ZIP Disks

[tonyandpals]

I have some old ZIP disks that I'd like to get the data off of, but don't have the drive. Are working ZIP disk drives a thing? Am I going to have to find an old machine with a working serial port? Is there a USB option that would work on a machine today? I see some drives on ebay, but have no idea if they'll work. Am I better off using a service? Anyone have a W95 box kicking around with a good old IOMEGA DRIVE?

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Check the swap area at the Needham dump, we left our Zip drives there before we moved last year.

good chance a few of us here still have them in our (or our mom’s) basements.

 

[Max Power]

I don't know if the ZIP USB drivers are included in Windows anymore. I don't think the IDE one required drivers.

ZIP 100 Internal Drive Iomega Z100ATAPI ZIP Disk IDE Interface 100MB Mac + PC | eBay

You can find a fairly old computer with both USB and internal IDE connectors. That would give you the best chance of getting the data off and onto something usable. I also have an IDE to USB adapter at work that I've used on old hard drives. That might even work with this to connect to a modern PC.

 

[Harry Hooper]

I think I have an external Zip drive gathering dust in my archives somewhere. Probably the same as this one.

 

[Andy Merchant]

I still have some ZIP disk PC backups hanging around from 1997, but I tossed the drive many years ago. I have an old PC with an IDE disk controller and a parallel port hanging around in a closet, so I'd probably use something like that to read it.

 

[jon abbey]

Whoo, flashback to when ZIP drives were cutting-edge technology (mid-nineties) and I wrote the first ever article in a mainstream publication about the impact of online discussion forums on the stock market, 25 years before Gamestop etc.

https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,136075,00.html

(the date there is wrong, Time didn't go online until 2001 but the article is mid-96)

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

That was a fun read

 

[passle]

I’ve got a Zip drive that you’re welcome to have.

 

[tonyandpals]

Very kind of you! I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[canderson]

I’ll be surprised if those discs actually load. Those things were POS brand new and half the time wouldn't save data - trying to use them to put together a newspaper was a lesson in patience and anger management. Hope you have better luck!

 

[tonyandpals]

I’ll be surprised if those discs actually load. Those things were POS brand new and half the time wouldn't save data - trying to use them to put together a newspaper was a lesson in patience and anger management. Hope you have better luck!

I'm up for the challenge! I think one of them has my old Nascar racing online log files. I've been wanting to analyze them for years

 

[Time to Mo Vaughn]

When you recover your 90s porn can you be sure to share it up on dropbox or something?

 

[AlNipper49]

Whoo, flashback to when ZIP drives were cutting-edge technology (mid-nineties) and I wrote the first ever article in a mainstream publication about the impact of online discussion forums on the stock market, 25 years before Gamestop etc.

https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,136075,00.html

(the date there is wrong, Time didn't go online until 2001 but the article is mid-96)

I can remember the Motley Fool guys camping out in their parking lot counting cars to see if there was fire behind their smoke.

 

[jon abbey]

I can remember the Motley Fool guys camping out in their parking lot counting cars to see if there was fire behind their smoke.

Nice! I think my article helped them a good bit, they should probably send some cash my way.

 

[AlNipper49]

Nice! I think my article helped them a good bit, they should probably send some cash my way.

I’m sure they’d be willing to share their earnings with you lol

 

[tonyandpals]

When you recover your 90s porn can you be sure to share it up on dropbox or something?

Absolutely!

Thank you to @passle for hooking me up with step one, the actual drive.

 

[kartvelo]

ZIP discs were not very reliable for me either back in the day, but I kept them around anyway. A couple of years ago I picked up an external drive that achieved very limited success in retrieving their contents.
Just setting expectations...

 

[bsj]

Anyone else remember jaz drives? they were the successor to the zip disc, but never got close to the popularity of zip drives, largely because flash drives killed both.

 

[tonyandpals]

Anyone else remember jaz drives? they were the successor to the zip disc, but never got close to the popularity of zip drives, largely because flash drives killed both.

I remember those. We had some for backups where I worked (NERDWORLD.COM). I remember thinking 1GB man...when are you ever going to need 1GB?!

 

[Andy Merchant]

That was a fun read

Absolutely, a great chronicling of how far technology has come since the 1990s:

Iomega "makes devices for computers called Zip drives and Jaz drives that enable users to store massive amounts of information speedily, reliably and affordably"

"ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), a superfast technology that will allow users to receive real-time video through their phone lines"

 

[jon abbey]

That was of course back in the days of dial up modems, I can still hear those connect noises in my head.

