How to get an Iomega Zip Drive to operate with OS 10x

[Fishrrman]

"Fisherman, have you connected it to a post 2016 laptop via standard Apple adaptors? If so, that would put that question to rest."

I don't have access to a MacBook Pro later than my 2015 which has only USB3 "a" ports.

For my regular Mac, I have a 2018 Mini which has both USB3 "a" ports and USBc ports.
The 2018 Mini is using 10.14.6 (Mojave). But the ZIP100 works with 11.x Big Sur as well.

I tried it with 2 cabling scenarios:
For both, the Zip drive has a USBa (male) to USBb (male) cable (the b end goes to the drive itself).
My ZIP has it's own power supply. I do not rely on "USB bus power" (which I suspect won't work at all with the ZIP).

FIRST scenario:
I plug the ZIP USBa connector into a USBa (Mini) to USBa (female) "extension" cable.

SECOND scenario (which I tried for the first time a minute ago):
I plug the ZIP USBa connector into a USBc (Mini) to USBa (female) "adapter" cable, like this one:

Cable Matters USB C to USB Adapter 6 Inches (USB to USB C Adapter, USB-C to USB 3.0 Adapter, USB C OTG) in Black

The Cable Matters USB 3.1 Type-C to Type-A adapter provides a convenient connection between the newest devices with USB Type-C and legacy USB peripherals with Type A. It adapts the Type-C port on a computer to connect all legacy equipment, peripherals, cables, hubs and chargers that ...

www.amazon.com

Plugged in, WITHOUT a ZIP100 disk inserted, I can open System Information and see:
USB3.1 Bus
-- USB Zip 100

Put a ZIP100 disk into the drive, and it mounts on the desktop in the finder.

To address possible issues when connecting to a 2016-later MacBook Pro...
I'm wondering if the Apple "adapter" itself could be causing the problems?
Has the person tried a "NON-Apple" adapter, such as one like which I've linked to above?

When plugged in, does the ZIP "show up" in System Information?

I had been wondering if there is some kind of "driver kext" (or something along that line) still included in the Mac OS that permits the ZIP to be "seen" by the Mac. I've tried searching for it, using "ZIP", "iomega", "ZIP100", but can find nothing.

My totally-uneducated guess is that "firmware" has nothing to do with this.

What -might- have something to do with it is "system integrity protection" and the "startup security" utility on T-chip equipped Macs.
I ALWAYS disable SIP on all my Macs, and I ALWAYS disable "startup security" to the fullest extent possible. But that's just "my way".

It's possible that the 2016-later MBP's use a different USB controller than does the 2018 Mini. Perhaps the problem could be located there.

 

[biffuz]

When plugged in, does the ZIP "show up" in System Information?

I had been wondering if there is some kind of "driver kext" (or something along that line) still included in the Mac OS that permits the ZIP to be "seen" by the Mac. I've tried searching for it, using "ZIP", "iomega", "ZIP100", but can find nothing.

My totally-uneducated guess is that "firmware" has nothing to do with this.

I don't have a specific USB expertise either, but OS drivers are not an issue here; the ZIP drive act like a standard* USB storage devices, and as such it will work with any OS able to use any kind of USB storage device (keys, memory card readers, HDDs/SSDs, CD drives, etc).

But USB is a very complex, multi-layered beast; before a device can even talk to the OS, it has to pass through several layers handled by the hardware and the firmware, physical and logical, both on the computer's and the device's side.
Do you remember modems? With all the beeps and boops? Well, USB ports basically do the same thing...

Then, of course, a device may be marginally defective, either by design or a single specimen or because of its age, and work in some conditions but not others.

In this specific case, I would try with a know working, powered USB 2 hub between the Mac and the ZIP drive, before throwing in the towel.
USB hubs have their own controller and firmware, and act as an hardware intermediary, thus eliminating some of the hardware/firmware layers between the computer and the devices.

