Is there any reason to keep a ZIP drive around in 2024? Is there some lost media out there that's only on ZIP?
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Is there any reason to keep a ZIP drive around in 2024? Is there some lost media out there that's only on ZIP?
>Is there some lost media out there that's only on ZIP?
lol, Sure. Why not? What do you think, OP?
ZIP by connector:
-SCSI, its useless throw it away (doesnt work really in any home user OS, works nice in Solaris 9 UNIX)
-USB, its useless throw it away unless you have also parallel port version (connect the USB version into one computer that can use it, for file transfer purposes)
-Parallel port version, keep this
-IDE version if you really want one internally, but it doesnt work in MSDOS so rules are the same as for USB version
here's a review on ZIP by OS:
OS/2 Warp 4, its useless throw it away (use USB)
Win95, its useless throw it away (use USB)
Win98, its useless throw it away (use USB)
Win2000, its useless throw it away (use USB)
WinXP, its useless throw it away (use USB)
MSDOS, can only use parallel port ZIP but if you have this, keep it for file transfer purposes, it is the best device that exist for MSDOS file transfer
You need USB ZIP also, for your WinXP machine which is used to fill the ZIP drives with files that will later appear in MSDOS PC
If you really need to transfer files to an old computer, just use networking. Unofficial USB patches suck and formats like Zip are unreliable.
Old network cards are easy to find, some of the newer Intel network cards work on surprisingly old machines, and in the worst case scenario there's all sorts of weird ass adapters to let you do Wifi over RS232 or even SCSI.
Once you've got networking up and running it's a simple matter of setting up a local FTP server somewhere and running an FTP client on your old machine. If you're using devices that are so old or underpowered that they don't have FTP then you're probably enough of a tech wizard to figure shit out on your own.
MSDOS and networking mostly sucks
But serial cable transfer work fine in MSDOS, its just that often you cant find a winxp machine with proper serial cable support to transfer from there into the MSDOS machine
Boot into Windows 3.1 and use Total Commander as an FTP client
This. There are tons of NICs out there that still have DOS support in the form of NDIS, ODI, or packet drivers, and a decent selection of DOS network stack support. I know MTCP is one, and is still in active development.
>MSDOS and networking mostly sucks
only if you're a brainlet or have malfunctioning hardware.
>But serial cable transfer
yeah, for a couple of files that are several kilobytes each at most. When you're dealing with hundreds of files or files in the megabytes, you're much better off with a DOS packet driver and a TCP stack.
chatgpt Black folk are the dumbest Black folk in the universe.
cause theyre neat i grew up lusting over zip drives in the microcenter ads but a dvd holds more data afaik now
ok i check wiki and 750mb zip disks was the highest they got begore getting btfo'd by cdr's
"Sales of Zip drives and disks declined steadily from 1999 to 2003.[10] Zip disks had a relatively high cost per megabyte compared to the falling costs of then-new CD-R and CD-RW discs. "
all i got is the 100MB disks which arent really great. If i need to transfer a ton of stuff to a pre-usb machine i just burn a CD, or if im using a CF>IDE adaptor I can take the CF card out and just load files directly to it on my main computer.
I have the external parallel port version as well as 2 internal 3.5" ZIP drives.
I have 3 machines, Win 3.1/DOS6, Win 98, WinXP
The Win 3.1 machine does not have USB support but i am using a CF adaptor so I can do fast transfers that way.
that seems like nice case, plus points for the imaginative HDD placement
early days of Dell, it was a transition era between Win 3.1 and Win 95 on a Pentium 100mhz, so you could run 95, but since the mobo has ISA some other legacy connectors on it, it works better as a dos machine.
do you have a huge as PCI-32bit video card with the capability of taking in additional memory chips?
It has a 2MB (max 4MB) #9 gxe64pro pci graphics card that came with the system when i got it.
vision 964 was a great chip for DOS (useless for 2000/XP)
it is found in several cards, both small and big
Thats the era I dont have any systems for: the early 3D/ T&L shader gpu era.
I have a 2005 dell inspiron laptop with a geforce 6800 256mb gpu which i guess can fill that gap
the dos machine works pretty good for a lot of older games, but 100mhz does push the limit as to what you can do with it.
100MHz however is a blessing for older games, some titles from 1993 to 1996 does not work with 200MHz, too fast CPU and they produce runtime error
but they do work with 100MHz
it is about DOS4GW extender, it doesnt like above 133MHz combined with fast cache systems
on a system with unusually slow RAM cache, 200MHz may still work with such games
still, games like original DOS floppy release of UFO-Enemy Unknown really doesnt work in anything above 486, 66MHz, too fast
sell it and get an LTO drive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open
>Is there some lost media out there that's only on ZIP?
Most definitely. A lot of people used to do backups of their personal workstations on Zip disks.
Hard drive storage was very expensive back then as well, and many companies have since gone bust meaning there may not be any other archive of the data except for personal backups whether that be on Zip disks or CD-Rs.
Are you personally going to ever run across any? Unlikely. But there's other people who come across this stuff constantly like the people who search for old video game prototypes and source code.
>Is there some lost media out there that's only on ZIP?
frazzled.zip
Keeping a ZIP drive in 2024 could be beneficial for accessing and preserving data that is stored exclusively on ZIP disks, especially if it has not been transferred to modern storage formats. While newer technologies have largely replaced ZIP drives, they can still serve a purpose for retrieving old files or lost media that may not be available elsewhere. Additionally, some enthusiasts or professionals might maintain ZIP drives for archival purposes or to access legacy projects. However, with advancements in digital storage and the increasing reliability of cloud services, the necessity of ZIP drives continues to diminish. If you have important data on ZIP disks, it’s advisable to transfer it to current storage solutions to ensure long-term accessibility and safety.
Only if you use legacy equipment (90s Macs or PCs). If not, sell it to someone who does.
I collected dozens of these and the drives many years ago when they became cheap. I regret letting them go. They were so cool.
did you do anything cool with them?
the zip drives were seen as useless by early 2000s users, once the zip drive had popularized itself and was affordable (they were initially 64MB - 128MB range) it was alreay close enough to ZIP (ZIP was 100 or 250) and a USB pendrive is smaller physically than a zip disc let alone zip drive itself
thats why zips got quickly replaced by them even when most common pendrive was only 64MB
people actually were content with 1.4MB floppies for a while, they put the .DOC documents there and it fitted several, it was both a backup and a method of sharing
1.4MB became too small maybe in 2000 when some types of necessary files just dont go to 1.4MB
but it was never an issue for .DOC or early .XLS
>once the zip drive had popularized itsel
once the USB memory stick pendrive had popularized itsel
To let the gentle clicking noise lull you to dreamland.
Do you live in a phone booth? Why do we need a thread about you keeping some tiny thing in a box instead of throwing it away?