 

[tonyandpals]

That was of course back in the days of dial up modems, I can still hear those connect noises in my head.

Which takes me back to the mid-late 90s when I was playing Nascar racing online It was a dial up service, and the phone # was a 617# in Waltham. A local call for me. People from all over the US were dialing in long distance (when it was pay by the minute for LD calls!), racking up 100s of dollars in phone bills a month. I got good at it because I was able to be online for free. Tons of fun.

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

Absolutely, a great chronicling of how far technology has come since the 1990s:

Iomega "makes devices for computers called Zip drives and Jaz drives that enable users to store massive amounts of information speedily, reliably and affordably"

"ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), a superfast technology that will allow users to receive real-time video through their phone lines"

Around this time there was also one last push for the 2.88MB Extended Density 3.5" floppy drive as the compatibility drive, as well as the short-lived SuperDisc.

 

[StupendousMan]

That was of course back in the days of dial up modems, I can still hear those connect noises in my head.

You're not the only one. This article is a nice reminder of what they meant.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a29611456/internet-dialup-modem-sounds/

 

[SumnerH]

"ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), a superfast technology that will allow users to receive real-time video through their phone lines"

When I was on campus, we had Ethernet in the dorms. When I moved off-campus we were concerned we were going to be stuck on ISDN DOV modems at 64kbps, but we instead wound up on one of the early ADSL tests with thunderous speeds and a 24/7 connection:

A group of 100 students, faculty and staff at Carnegie Mellon University are going to help Bell Atlantic test the speed limit on the Information Superhighway.

During the next 10 months, the group will be trying out Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Bell Atlantic's advanced, high-speed data communications service.

Participants in the trial, which begins this summer following a filing with the state commission, will be able to hook up to Carnegie Mellon's on-campus local area network [LAN] from home at speeds as fast as 1.5 million bits per second [Mbps.]. That's more than 25 times faster than today's fastest analog modems, which receive data at a maximum speed of 56,000 bits per second.

 

[tonyandpals]

ZIP discs were not very reliable for me either back in the day, but I kept them around anyway. A couple of years ago I picked up an external drive that achieved very limited success in retrieving their contents.
Just setting expectations...

Amazingly, the one sent to me by @passle worked! I was able to read six out of the eight disks. A few had 100mb of live recordings from some of my favorite local bands at the time (Big D, Kicked in the Head). I found my Nascar racing stats as well. The only it seemed to have trouble with were log/txt files that were over 4-5mb in size. Likely because they're somewhat "large" for the time, and could have a bad sector or two over time. But overall, I got what I was looking for!

 

[nighthob]

I remember those. We had some for backups where I worked (NERDWORLD.COM). I remember thinking 1GB man...when are you ever going to need 1GB?!

I remember my first design workstation, I installed a 2.1gb drive as a storage solution since the primary was only 1.2gb and thinking to myself “There’s no way I ever use all that space”. Fast forward 30 years and my laptop’s 256gb drive regularly runs at 70% full.

 

[sonsoftrotnixon]

I recall back in the late 1990’s we had to buy a Syquest drive, and then we had to splurge on a 1GB hard drive to send graphics files to our printer. That cost us $10,000 bucks!!

 

[SumnerH]

I remember my first design workstation, I installed a 2.1gb drive as a storage solution since the primary was only 1.2gb and thinking to myself “There’s no way I ever use all that space”. Fast forward 30 years and my laptop’s 256gb drive regularly runs at 70% full.

I remember wondering why my dad wanted to get a 30MB hard drive for our PC/XT, it's easy enough just to change floppies and save all that money.

Smash cut to:


(The latter is my headphones, which show up as a drive when plugged in to charge).

 

[dirtynine]

put the recordings somewhere! Would love to

Amazingly, the one sent to me by @passle worked! I was able to read six out of the eight disks. A few had 100mb of live recordings from some of my favorite local bands at the time (Big D, Kicked in the Head). I found my Nascar racing stats as well. The only it seemed to have trouble with were log/txt files that were over 4-5mb in size. Likely because they're somewhat "large" for the time, and could have a bad sector or two over time. But overall, I got what I was looking for!

Put the recordings somewhere if you can! Would love to hear a vintage KITH show.

 

[tonyandpals]

put the recordings somewhere! Would love to


Put the recordings somewhere if you can! Would love to hear a vintage KITH show.

Index of /music (tonyandpals.com)

 

[dirtynine]

Index of /music (tonyandpals.com)

Sweet TY!