* = there are actually 2 standards, but ZIP drives use the most common one, I've only seen a floppy drive with the rarest one

 

[AL2TEACH]

AL2 wrote:
"I tried to get mine to work and found out it needs the software for it due to the OS upgrade."

Could you decipher this sentence?
What "software" do you need?
What OS are you running?
What Mac do you have and what year was it made?

My "recycling bin find" USB ZIP100 has run on every Mac and every OS to which it's been connected...

my bad, I have Imitation super disk, Big Sur on late 2015 iMac. I have the SD-USB-M.


Ronald Leroux spotted the following statement from Imation on Apple's Discussion Boards regarding compatibility of their SuperDisk drive with Mac OS X:

• The drive will work in OS X only if your drive's model is SD-USB-U2, SD-USB-U3, SD-USB-M2, or SD-USB-M3. If you have one of these models installed you do not need to install any drivers for the drive because OS X has native support. If you did an upgrade to OS X you have to make sure you remove the drivers before the drive will work. If the model of your drive is SD-USB-M, the drive will not work in OS X. Currently we are looking to the solution for this problem.

 

[biffuz]

my bad, I have Imitation super disk, Big Sur on late 2015 iMac. I have the SD-USB-M.

That's not a ZIP drive, it's a competing technology. Don't know much about them, sorry. But from what you quoted I can say there's little you can do, apparently the first version is not a standard USB storage device and requires a special driver.

I only knew one person with a Superdisk drive, while ZIP drives were everywhere...

 

[profcutter]

I don’t think the SuperDrive thing is impossible. I believe if you open the case, you’ll find an internal IDE drive and a usb-IDE adaptor. Find a more recent USB to IDE adaptor, one that has its own power supply and is compatible with OS X, and plug in the internal SuperDisk drive. That could feasibly work with the Zip drives if they’re the same configuration, but I don’t know since I haven’t disassembled one in 20+ years.

 

[biffuz]

I don’t think the SuperDrive thing is impossible. I believe if you open the case, you’ll find an internal IDE drive and a usb-IDE adaptor. Find a more recent USB to IDE adaptor, one that has its own power supply and is compatible with OS X, and plug in the internal SuperDisk drive. That could feasibly work with the Zip drives if they’re the same configuration, but I don’t know since I haven’t disassembled one in 20+ years.

This theory is solid, they may have used the already existing logic of IDE drives and attached a USB adapter, as a cheap and effective solution. But in practice, I expect it to be on a single board. Several brand names USB HDDs are made in this way, they mount the regular SATA chip and the USB adapter chip on the same board.

 

[profcutter]

This theory is solid, they may have used the already existing logic of IDE drives and attached a USB adapter, as a cheap and effective solution. But in practice, I expect it to be on a single board. Several brand names USB HDDs are made in this way, they mount the regular SATA chip and the USB adapter chip on the same board.

I did see a pic of the interior of a USB superdrive, and the adaptor was removable. This isn’t ironclad data, but it’s possible.

 

[biffuz]

I did see a pic of the interior of a USB superdrive, and the adaptor was removable. This isn’t ironclad data, but it’s possible.

LOL, they went an even cheaper route then - they probably had a stockpile of IDE drives
Once I opened a USB ZIP drive and it was a single board, Iomega did their job

 

[AL2TEACH]

That's not a ZIP drive, it's a competing technology. Don't know much about them, sorry. But from what you quoted I can say there's little you can do, apparently the first version is not a standard USB storage device and requires a special driver.

I only knew one person with a Superdisk drive, while ZIP drives were everywhere...

lol damn my bad again.

 

[andi*pandi]

Cleaning out found a USB zip drive, bondi blue, complete with power cord and original cable... thought I'd check the z100 disks before tossing. Plugged into 2013 imac running 10.12, would not load on desktop. Tried several disks. Get 2 click on insert (but not neverending click-click-click-click of death) but nope. Disk utility does not see it. Rebooted while plugged in. Nope.

Tried on 2010 mac pro, same thing.

Is it dead jim?

