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-
- I have recently (January 1998) added an Iomega External SCSI ZIP 100
- drive to my system, and I was surprised at just how simple it was.
- So, I thought that I would describe the procedure for the benefit of
- anyone else who might be thinking of doing the same.
-
- The more you know, the better off you are, so I suggest downloading
- 2 documents, both of which have good background information.
-
- The first is "AmigaZipFAQ12.lha", and is available from Aminet in the
- "docs/help" directory. Chock full of detailed information.
-
- The second is an excellent message uploaded to comp.sys.amiga.misc,
- which anyone should be able to get from Deja News. Part of the header
- follows:
-
- From: rmacewen1@aol.com (RMacEwen1)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
- Subject: RYANS ZIP TIPS! THE LATEST ZIP INSTALL INFO
- Date: 30 Jul 1997 15:56:28 GMT
- Lines: 223
-
- This has some good general information, especially if you will be using
- the ZIP drive to read IBM compatible or Macintosh formatted disks.
-
-
- The relevent parts of my system are:
-
- A1200
- Blizzard 1230-IV accelerator
- Blizzard 1230-IV SCSI Module
-
- The ZIP drive was my only SCSI unit, and I intend to use only Amiga
- software, so I require only Amiga formatted ZIP disks.
-
-
- Adding the SCSI Module to the previously installed Blizzard 1230-IV
- accelerator took only minutes, and was accomplished through the trap
- door, without having to open the A1200's case. The trap door even
- went back on, but it does bulge a bit.
-
- If your system is the same as mine, you should be able to just follow
- the instructions below. If your system is different, some modifications
- may have to be made, but the information may still be useful.
-
-
- The ZIP drive comes with:
-
- The drive
- A power supply
- A SCSI cable (25 pin male connections on both ends)
- 1 ZIP disk, pre-loaded with IBM compatible software
-
- You will no doubt want to purchase some blank ZIP disks.
-
-
- OK, here are the easy steps.
-
- 1. On the back of the ZIP drive, there are two sliding switches.
- One is to select either SCSI unit number 5, or 6. The other is
- to select SCSI termination ON, or OFF. If this is your only
- SCSI device, 5 and ON is good.
-
- 2. Turn off the computer. Connect one end of the SCSI cable to the
- computer, and the other to the ZIP drive.
-
- 3. Power up the ZIP drive, and turn on the computer.
-
- 4. There is a program called "SCSIConfig" included on a disk that is
- supplied with the Blizzard SCSI Module. You can copy that to your
- C: directory.
-
- That is all that was required for installation. I was surprised to
- find out that there were no Mountlists, xxx.device files, or anything
- else that had to be copied to DEVS:.
-
-
- The only thing left now is to prepare a ZIP disk for formatting,
- and then actually format it.
-
-
- To prepare the ZIP disk:
-
- At this point, I ran HDToolBox, but the ZIP drive was not recognized.
- The SCSIConfig program, however, does the same job, and it did
- recognize the ZIP drive. So,
-
- 5. ">>Run SCSIConfig". Do *NOT* use "Low Level Format".
-
- 6. Select the new drive (ZIP 100)
-
- 7. Select "Config Drive"
-
- 8. Select "Reload Geometry"
-
- 9. Click on "OK"
-
- 10. Select "Partition"
-
- 11. Double-click on "QDH0".
-
- The default device name for the ZIP drive is QHD0:, but I prefer
- to call mine ZIP:. Naturally, you can pick just about any name
- you want.
-
- From the information I have seen, it seems to be recommended that
- you stick with only 1 large partition, rather than several smaller
- ones. The following settings will give 1 95 Meg. partition.
-
- 12. In the window that is now open, I set the following parameters -
- they are mostly the defaults:
-
- Name: ZIP Host ID: 7 Filesystem: FFS
- Start Cyl: 2 Identifier: Ghosted Block Size: 512
- End Cyl: 764 Mask: 0xffffffff Mount: Yes
- Total Cyl: 762 Max Transfer: 0xffffff Boot: No
- MBytes: 95 Res Low Blocks: 2 Buffers: 32
- Res High Blocks: 0 Priority 0
-
- 13. When set, click on "OK", then "OK" again.
-
- 14. Select "Save Changes". Answer "OK" to 2 warning prompts.
-
- 15. Exit SCSIConfig with "Quit".
-
- 16. At this point, a requester will inform you that the computer should
- now be re-booted, so that the system will recognize the ZIP disk.
- So, answer Yes to the "Reboot?" prompt. The computer will soft boot.
-
- All that is left to do now, is to format the ZIP disk. The AmigaDos
- "Format" command will do nicely.
-
- 17. After the reboot, enter the format command. I use:
-
- >>Format DRIVE ZIP: NOICONS NAME Diskname
-
- The ZIP disk is now ready to use.
-
-
- From my very limited experience, I have found this to be an excellent
- drive - very fast and versatile.
-
- I hope someone finds this information useful.
-