Iomega Zip100 and OS X 10.5.4

If I were you I would be absolutely amazed that it lasted as long as it did and then drive it down to the electronics recycling center. Relying upon antiquated magnetic storage hardware like that is really just begging for trouble.

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

Well, zip drives have seen their day. Sooner or later they will be left unsupported but as I remember they were shown as either external disks or CD's DVD and iPods in Finder >> Preferences >> General.

Let me know and if that isn't isn't the case I'll pull out my old zip drive and test it for you.
Also, how do you know it recognizes it, Finder window, Disk Utility or System Profiler?



-mj

Message was edited by: macjack

Hi,

First, if you have another machine to test with, try connecting the Zip drive to that machine to verify that the drive and its installed disk are functional. If that works, try connecting it with a new disk (if you have one), and see if you can format that disk with the Disk Utility application (found in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. If this works, then the disk should appear on the desktop; at least in a Finder window. If this works, then your problem would seem to be a problem with the disk that you currently have in your Zip drive.

Hope this helps,

Ken

Hello

I used my USB Zip250 about 1 year ago on the same MacBook but with 10.4.X without problems. Last week i need to convert some old files from ZIP-Drives but I have no access anymore.

So it must be a problem of the 10.5 drivers and not the MacBook Pro Hardware.

I solved the problem by connecting the drive on my old PowerBook with 10.4 but share.

Let's hope someone will add a drive because a lot of clients have still archived data on ZIP's, or has someone another solution??

Regards
Gérard

I just tried my Zip250 and it worked with Firewire and USB, but I had to connect an external power adapter for the USB.

Hello There
i just salvaged a zip 100 from scratch.. i had 2 usb units and a paralell unit... so i transferred the working drive on the paralell to the working circuits on a usb unit and it loads perfectly on a WinXp box.. and i can read 2 zip disks formatted for pc...
the problem is that i have around 20 mac formatted zips... and they obviously are not recognized by the pc...
The USB tab on the system profiler on mac 10.5.5 recognizes the usb zip 100 drive and all its names and codes.. BUT it won't mount the disks on the finder.
(either the mac or pc formatted).

I will check it later on an eMac with 10.4 to see if it can recognize the disks and post it back... what a bummer!!!

I have the same problem with a brand-new Mac mini using OS X version 10.5.5: after I insert a Zip disk into my external USB Zip 250 drive, it spins and clicks a number of times, then spins a while without clicking, and finally stops--but no icon for it ever appears on the screen, and it is never shown in the "toolbar" on the left side of the Finder Window. Iomega's Web site says Mac OS versions 10.3 and 10.4 don't need drivers from Iomega because they "natively" control Zip drives; but it says nothing about OS version 10.5. Definitely a bummer.

A few days after reporting that my Mac mini would not show an icon on its desktop for my Iomega Zip 250 drive (or properly control that drive), I tried (for the ?th) time and it worked. I then tried it with another Zip disk, and it worked too—so it looks like the problem is solved. Don't ask me why. I hadn't installed any drivers or other software in the meantime that would have been expected to solve the problem. I think the only thing I did that may conceivably be related to the fix was looking in the System Profiler (Applications folder, Utilities subfolder) and finding that it DID show a Zip drive connected to the computer even though there was no icon for it on the desktop and I couldn't Save As any files to it

(At an earlier point, having tried everything else I could think of, I did download and install Iomega's IomegaWare utility, which—as the Iomega Web site clearly states—is for versions of the Mac OS below 10.4. But all it did was prevent my computer from starting up, giving me a blue screen of death. Ironically, what got it, and me, out of that mess was unplugging the Zip drive from the USB port, which somehow woke the computer from what had threatened to be an endless sleep. I then wasted no time uninstalling IomegaWare.)

So it's still a mystery. All I can suggest to other users with this problem is to keep trying the usual suggestions—different USB ports, different Zip disks, different day of the week—and hope that something works.

suesbrews wrote:
I have a USB zip drive that worked OK before I upgraded from 10.5.2 to 10.5.4. Now the computer recognizes that the zip drive is connected but no icon shows on the desktop. Any suggestions?

I just tried mine on this MBP and nothing showed up until I inserted a disk. Then the icon "ZIP-100" showed up on the desktop and I can access the disk no problem. i can see the 50ways.exe on the blank disk.
When I ejected the icon, the disk popped out and the icon disappeared.

This Leopard is fully updated, so it's not the OS.
Perhaps you need to update to 10.5.5 ?

Message was edited by: nerowolfe

but no icon for it ever appears on the screen, and it is never shown in the "toolbar" on the left side of the Finder Window.

Probably because your Finder >Preferences are specifically set to not show External disks on the Desktop or in the Sidebar

Brie Fly wrote:

but no icon for it ever appears on the screen, and it is never shown in the "toolbar" on the left side of the Finder Window.

Probably because your Finder >Preferences are specifically set to not show External disks on the Desktop or in the Sidebar

No, as I noted, the Zip drive only shows up when there is a disk in the drive. Otherwise there is nothing to show. Without a disk, it's not a drive.