 

[biffuz]

I am starting to think the USB model with the external power brick may not use a standard protocol like the newer bus powered model I have... I can't find specific infos, sorry

 

[andi*pandi]

I have the tools disk but it doesn't load either...

 

[ChrisKa]

I am suck with a similar problem;
i have about 10 100mb Zip disks for Windows from early 90's and they have a lot of my early work on it.
Now I would like to recover them but have no Zip disk reader and have 2 2021 M1 MacPro 13 and a Lenovo P70 Windows10 laptop.
I found USB Zip disk readers still for sale so I just could buy one, BUT

What I am wondering is:
1° can the USB version read Zip disks written with the SCSI connected drive?
2° can a 250mb or higher read the 100mb disks, ore are the different Zip disks?
3° could Big Sur and NTFS for Mac read the DOS/Windows Zip disks or should I try to make it work under Windows?

Thanks a lot!
Chris

 

[Fishrrman]

Re Chriska in #63 above:

It makes no difference whether the ZIP disks were written on an SCSI or USB drive.
All my ZIP 100 disks were created on an SCSI drive, and they "read back" on the USB ZIP 100 drive I have now.

I can't answer the question re 250 v 100 disks or drive. I've owned (and have tested) only a ZIP 100 drive.

It seems to me that a ZIP 100 disk created in Windows should be readable on a Mac that has software to support NTFS (I've NEVER used NTFS). If it doesn't work, take them to a PC and read them that way.

 

[ChrisKa]

Thanks Fishrrman!

 

[MacCheetah3]

What I am wondering is:
1° can the USB version read Zip disks written with the SCSI connected drive?
2° can a 250mb or higher read the 100mb disks, ore are the different Zip disks?
3° could Big Sur and NTFS for Mac read the DOS/Windows Zip disks or should I try to make it work under Windows?

Thanks a lot!
Chris

1. @Fishrrman addressed
2. Yes — I recall that Zip250 drives could read Zip100 disks but here’s some reinforcement:

Zip drive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

3. Yes, as far as I’m aware — I haven’t connected a Windows drive to my Mac in awhile, however, macOS should be able to read (though not write to) an NTFS volume, read/write FAT32, read/write ExFAT. FAT16 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

[Roaring Mouse]

Here's the issue:
Older ZIP disks on the Mac were formatted and written in the HFS (Mac Standard) file format. Only towards the end of Iomega did they allow disks to be formatted in HFS+, but it's a pretty good bet that anything before 2000-ish was HFS.

Sooooo...Apple removed support for HFS totally starting with Catalina. That means, even if you can see a ZIP disk in Disk Utility, it will not mount. NOT. AT. ALL. In fact, Apple removed write support for HFS waaaay back in the Leopard days. Even if you could mount a ZIP (up to 10.14), they would be read-only.

However, ZIPs that were formatted as HFS+ will mount fine, as well as any PC-formatted disks (supposedly the same with Big Sur but I haven't tried it yet, especially with an M1).

That being said, Spotlight goes beserk on those HFS+ disks, so it's a good idea to exclude them in Spotlight's preferences.

 

[biffuz]

Here's the issue:
Older ZIP disks on the Mac were formatted and written in the HFS (Mac Standard) file format. Only towards the end of Iomega did they allow disks to be formatted in HFS+, but it's a pretty good bet that anything before 2000-ish was HFS.

Sooooo...Apple removed support for HFS totally starting with Catalina. That means, even if you can see a ZIP disk in Disk Utility, it will not mount. NOT. AT. ALL. In fact, Apple removed write support for HFS waaaay back in the Leopard days. Even if you could mount a ZIP (up to 10.14), they would be read-only.

Yes, but this won't prevent disks from appearing in Disk utility, it will only tell you they need to be formatted.

 

[Roaring Mouse]

Yes, but this won't prevent disks from appearing in Disk utility, it will only tell you they need to be formatted.

