Transferring Zip disc files to my MacBook

Are these ZIP 100. 250, or 750 disks?

I don't know if they are still around, but there was a ZIP 100 version that was USB 1.1. As I recall, we didn't have to install OSX drivers for the USB ZIP we had when we moved a lot of stuff aound as my wife upgraded computers.

She started with a 1996-vintage Performa 6200 (the "hunk o' junk") running OS 7.5 and we had a SCSI ZIP 100 for it as the internal floppy drive never worked properly. When we replaced that albatross with a G3 iMac in 2000, I bought a USB ZIP 100 and the iMac had no trouble copying files the 6200 written to ZIP disks by the older SCSI ZIP drive. I recall that drivers were required for OS9 and earlier.

When we replaced the iMac with her current eMac six years later, we moved the ZIP 100 drive to the eMac--no drivers needs as the eMac came with OS 10.4--and finished the transfers.

I assume your G3 required the SCSI ZIP drive, so you would need to find a USB version on the used market that matches the disk format of your original disks. Once you do that, you should be able to move the files.

Is your G3 tower a B&W model or the older beige model? The B&W G3s and the second/third revisions of the beige G3s had an internal ATAPI Zip drive. I haven't tried this, but if you removed the internal ATAPI drive and connected a USB-to-IDE adapter (generic hardware - available at PC stores) to the back of the Zip drive, you may be able to plug it into a USB port on your MacBook for data transfers. I've got all of the hardware to attempt this, so I may try it later in the day. Otherwise, there were (3) versions of the external USB Zip drive: the Zip 100, Zip 250, and Zip 750. They're discontinued now, but you can probably find one on the used market. Since your G3 undoubtedly has the Zip 100 drive, you should get a Zip 100 or 250 external. The Zip 250 will read the Zip 100 disks with no problems, but reformatting a Zip 100 disk in a Zip 250 drive takes longer than in a Zip 100 drive. The external Zip 100 USB drives had a transparent aqua-colored plastic case, compared to the opaque navy blue plastic cases on the SCSI and Parallel port models.

The adapter that I mentioned (like this one) would provide a connection solution, but you may still need a USB driver for the Zip drive to be recognized. Assuming that your G3 tower is functional, I'd try a different approach. If you have a beige G3 tower, I'd install a USB PCI card. If you have a B&W G3, it has onboard USB. Why not transfer the data from the Zip disks directly to a USB flash drive? This eliminates the need for adapters and possible Zip drive driver support issues with OS 10.5.8.

Hi, Emery -

Yet another possibility...

If the G3 is still functional, and the volume of files not real huge, you could send them to yourself as email attachments, receiving them on the new machine.

Similarly they could be uploaded to on-line storage, then downloaded to the other machine.

Hi Emery2, and a warm welcome to the forums! 🙂

What ports do you have on the G3? Firewire, USB, Ethernet?