some of us, hasn't understood well, the strange "evil mental scheme" of DM.

He usually post a Thread, with the hope that someone "falls" in the answer . . .and then he appeares again. isn't so?

eh, eh, eh . . .DM! you are a very "bad boy" :-)

[mikeymike]

@ DoomMaster

Have you tried your custom A2000-compatible "Workbench 4.0" to see if it can auto-detect it?  You could nab the mountlist entries from there...

[whabang]

Useless insult

[Framiga]

@whabang

useless comment too.