Definitely, they (the HFS Mac Standard disks) will appear in Disk Utility in =>Catalina but will be greyed out and will not mount, but yes, you can totally reformat them (to HFS+ Apple Partition Map not GUID, for backwards compatibility should someone have an old computer lying around!). Ironically, Old MS-DOS FAT16 PC disks mount fine, for reading and writing.

 

[Luis Ortega]

I can't get my Zip 250 drive to work with Big Sur. Any suggestions?

nothing works with big sur.
I have a dozen or more apps that no longer are compatible and my printer also had to be scrapped.

 

[DallasMacGuy]

Here's the issue:
Older ZIP disks on the Mac were formatted and written in the HFS (Mac Standard) file format. Only towards the end of Iomega did they allow disks to be formatted in HFS+, but it's a pretty good bet that anything before 2000-ish was HFS.

Sooooo...Apple removed support for HFS totally starting with Catalina. That means, even if you can see a ZIP disk in Disk Utility, it will not mount. NOT. AT. ALL. In fact, Apple removed write support for HFS waaaay back in the Leopard days. Even if you could mount a ZIP (up to 10.14), they would be read-only.

However, ZIPs that were formatted as HFS+ will mount fine, as well as any PC-formatted disks (supposedly the same with Big Sur but I haven't tried it yet, especially with an M1).

That being said, Spotlight goes beserk on those HFS+ disks, so it's a good idea to exclude them in Spotlight's preferences.

Roaring Mouse has the right answer (for me).

My Iomega 250 USB bus powered drive works great in Big Sur, but discs formated HFS (Mac Standard) (as reported by Big Sur Disk Utility) will not mount. I was able to mount and read those discs when I booted into MacOS 10.13.x.

Thanks Roaring Mouse

 

[pacmania1982]

Roaring Mouse has the right answer (for me).

My Iomega 250 USB bus powered drive works great in Big Sur, but discs formated HFS (Mac Standard) (as reported by Big Sur Disk Utility) will not mount. I was able to mount and read those discs when I booted into MacOS 10.13.x.

Thanks Roaring Mouse

HFS Standard support was removed from OS X quite a while back.

 

[vjoxyodo]

Hello,

Just adquired a Iomega Zip 100 USB, and new old stock of IBM formatted disk (Fat 16). Just plugged the USB to my Macbook 13" M1, inserted the disk and it spinned right on and showed on sidebar. Since format is FAT-16 MacOS Ventura recognizes, I was also able to write data with no problem.

If someone has a HFS formatted, you will need a VirtualBox (now already a M1/M2 version) and install MacOS 10.12.6 Sierra, since was the last version supporting HFS that was replace to APFS in High Sierra.

Hope this info helps!

Cheers

 

[Fishrrman]

Re the reply directly above this one:
"If someone has a HFS formatted, you will need a VirtualBox (now already a M1/M2 version) and install MacOS 10.12.6 Sierra, since was the last version supporting HFS that was replace to APFS in High Sierra."

This is MISINFORMATION.
See my reply to this poster in another thread:
Iomega Zip Drive 100 (USB) driver question

 

[vjoxyodo]

Re the reply directly above this one:
"If someone has a HFS formatted, you will need a VirtualBox (now already a M1/M2 version) and install MacOS 10.12.6 Sierra, since was the last version supporting HFS that was replace to APFS in High Sierra."

This is MISINFORMATION.
See my reply to this poster in another thread:
Iomega Zip Drive 100 (USB) driver question

I said HFS not HFS+! HFS was introduced in System 2.1 and in Snow Leopard (MacOS 10.6) Apple dropped the support for writing and formatting in HFS, and reading was dropped until Catalina, my bad on saying it was on Sierra. Never tried HFS or HFS+ on MacOS 11 and so on, but Almost sure HFS is not readable on 11 and onwards.

I believe it might have a lot of designers and illustrators from the 90s that uses Zip for backups with HFS format, I was just giving tips if they need an alternative and dont have any other OS ecosystem to try it!